WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India

Sony Playstation 4 Now Available or Pre-Order In India

Rohit Singh Jain — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:48:53 +0000

India-based game retailer Game4u has begun accepting pre-orders for Sony’s next generation console PlayStation 4. The console can be pre-ordered from either Game4u’s brick-and-mortar stores or from the company’s website.

Consumers looking to place the pre-order will have to deposit an amount of Rs. 3000. After the console will realise its official launch in the country(which is expected quite soon), these buyers can receive the device and pay the remaining amount at that point of time. Ironically, Game4u hasn’t pointed out the fact that Sony itself hasn’t officially unveiled an official pricing for the PS4.

Sony had announced that the PlayStation 4 will be launched in November and will cost $399 (Rs 23,300 approx) in the US, which is $100 less than rival Microsoft’s console, the Xbox One, which is priced at $499 (Rs 28,900 approx). The company will allow owners to trade their PS4 game discs, allowing gamers to buy cheaper pre-owned games, and players don’t have to sign in online to play.

Sony has not revealed the price of PS4 in India but it would be between Rs.20,000 and Rs.30,000 if the announced price ($399) is anything to go by. It was earlier reported that the gaming console would be priced between $400 and $500 upon release and would be available in India in the first quarter of 2014 at around Rs.25,000.

The new gaming console is powered by single-chip custom processor and x86-64 AMD “Jaguar” 8 Cores. It features 18 “compute units” capable of cranking out 1.84 TFLOPS and AMD next generation Radeon based graphics engine. The console will also have a memory of 8GB GDDR5 RAM capable of 176GB/sec of bandwidth.

Sony has fired its salvo in the right direction. Comparisons are made when it comes to hardware, but Sony has the better hand when it comes to pricing and market strategies adopted with respect to world markets. I don’t think one can predict the winner even before the consoles are launched. The history of the games industry is littered with consoles that should have won but didn’t; where all the signs pointed in their direction, but turned out to be wildly misleading.

You can pre-order the PS4 from here.

Source | Tech2

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Google Launches ‘Start Searching India’ Campaign

Rohit Singh Jain — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:29:24 +0000

Google India has launched a ‘Start Searching India‘ campaign aimed at simplifying Internet usage for it’s users.

“The objective of the campaign is to help simplify the Web for Indian users, showing how they can get instant answers to their most common queries,” Sandeep Menon, Director, Marketing, Google India, said.

The campaign aims to share interesting tips about search with Indian netizens, to be available online at g.co/startsearchingindia. The aim is to help simplify the web for users, showing how they can get instant answers to their most-common queries. You can get instant Google Now-like carded responses within Google Search for queries like weather information, restaurants, ATMs, flight information and more. Specific categories can be chosen for the type of information desired.

Menon said, “For the first two decades of its existence, Google Search largely relied on matching keywords. Now we are finally moving towards our vision of the perfect search engine: one that understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you need. A perfect assistant should be able to help you with the information you need right at a moment’s notice. We’re working towards a search experience where Google can give you relevant information right at your fingertips.”

The initiative by Google is appreciated, especially as more and more people from towns and villages are jumping onto the Internet daily. I believe this campaign will enable them to effectively gather answers to queries that they can relate to in their daily life. The project will definitely have positive results. the company is moving towards its primary aim: to provide meaningful solutions to people regarding what information they want. And it seems to be following this principle since years now. Google also introduced Project Loon, an initiative from Google X Labs to bring affordable Internet access to remote places by means of giant balloons last weekend.

Website: g.co/startsearchingindia

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Skype Introduces Free Video Messaging Feature On Multiple Platforms

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:30:41 +0000

Skype’s free video messaging service has exited beta and landed on Windows 8, Mac, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Skype’s video messaging feature lets you record and share a 3 minute personal video and send it to people on their contacts list if they are offline. The recipients will be able to watch the video message when they sign-in next time. Skype is calling the feature as a video voicemail.

“Want to say goodnight to your kids while traveling, but you’ll be up in the air? Need to wish your dad a happy birthday, but can’t seem to catch up? Skype can help you connect with the special people in your life—even when your schedules conflict,” Skype said in a blog post.

Skype’s new service looks simple and intuitive, thanks to a minimal UI with just a few options. Just tap the video message button and then press record to start shooting.   Once you are ready to send your video message, click on the envelope icon. Prior to the launch, Skype Video Messages were available in beta form to paid subscribers in US and UK. You can now send unlimited video messages to your Skype contacts on all the major platforms except Windows Phone 8. This is quiet surprising since Microsoft owns Skype.

Check out the video:

Earlier in May, Microsoft integrated Skype into its email client Outlook.com. The firm also shut down its Windows Messenger chat tool in most countries and urged users to switch over to Skype. There is too much happening around videos these days. Recently, Vine shares exceeded that of Instagram on Twitter. Also, it is rumored that Facebook will add video sharing feature on Instagram on June 20 event.

The video message feature is now part of the regular Skype app. You can download it here.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

BrizzTV Partners With Airtel DTH For Streaming Movies To TV

Alap Naik Desai — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:12:22 +0000

Airtel’s Direct To Home (DTH) arm Airtel Digital TV & BrizzTV Media Lab Pvt Ltd have entered into a partnership that will offer freemium model based movie streaming straight to Television.

Subscribers to Airtel’s DTH service will soon have the option of enjoying premium movies without traditional commercial ad-breaks. By managing the screen space, the company has found a unique solution that will offer content merged with advertisement. But what is interesting is the way BrizzTV juggles both the aspects simultaneously & yet manages to offer a break-free TV watching experience.

What is the duo offering? Airtel DTH will essentially offer a channel (No. 155) via which content from BrizzTV will be broadcast. BrizzTV is actually a digital media startup that brings web content onto the television screen without internet connectivity. The company has an ad-supported platform called Freemium TV. This platform offers ‘Reduced Screen’ Content Playback. In other words, content like premium movies will play without any dedicated ad-breaks continuously, but on a curtailed area of the screen. In the present state, viewers can continue to watch the movie & ads will play on the remaining portion of the screen.

The ads have been designed to ensure the viewing experience is not hindered. However, viewers can choose to do away with the ads completely & have a full-screen movie playing experience by paying either a monthly subscription charge or even ‘Pay-if-you-want’ model where subscriber can opt to pay & watch a single movie. The ad revenue generated from the Freemium model will be shared by BrizzTV & Airtel.

A while ago YouTube & others had thought of a very similar concept wherein it would broadcast content via a dedicated TV Channel. While the video-aggregation site manages to earn by inserting audio-visual ads, before, during & after a video, BrizzTV has chosen to place the same alongside the actual content. Do you think such a model will be accepted by the TV watching audience?

Image Courtesy |   dreamdth

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Vodafone India Has Started Cutting Its 2G Data Charges By 80% In Select Regions

Denzil — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:33:10 +0000

In what seems to be a bid to get more users to adopt its mobile Internet services, Vodafone India has announced that it has started slashing 2G data charges by 80% in select regions. The previous rate for 2G data was 10p/10kb which is now down to 2p/10kb on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. The changed rates are now applicable in Karnataka, UP West, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh circles. The operator plans to roll out the revised data rates nationally in phases.

These new rates are applicable to both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers in these regions. The data packs and bonus packs that the company offers will not change in terms of pricing as of now. This move is meant to get users with limited usage to get access to affordable internet connections on their mobile

Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said,

“The overall internet penetration in India is low while the mobile penetration is several times higher. Most consumers will discover the power of the internet via the mobile. We, at Vodafone, want to accelerate mobile internet adoption through penetration, consumption and value addition. This 80% reduction in data charges for customers using 2G network is an important step in this direction and we are confident that this move will facilitate in faster adoption and better usage.”

As the Internet becomes an important utility in the country in the days to comes, telcos can no longer ignore mobile usage and the scale of usage in the country. Affordable pricing means more users who access more of the Internet. Not many people get off once they get hooked to the Internet and thus this move will ultimately help Vodafone and the other telcos who are revising their rates to consolidate their position as mobile Internet providers. The cut in Roaming rates will affect telcos financially, something they were wary about. Mobile Internet and value added services will end up becoming good revenue funnels for these companies and thus all operators are looking to strengthen their data services and remove the barrier to entry for users in smaller cities and rural areas.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

‘Tweet’ Becomes An Official Word; Lands In Oxford English Dictionary

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:50:46 +0000

Here is another example of social media’s impact on our lives. ‘Tweet’ no longer means only chirping of birds. The word tweet now has a second definition and is now an officially part of the English language. Tweet now also means “To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually”, John Simpson, chief editor of the OED, announced the new addition in a June update. “The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED,” Simpson wrote.

The dictionary acknowledges that it is breaking its own rule that a word must be “current for ten years” before it can be included into the dictionary, by expanding the definition of “tweet.” According to OED’s blog, “There has been, for example, a threefold increase in instances of the word tweet between 2006 and 2007 (when Twitter began), and by 2012, this had increased to 50 times.” However, oddly, the word “retweet”, or the act of reposting a message posted by another Twitter user, was added to the OED back in 2011. Editors did not give an explanation as to why retweet was added first.

The online version of the dictionary has new entries added to it by editors every three months. An increasing number of technology based words have made their ways into the dictionary in this quarter including words like “live-blogging,” crowdsourcing”, “big data”, “e-reader”, “stream” “re-direct”, “geekery”, “flash mob”, “mouseover”. More than 1,200 new or revised words were added in the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Other words or phrases that have made the cut in the past include “OMG” and “LOL,” both of which were added to the dictionary in 2011.

You can check out more words here.

Image Courtesy |   allthingsd

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Gaana Updates Android App With Gaana 2.0 And Gaana+

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:50:48 +0000

Gaana, Times Internet’s music streaming service has updated its Android app with Gaana 2.0 and Gaana+. Gaana 2.0 updates the app with a new interface for My Zone and adds feature like multi-bit rate streaming which enables users to choose the streaming rate based on your data connection strength. Furthermore, 2.0 is more intuitive and allows better search, creation and editing a playlist in MyZone. It also lets users choose the quality of playback based on their connection speed.

In April this year, Times Internet had unveiled Gaana+ premium service for iOS devices. Now, it is introducing the service for Android devices too. The ads free service will give listeners the ability to sync their offline playlists across multiple devices thus allowing you to listen to music even when you have no network connection. Gaana+ is available for free for a 14 day trial, after which subscriptions cost $2.99 (Rs 175) a month (India) or $3.99 (Rs 236) a month (rest of world).

Last week Gaana launched a Karaoke Web App SingAlong that allows users to sing their favourite songs along with scrolling lyrics and music. Gaana recently launched a Windows Phone App and is now present across all major platforms like iOS, Android, Java, BB, BB10, J2ME.

You can download the updated Android app here.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Want To Learn Digital Marketing? The Curious Digital Marketer 2.0 Is A Good Place To Start

Denzil — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:29:07 +0000

The time is here when every marketer knows that the Digital Medium is a force to be reckoned with. Internet usage and the corresponding digital media consumption (especially mobile) are growing at a rapid pace and it has done so in a very short amount of time, taking many a marketer by surprise. Those who saw the signs adapted to it and are now in a good position to leverage the vast opportunities that the medium offers for their brands.

For those who want to start learning about Digital Marketing, there is an easy way out. Afaqs runs an initiative called Afaqs Campus which is dedicated to educating marketers to tackle the digital medium and use it successfully. A by-product of this initiative is the book series called ‘The Curious Digital Marketer’. They have recently launched the second edition which contains within it knowledge and good digital practices coming from the minds of 12 seasoned digital marketing professionals like Kapil Ohri, Vishal Jacob, Pritam Venkky and others.

The broad topics covered in this book include Display Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Web Analytics. All these areas form the backbone of the Digital and Social Media Marketing and whose working knowledge will give a marketer a very good edge when it comes to conceptualizing and executing meaningful digital campaigns.

The Curious Digital Marketer 2.0 is available to buy online at Infibeam and Flipkart.

You can read a preview here.

Website | Curious Digital Marketer

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Radiowalla Offers Opportunity For FM Stations To Go Digital

Alap Naik Desai — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:20:34 +0000

Radiowalla Network Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore based company that owns & operates an Internet Radio Service of the same name, has come up with a unique offering that should push the traditional FM radio stations into the age of digitization.

What’s the company offering: Though the service does not appear to have a formal name, it can be termed as Radio as a Service (RaaS). Essentially, the company will take over the responsibility of setting up a virtual running counterpart of the FM station on the internet. In simple terms, the platform will allow FM stations to go online with their proprietary programs with music and non-music content.

Though FM Radio Stations can themselves try & go online, there are a lot of formalities that need to be completed & this is where Radiowalla comes into picture. FM broadcasters have to agree to a lot of rules & regulations, one of which, called the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA), prohibits these broadcasters from rebroadcasting FM signals online.

Radiowalla has solved this dilemma by offering its own platform on which the content will piggyback. As an additional incentive, the service will also power mobile apps of FM stations. Hence the FM broadcasters can pick & choose the services they wish to deploy & accordingly design a customized package.

Besides earning fees for the service, Radiowalla’s product will open up a whole new treasure trove of content for itself. FM stations on the other hand will be able to address a brand new demographic which was hereto inaccessible. Music & video streaming has begun to appeal to Indian consumers. With access to better standards of internet like 3G & high speed 4G, consumers can now stream without any lag or buffering.

Additionally, with adaptive streaming being introduced, Indian consumer can surely enjoy a multitude of content. What do you think?

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Google introduces ‘Product Listing Ads’ in India

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:54:07 +0000

In a bid to enhance users shopping experience and help merchants leverage its platform, Google India has launched ‘Product Listing Ads’ in India. The new ad format which will appear on the right side of the search results will provide users with shopping-related queries. Product Listing Ads will give users information like images, price and brands of products thereby helping them to shop better both online and offline.

When I checked, the product listing ads were present. I tried to search Samsung Galaxy S4 and found the ads on the right side of search results. For now it looks like Google has partnered with e-tailers like Flipkart, Naaptol, Homeshop18 etc. The product listing ads also feature big images of the product along with prices which is a big upgrade over previous link based ads. Also, the ads which are titled as ‘Sponsored’ links directly to the sellers product page. However, when I checked while writing the post, the product listing ads have not yet arrived on mobile browsers.

“We are excited about building delightful shopping experiences for consumers in close partnership with merchants. The new Product Listing Ads will help shoppers turn their intentions into actions lightning fast. Today’s changes are a first step toward providing technology, tools and traffic to help power the Indian retail ecosystem”, said Google in a company statement.

Product Listing Ads are a great opportunity for merchants to present their business and promote their products to interested shoppers as well. Although the new ad format by Google is a way to improve the quality of listings, it will make life harder for e-commerce firms as it would raise their costs to appear in shopping search results. The product listing ads will also rake big moolah for Google as there will be an increase in number of clicks.

Here is a video which walks you through the product listings ad service.

I believe the addition of product listing ad will increase competition in the advertising space. Also, it might raise doubts in some people’s minds about whether Google’s search engine could still be seen as fair and impartial if its results were affected by who paid it for shopping listings. This also brings light to the fact that free clicks are declining by day with rise in paid clicks. This will eventually increase ad cost and make competition fierce. Google has already captured more than 50% of global mobile ad revenue and if it brings product listing ads to mobile its share in the ad revenue will only shoot up further.

What do you think about Google’s new ad format? Let us know.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Groupon Expands Its India Team’s Responsibilities To Include Emerging Markets In APAC

Denzil — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:07:25 +0000

Groupon has announced that it has entrusted the current Indian senior management team with additional responsibilities dealing with growth in emerging markets in Asia Pacific. In addition to India, the Groupon India team will now focus on developing and expanding their platform in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Ankur Warikoo who is currently the CEO of Groupon India, has been handed the additional responsibility of Groupon APAC Emerging Markets. Bharath Devanathan has also been made the COO of the Emerging Markets group. Sumeet Kapur who was the CFO of the Indian operations till now has been named as the Regional Finance Director in charge of these markets. Groupon is happy with the work of its Indian team over the last 2 years and believes that it can also drive the adoption and growth of the service throughout the APAC region.

Joel Neoh, IVP, Groupon APAC spoke about the development,

“India is a key market for Groupon and has been one of the fastest growing countries in the APAC region. The leadership team in India has played an instrumental role in making Groupon the undisputed industry leader within a period of two years. This reorganisation will only make us work closer, tighter and more unified than ever in APAC, towards building a great global company . I wish them success in their new role.”

Times have not been easy for Groupon since its IPO more than a year ago. Since then, Groupon’s founder and former CEO, Andrew Mason was made to leave the company. This development hints that Groupon India (formerly Crazeal) is now running in a stable manner. We cannot yet comment on how the company is doing globally.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Goibibo Releases Data On Online Booking Of Bus Tickets

Rohit Singh Jain — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:50:56 +0000

Online travel portal Go-Ibibo has released data regarding the state of online bus bookings in the country. The study is based on data sourced from its consumers’ booking habits.

According to the data insights, more than 50% of online booking of bus tickets seem unplanned, signalling towards an immediate bus ticket purchase nature among consumers. 32% of it is on the day of the travel (Last Minute) and 24% is one day prior to travel.

The chief aspects contributing to this growth story are Real time inventory being made available online from thousands of Bus suppliers and consolidators; Price and price comparison; convenience of booking on mobile and PC. Additionally, the availability of luxury buses companies like Volvo and Mercedes too seems to have boosted online bus ticket sales.

The study also highlighted the sales of online bus tickets specifically by region. While Bangalore-Hyderabad-Bangalore (10% of the bookings) sector tops the list, closely following regions are Chennai-Bangalore ; Pune-Hyderabad; Bangalore-Vijaywada. On the other hand 55% of bookings comes from a massive long tail of 10000+ sectors.

The report also throws light on the types of bus services chosen for online booking i.e. 72% buses booked online are AC with an average price of Rs. 899. However, 28% buses booked are Non-AC with an average price of Rs. 399. Women’s safety too is a concern that determines online bus booking ticket sales: Ladies seats were a hit among consumers looking to book bus tickets through the online medium.

Goibibo was launched in September 2009 and is now one of the top 3 online travel e-commerce platform in India. GoIbibo launched their iOS and Android apps for bus booking.

Travel portals like GoIbibo have been cashing in on the bus booking sector, as luxury bus travel is a sector not hit by the economic slowdown at any time. A host of Indian travel portals have sprung up in the bus booking scene, the most prominent being RedBus which possibly get acquired soon. Needless to say, there’s a lot of competition, and I believe these services need to offer something ground-breaking in order to lead the pack.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

National Roaming Calls And SMS To Get Cheaper; Not Free

Rohit Singh Jain — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:45:09 +0000

Telecom regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) said it would allow carriers to offer free nationwide mobile roaming to subscribers for a fixed fee from July 1. It has said there will be no complete reduction from roaming charges as such.

“TRAI has reduced ceilings for national roaming calls and SMS and instituted a new regime for providing flexibility to telecom service providers to customise tariffs for national roamers through STVs (Special Tariff Vouchers) and Combo Vouchers,” the regulator said in a statement.

Starting July 1, 2013, ceilings for national roaming calls and SMS will be a reduced – Re 1 per minute for outgoing local calls and Rs 1.50 per minute for outgoing STD calls on national roaming, against Rs 1.40 per minute and Rs 2.40 per minute, respectively. The ceiling on incoming calls on roaming have been cut to 75 paise/minute from Rs 1.75 earlier, while outgoing local SMS will cost Rs 1 and outgoing STD SMS will cost Rs 1.50 from July 1.

“With increased subscribers and usage, the costs associated with national roaming have declined, but not vanished. There are still real costs incurred in providing the national roaming facility.”

“Mandating a fully free roaming regime is simply not practicable at this juncture. Compelling a transition to a fully free national roaming regime would result in telecom service providers not being able to recover their costs from roamers,” the regulator said.

Trai has decided that STVs and Combo Vouchers which were as of now allowed only for home tariffs can be permitted for roaming tariffs. This will provide service providers with innumerable flexibility options with their pricing options.

Also, TRAI has directed telcos to offer special plans for subscribers on roaming. The consumer will now be able to choose between full roaming and partly roaming service plans.

The move is quite significant, but I definitely don’t understand why the Indian telecom industry hasn’t quite matured when it comes to consumerism. When consumers want no roaming charges, they mean that lcacl charges should equal those applied on roaming, which is not what TRAI seems to have worked towards. TRAI should look at EU, which is in the final stages of abolishing roaming charges.

Source | Tech2

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Rumor: Instagram Will Debut Video Sharing On June 20th

Denzil — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:23:22 +0000

According to rumors doing the rounds of the Silicon Valley blog circuit, Instagram will be launching its video sharing capabilities on June 20th at a Facebook ‘Big Ideas’ press event. Although clear details are yet to be received, Techcrunch notes that their anonymous source has confirmed the news and its launch at the press event. Facebook has also been rumored to be working on a feed reading (RSS) service, now that Google Reader is nearing the date of its impending demise.

If the news is true, it can be seen that Facebook is actively attacking many areas in a bid to drive up the usage and thus the dependability on Facebook’s platform. Video sharing would make sense for Instagram because that is the logical growth for a platform like that. Also, since Instagram will sooner or later be integrated deeper into Facebook’s platform, it makes sense for their photo product to also have video sharing features so as to complete the feature gap. Facebook and Twitter were more or less head to head when it came to social media and sharing innovations but Twitter took the lead when it debuted Vine first for iOS and then for Android. Vine has been seeing good traction and also has been hailed as new tool for citizen journalism and also as an outlet for creativity. Facebook, will understandably not want to be left behind and is now looking to ‘copy’ successful features from Twitter onto their platform. The first instance of this inspired feature set was the simplification of the default timeline coupled with graph search which adapts easily to mobile. The next bit was Facebook adding #hashtags in a bid to index content on its platform in a better way.

Vine recently surged ahead of Instagram in terms of the number of shares on Twitter. This new feature may get it back on top although I am not very sure about it yet. Instagram has a good user base and that should definitely factor in.

Source | Techcrunch

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Indian Intelligence Bureau Calls For WeChat To Be Banned In The Country

Alap Naik Desai — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:02:37 +0000

WeChat , the mobile messaging platform is apparently within the crosshairs of Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) as the body has proposed banning the same. The internet dependent smartphone based messaging platform is quite similar to immensely popular rival Whatsapp.

The intelligence tracking & monitoring authority feels that proliferation of such a service is a threat to National Security. In fact based on an internally circulated note, Deputy National Security Advisor Nehchal Sandhu has asked IB to discuss about the ban with the Home Ministry and the Department of Telecom (DoT). “Blocking access to such websites in accordance with the licensing conditions governing Internet service providers is one way of checking them,” the country’s internal intelligence agency pointed out at the second meeting of the Inter-Agency Operational Working Group on June 4.

Why is IB threatening a shut-down to WeChat?

Based on the aforementioned premonition, IB hasn’t clarified why it feels WeChat alone should face a ban. It operates on the exact same principles that Whatsapp, Viber & others follow. All these internet based messaging platforms make use of the unique mobile number as registration & as the users’ handle as well. This ensures that the content exchanged is always tied to an identifying entity that can be tracked down in the event of National Security.

The Government may want to ban WeChat in particular, mainly because it is Chinese in origin. In the past, India & other countries have seen an alarming increase in the hacking & unlawful entries by Chinese Nationals. In fact, there appear to be many theories that claim China deploys hackers to break into foreign national’s secure databases. When we first heard about WeChat entering the Indian market, we expressed doubts along the same lines. Here is a link to that piece.

While this ban may be a fairly new concept, messaging companies like BlackBerry’s BBM have been facing a lot of heat from Indian as well as Middle Eastern Authorities to share their database. While eventually BlackBerry did relent & opened up a server in India, can’t Indian Government insist the same to WeChat?

We would love to hear your thoughts on this particular development. Let us know in the comments.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

DealChaat Updates Android App; Aims To Offer Better Personalization

Rohit Singh Jain — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:23:23 +0000

DealChaat, a mobile app service that lets you find you deals around your location, has updated its Android app, and has attempted to offer varied personalization options inside the app service for its users. The upgraded app, dubbed as ‘DealChaat 3.0′ packs some interesting features revolving around customization by users according to their preferences. The update allows for the users to directly interact with merchants as well as other shoppers around them.

These changes are rolled out in an attempt on DealChaat’s side to provide merchants direct access to enthusiastic online shoppers ready to take on the platform. This change in the service is focused to improve the outlook of shoppers using the DealChaat app and directly impact the way merchants and traders get across shoppers looking to gain in on the location marketing biz.

Here is the specific changelog of some of the newly added features to the DealChaat Android app:

1. App personalization through Social Login and DealChaat connect

2. Rating deals and sharing with friends in-app and through Facebook & Twitter
3. Brand / Store review as a means for merchants to attract / retain consumers

The app will facilitate reviewing of user ratings and reviews to the traders and merchants in a big way. All ratings info will reach the concerned tradesmen right in their inbox. They will also aid shoppers in the same area who wish to opt for a deal. At the same time, these users will get recommendations from other shoppers as well.

Now retailers can get direct feedback from shoppers regarding their deals, insights on what shoppers expect, and get a platform to directly communicate with consumers. The revised app focuses on higher levels of user customization. Additionally, DealChaat has ensured that the app doesn’t lag behind in terms of user experience. The User Interface of the mobile app has been revamped keeping in mind the needs of mobile and smartphone users. Users now get details of the number of deals available to their locality, all categorised neatly from the home screen itself.

DealChaat is a do-it-yourself platform for mid-market retailers to directly publish and manage promotions, and delivered through a location-aware smartphone app.

Location and check-in based services are witnessing a massive boom in the mobile ecosystem currently, and I only predict greater scope and rise in this sector. DealChaat seems to have comfortably centered its service around the deals and location-based app service sector, and a great service too. Shoppers are the ones that can leverage this platform, and services like DealChaat make shopping and scouting for deals a real easy job.

You can download the updated DealChaat app from here.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

MobStac Teams Up With Vdopia To Monetize Video Content

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:30:30 +0000

Mobile cloud publishing company MobStac has partnered online video advertising company Vdopia to monetize their digital properties and video content effectively across all mobile devices. As a result of the partnership publishers and businesses using the MobStac cloud platform to power their mobile websites and apps now have easy access to brands that wish to advertise on their premium video content through Vdopia’s VDOAd network.

Founded in 2009, MobStac claims it is currently serving over 2,000 customers in more than 40 countries in 12 different languages. In September last year, search engine giant Google had announced a partnership with Mobstac to drive adoption of mobile platform among media and publishing firms. Earlier in April, the company launched an API platform that lets developers build & manage both mobile websites and apps for their customers.

Speaking about the partnership, Sharat Potharaju, CEO and Co-founder of MobStac said, “Mobile video consumption is growing at a break-neck pace and video advertising provides a huge monetizing opportunity for publishers and media companies using MobStac. We understand the significant value a video and network like Vdopia can add to our mobile publishing platform and look forward to mobilizing more publishers who currently use the Vdopia ad network”.

Vdopia provides advertisers the opportunity to advertise on the most premium online and mobile video content available on the internet. The company recently collaborated with the International Cricket Council to monetize websites for the ongoing Champions Trophy.

Nikunj Arora, Manager, Business Development – India, Vdopia said, “The shift in the paradigm of internet consumption from online to mobile makes this the most appropriate time for publishers to reach out to premium advertisers and obtain the maximum for their content on mobile.”

Videos have become an important part of the internet ecosystem and has eventually given rise to video advertising. The increasing use of smartphones and internet has also fueled this growth.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

75% Of Youth Prefer Social Networks Over Phone Calls For Communication: TCS Survey

Sneha Bokil-Paranjape — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:30:00 +0000

A recent survey by TCS has revealed that about 75% of India’s youth prefers social media over phone calls to communicate, with more students using the internet for school-related tasks. Titled ‘(TCS) Gen-Y survey 2012-13‘, the survey touts that smart devices and unprecedented levels of online access are making this generation the most connected yet. This is changing the way they communicate with each other and transforming both their academic and social live.

Conducted on 17,478 high-school students from age 12-18 years across 14 cities in India, the survey reveals that today’s youth are collaborating through social networking tools and building virtual communities aided by affordable bandwidth and smart devices. “India’s post-millennial generation, those people born in 1996 and afterwards, seem set to overtake the preceding millennial generation, taking communication over social networks like Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging modes like Whatsapp to newer extremes,” said the survey.

The survey further stated that 73% of students accessed internet for researching school work while 62% used it for chatting and staying in touch with friends. According to the survey, 92% of respondents prefer Facebook as a medium to connect with their peers. Twitter came in second where one in three reposondants used tweeting as a medium of communication.

Giving insights about mobile phone ownership, the survey highlighted that almost 70% of students own mobile phones and nearly 20 % use mobile phones to access the internet (compared to just 12 percent in 2009). Talking about tablets use, the survey said that 20% of students in Metro use a tablet compared to 17% of those is Mini Metros.

60% of youth today own not just a mobile but a smartphone. Surprisingly the difference in ownership patterns between metros (58.50%) and mini metros (59.36%) is not much, with the smaller cities scoring over the larger ones. Samsung continued dominance over Nokia and Apple once again in terms of brand popularity. 48% of the new generation preferred Samsung while Nokia came in second with 46% which was followed by Apple ( 39%) and HTC (36%).

The TCS Survey further stated that India’s urban Post-Millennial generation is turning to text and chat as alternatives to voice. 74% of those surveyed said they use Facebook the most to communicate, while 54% used SMS – both significantly higher than the number of students who said they used voice calls (44 %) for the same purpose.

The survey by TCS echos a recent IAMAI report which said that social media users in India with hit 6.6 Cr by June 2013. Also, some schools have started supporting students towards bringing in electronic gadgets like tablets, smartphones & even laptops to school. Some state governments are also distributing tablets in rural areas to incorporate technology. Hence, I believe era of digital education has dawned upon us and it will only expand in near future.

You can check out the entire TCS survey here.

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

BookMyShow & Others Questioned By Bombay HC For Charging Internet Handling Fees For Movie Tickets

Alap Naik Desai — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:08:39 +0000

Online Ticketing Agents (OTA), especially for movies, are being questioned by Bombay High Court (HC) for overcharging patrons who purchase movie tickets from them, reports Medianama. The HC has asked multitude of online companies like BookMyShow.com, Big Cinema, Fame India, INOX, Fun Multiplex, Sterling, Globus Cinema, New Excelsior, 24 Karat Multiplex, HDIL Broadway, Abhiruchi City Pride and E-Square to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Sunil Lulla.

What the PIL about: Interestingly, Lulla is merely asking the companies to implement a Government Order already issued on 4^th April of this year. The government of Maharashtra had ordered cinema halls to follow the Satellite Computerized Ticket Printing from April 1^st 2013 and also allowed single-screen cinema halls who were losing business and facing shutdown, to double their service tax in order to adopt digital technology.

While the order seems to favor the Single Screened Movie Theatres, the decision was taken to bring in transparency & accountability within the highly lucrative Entertainment Sector. Owing to decentralization in the way tickets are printed & sold, there was no perfect way to keep a tally on the business & in turn Government couldn’t get its revenue from the taxes. Coincidentally, Entertainment Tax is one of the highest money-spinners for the Government which stands to earn as much as 30% per ticket sold.

The rule states:

“For any of the cinema hall in the state, the exhibitor or owner or agent should not charge any additional charge to the viewers for online computerized ticket sale. The said amount given to the agency should not be charged to the viewers by the exhibitor/owner.”

In other words, the charge for the ticket sold online should be the same as, when purchased at the counter.

This simply means online ticket sellers cannot add charges like ‘Ticket Handling Charges’ or ‘Convenience Fees’ in addition to the Ticket Charges. Even though PVR Cinemas has agreed to abide by the rule, last year alone, it earned Rs. 5 Crores (US$ 0.9 Million) as Convenience Fee revenue. Online Ticketing Companies will surely feel the pinch of this stream being truncated. Now they may have to turn to the Movie Theatre owners for their revenue or look elsewhere. What do you think?

Image Courtesy |   livemint

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Google Introduces Balloon Powered Internet Access With Project Loon

Rohit Singh Jain — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:18:59 +0000

Google has just announced Project Loon, an initiative from Google X Labs to bring affordable Internet access to remote places by means of giant balloons. Project Loon involves flying large helium balloons made of polyethelene film, measuring around 15 meters in diameter. These balloons are sent to high altitudes of around 20 kilometers above the ground. This is twice as high as the space where commercial airplanes travel. Such balloons are powered completely by solar energy, and rely on the wind in the stratosphere to move from one area to another. Forming what Google calls a “network in the sky”, these balloons have technology that is able to communicate with other balloons and with antennas on the ground.

Supposedly, these balloons can provide Internet connectivity at 3G network speeds, or even faster.

Once the balloons are up in the sky, Google maintains control over them, and may direct them to the ground in specific areas where they can be collected and reused.

The company has already begun the pilot test for the initiative in the Tekapo area in New Zealand’s South Island. During the pilot test, thirty balloons were launched. These balloons provide Internet access to 50 pilot testers from Canterbury and Christchurch. These testers are tasked to report on the quality of the connection. Google will collect the information provided by these pilot testers, and use it to improve the technology.

Google is inviting those who are in New Zealand and want to take part in the project as a pilot tester to sign up on its official website.

New Zealand supposedly was selected because it had been the site of an earthquake back in 2011, which disconnected plenty of people from Internet access, apart from killing almost 200 residents. Google claims that other areas which would suffer from natural calamities in the future could benefit from Project Loon.

Google is quite active on the innovative front. A study by eMarketer revealed that Google actually took up 50% of world’s mobile marketing revenue. Last week, the company gobbled up maps service Waze in order to consolidate their mobile services, and possibly improve Google Maps as well.

At this point, Project Loon is still in the experimental stage, I definitely think that the wider reach of Internet access may be used in the future for purposes like education, agriculture, and medicine, among others. This, in turn, will provide better opportunities for the billions of people who still do not have access to the Internet today. The concept is innovative and path-breaking, and I’m of the view that Google can actually pull it off, thanks to the massive cash flow the search engine giant has got.

Image Courtesy | techradar

Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency