It will be an Interactive Jobs search service called “MonsterJobs Active” and would also include services like Resume Writing and Resume Blaster services through which a jobseeker can get their resume written by a professional resume writer and can also send their resume to thousands of placement consultants in one go.

DTH Fast Becoming An Internet Services Access Point

Now with both matrimony, travel and jobs on DTH it can be safely stated that DTH is fast becoming an internet services must have partnership. The question that is raised is about the adoption of these services 2-3 years down the line when premium customers would start using M-payments or payments via DTH players to make transactions through their TV screens. The business impact of these tie ups would be gauged only then. As currently DTH is in the content aggregation phase where its providing different content choices to consumers inorder to lure them to subscribe. What will really be interesting is how many of these customers are actually users and paid users of these ancillary services on DTH.

Current DishTV claims to have 5.5 million subscribers and this numbers is obviously going to grow exponentially over the next 2-3 years. This means that DTH distribution could become key for many online service providers going forward.

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Now Rapidshare COO Mr. Bobby Chang is in India to promote Rapidhshare’s services. He sees great potential in the Indian market and feels that the Internet penetration in India is only going to grow thereby leading to need for services like rapidshare which can host data online for free.

On the current traffic from India he stated
“Currently, we see about 2-3 million users from India every day using RapidShare everyday. We expect to see a 10-20 per cent increase in activity this year as we launch more services”

Bobby Chang was also in India for the RapidShare Lottery which was won by a 19 year old girl named Srishti A. from New Delhi. She was presented a cheque of Euros 50,000. Over 500,000 people took part in the prize draw by exchanging RapidPoints for raffle tickets.

The Dark Side Of Rapishare

Well for those who know rapidshare will also know that its notorious for hosting all kinds of files (pirated movies, music, software, adult mms clips etc). Ofcourse all of this is user uploaded and shared and if one does complain to rapidshare they do take down a particular file but when 1000’s of such files are uploaded its very difficult for a authentic content owner or even girls whose mms clips might be on the platform to report all of them. Hence rapidshare enjoys the traffic as not all illegal content is reported. One may argue that the same is the case with an UGC platform be it orkut, youtube or even facebook. While this might be true file sharing takes it to a different level as the file itself is downloaded by the user and now can be shared. Unlike youtube videos which cannot be downloaded that easily (Yes there are services for that too but not everyone knows about them).

So Rapidshare may be looking to increase its presence in India but before it does that it may want to relook at its services as many Indian publishers would not be happy with their content being shared for free and rapidshare making money out of the same. Rapidshare could be termed as the napster of the modern world only that its not P2P sharing but file hosting.

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The revamped layout is just few days old and is slimmer and more useful then the previous one. The changes were essential as the site was attaining mainstream uses due to its varied useful features.

Changes made in Google Finance:

• Google finance now provides a left-navigation bar that lets users move between the major sections of the site in one click. Links to sub-sections, like portfolio related news or individual portfolios. This would surely make Google finance much simpler in use.

• Now users can also drag and drop section items in home page by clicking the arrow given above the box.

• Users can also customize charts in a better way by accessing chart Settings which allows to view OHLC and Candlestick charts.

• The most enticing change which may work in its favor is the introduction of Advanced Technical information like simple moving averages etc. available to users at fingertips. Users can also use multiple averages at the same time.

This revamp in financial portals would certainly cause jitters to behemoths like moneycontrol and wikinvest as they would now have to match the service offered by Google Finance. Although this certainly comes as good news for net savvy investors.

Google through its financial analysis portal and other businesses would surely like to acquire big ticket advertisers in future as and when it attracts a respectable user base for such services. This also opens up space for more rejigs in many of its high flying services.

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The social web has been a fantastic place for nonprofits to support social causes with movements like Twestival and the Case Foundation’s Giving Challenge.  One major issue that Twitter is facing at the moment seems to be long-term establishment and financial security. They have definitely contributed in taking social media to a next level, but capitalization is of utmost importance. They walked an extra mile in the recent Iran situation. Besides they have also contributed for WWF Climate, Remarkable Parents and many more..

To name just a few of the social causes that are initiated, originated and supported via Twitter include Tweetsgiving, Twestival and the 12for12k Challenge. The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide. They support a charity called Eye Care for Kids throughout the month of July.

The premise of 12for12K is simple:

1. 12 months
2. 12 charities
3. $12,000 per charity

Tweetsgiving used the power of social media and Twitter to raise over $10,000 within 48 hours. So much that 336 contributors raised enough money fund a new classroom in Tanzania, Africa. This nobel cause aims at helping poor people by raising fund during Thanksgiving Day.

Social media has produced a whole new era of media. But what does it mean for traditional media? Twitter continous celebration of gratitude and giving created by Epic Change, a nonprofit organization. They have supported Twitter in innovative, creative and profitable ways to help them acquire the financial resources they need to create positive change in certain communities. Content producers need to target their content. Making the content addressable because people want to be able to interact on a personal level. Twitter brought a whole new meaning to the way the social site is perceived today and will be perceived in the future. There was a situation when people try to negatively assume Twitter’s future. Some said that people will reject the service after a time, but today there are newcomers anxious to get involved. That’s a commendable achievement, isn’t it?

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On 3G -
The biggest beneficiary of 3G will be mobile internet access.

1. Operators in India are trying to load more calls per spectrum and hence spectrum is clogged
2. First use of 3G will be for voice.
3. Second use of 3G would be for data both for data cards or internet on mobile.

On post 3G auction -

1. It will take 2-3 years for a full 3G rollout even after auction for large players and for last mile 3G connectivity in India.
2. 3G handsets are expensive and hence adoption of 3G would be low
3. Even if handsets have video calling facility it doesn’t work unless both the users have a video calling-enabled handsets. So for actual usage there is still a lot of time before 3G can make an impact.
4. Hence, I don’t see substantial revenues through 3G materialize for 5 years substantial. Substantial means even 5-10% of total VAS revenues.

Mr. Rao described the 3G saga in minimum words - “Its all hyped!”. He also questioned the 3G hype by asking - “How many users would have 3G handsets? And how many people would actually use its features?”

On MNP (Mobile Number Portability) and its impact on VAS (Value Added Services) -

1. Number of users does not affect OnMobile as we are across all operators
2. For a smaller VAS company it may help
3. MNP will make us lose profiling and we cant target users based on their consumption
4. MNP may have a smaller effect rather than a major shift
5. Exclusive / Viral Content will not drive operators to give higher share to content providers even after MNP is implemented. (This contradicts our take on how MNP will revolutionize Mobile VAS Space)
6. Even MNP would not have a great impact on the revenue share.

On Revenue share -
I don’t see it changing at all. Operators spend a lot of money on infrastructure and promoting the music. All content VAS providers should learn to respect what operators are spending. We are ok with the way revenue share is structured currently.

(Please Note: Current revenue share is 80:20 in favor of the operators and Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff had stated that this needs to change to 50:50 for growth of mobile content.)

On are operators doing enough to grow Mobile VAS?
The core reason why VAS is a 7,000 crore industry because the operators have whole heartedly supported it. So my answer is Yes operators are doing a great job.

On Middemen -
I think that there are too many middlemen in VAS for instance -

• Content
• Content aggregators
• Technology
• Distribution, etc etc

What this space requires is innovation and what you don’t need is too many people in the same space offering identical services thereby undercutting margins.

About OnMobile’s Strategy -
Continous innovation is what we are aiming for. We won’t be in areas like games and we will not make content, rather be the distributors of content. Our international targetted markets include Canada, North America, Europe, Africa while we are not targetting China.

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In the USA, Forrester’s research which regularly tracks marketing trends, published this on their blog.

From their report, they draw the following conclusions:

• Search continues to lead interactive spend followed by display.
• Social media assets (like internal blogs, community sites) are really the only emerging media getting traction in today’s economic climate.

However, their take is that Overall Advertising Budgets will decline. The trending shift to Online Marketing is definitely less expensive than Conventional Media (which is possibly at its maximum potential now) which is the major reason for the prediction. Already, newspapers across USA are facing losses due to the uprising trend of social media like Twitter. A recent report concurs. This should directly impact Newspaper advertising.

The widespread outreach of Internet will soon reach out to the remotest region. In our budget analysis, we commented about how the Government is looking at rural unification via the Internet. It’s only a matter of time before everyone is actively using Internet-on-the-go, which is why the development of Mobile Technology will be one of the most viable platforms to keep an eye out for.

However, is the state of the international marketing scene reflective of the Indian scenario? A recent IRS survey shows how readership of the newspaper is increasing in India, whereas global trends show newspapers facing losses (however, all opinions focus on the eventual downfall of print media). The truth is, though Indians are also shifting, increasing presence on social media, and a gaining focus on digital media is testament to that.

As of now in India, Digital Advertising is still understood by ROI concepts due to which more brands focus on SEO and SEM tools. However, there are limitations. In the West, a company can pump in 40-50 crores in SEM, still be efficient and generate low pay-per-leads. India’s online market is lower. Hence, after a limit, increased dependence on SEO, Display-ads or a Click-based advertising model will grow extremely expensive. After a point, a pay per performance model will not generate as much ROI as it will get increasingly difficult to generate more leads with lower costs.

As Forrester reports, companies in the USA spend close to 3% on Social Media branding with an expected growth rate of 34% in Social Media spending by 2014. In India, we could well estimate the net worth of social media to be around 20-25 crores, (estimating a 4-5% share of a 500 crore market) that being inclusive of ads on Social networking sites, microsites and viral ads on the Internet. The report also predicts overall growth rates in other digital media, but agrees with our view of SMM and SMO having higher growth rate potential.

We’ve already commented earlier on our view of the growth of digital media in India.

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Check out the implementation of the fanbox on WATBlog.

Fan page owners would see a link on the left hand side of their fanpage via which they can create this box:

Why is this going to attract more users?

If facebook connect was successful this new feature of fanbox would be even more successful as even standalone bloggers, webmasters, corporates who have no knowledge of coding can embed this widget easily on their websites. It also is a great tool for brands to create fan pages on facebook and have an widget on their website. Celebrities can follow suit as well.

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‘DeskMail’ seems to be a wise move as many business executives depend on their Smartphones and are very well connected with e-mail services. The feature allows service users to seamlessly connect with their team members on e-mail for project related work.

The service would only be available on higher paid plans which may be a deterrent for some users of DeskAway. Till now most of the SAS based project management services allowed e-mail integration only for notification purpose.

How to use DeskMail?

In order to create a task from an email you need to include the email address (unique to your DeskAway account). Make sure that the email address you are sending the email from is the same that is linked to your user account on DeskAway.

Some project management services at glance:

• Zoho On-Demand CRM & Projects:

Zoho seems to provide a complete basket of business related services. Their ‘On-Demand CRM’ and ‘Projects’ seems to be doing wonders for businesses.

• Basecamp:

Basecamp has attracted a lot of attention since its inception. The popularity is also garnered through major clientele although it do not offer any free plans.

• DeskAway:

DeskAway seems to provide a cheaper alternative to other project management services. They also provide free plans with some limitations.

• SugarCRM:

Sugarcrm is a full-fledged open-source CRM solution which could also be hosted on company server. The company also offers various paid options in terms of hosting and CRM solution.

Simplistic Project management services like basecamp, Deskaway are giving tough competition to full-fledged CRM solutions. The competition also seems to be rising as recently Zoho unveiled new version of Zoho projects with more simplicity in use and higher collaboration tools.

These SAS project management solutions are widely seen by startups and SME’s as work productive and has seen heavy rise in adaption. Zoho projects has even implemented a Twitter like status option for users. Even services like yammer, a corporate social network has seen success as a tool to maintain work productivity levels.

These sort of Online project management services are trying to avoid the complexity seen in many traditional CRM solutions which seems to have definitely paid off. The online project management services still requires innovation and close integration with other services to attract larger user base.

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Will it become Nokia CashCow In India?

The big question is will it be able to become a CashCow for Nokia. Obviously there are large number of people in India using Nokia phones but a large percentage of them are using low budget or mid budget phones which dont even have music support.

Another challenge for Nokia will be piracy. There are no stringent rules in India for curbing piracy and more than sixty percent of the content is pirated and people easily fall for the pirated content because of easy and dirt cheap availability. Nokia has to price the content economically as it already has the benefit of easy availability to the customers. Clearly pricing would be the make or break for this store in India.

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The numbers are for US market only but may be used to convey the real situation being played out in other major markets like Europe. The numbers where mostly compiled from the data available for Social Ads platform.

The Pointers by the compiled report figures user data comparison in US market between 4th jan - 4th july 2009 respectively:

• 71.9 Million Total US users an increase of 70.8% over the last six months.
• The ratio of female to male is 55:40 (5% unknown)
• The growth in below 17 age bracket is 24.2% whereas in 18-24 age bracket it is just 4.8%.
• The highest growth is registered in 55+ age bracket which stood at 513% compared to growth of 190% in 35-54 age bracket.
• In terms of education levels, high school and college students accounted for the largest drop in users, at 16.5 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively.

The impressive growth in US could also be gauged by its recent attainment of Numero Uno position. The numbers look pretty bad when it comes to youth audience and more and more oldies seem to be joining the platform. This shows that the youth market atleast in the US for facebook seems to be  a saturated segment.

The higher than anticipated growth in older age bracket may not be that bad after looking at the Ad premium which sites like Linkedin charge. This may also help facebook to gain brownie points with advertisers as they accumulate influential audience in terms of spending.

WATBlog studied Indian demographics as obtained through Social Ads platform on facebook:

• Total 3.3 Million users in India
• Male to female audience ratio of 66:33

User count in age bracket:

• 13-17 age audience: 279,020 people
• 18-24 age audience: 1,525,800 people
• 25-34 age audience: 1,237,020 people
• 35-54 age audience: 362,840 people
• 55+ age audience: 50,880 people

Indian audience demographics suggest the dominance of site among male audience compared to female. It also shows the influence of 18-24 and 25-34 age audience, mostly highly educated and employed in Indian market and very low growth in 55+ age bracket. The numbers for 35-54 age bracket could also be called impressive as India is always perceived as monopoly of youth audience.

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This was the second biggest web event ever after the earlier President Obama inauguration ceremony drew maximum attention over the web. Although, its too early to compare the traffic but here is a small look to the comparison of web traffic

Web traffic on MJ Memorial

Omniture reports CNN traffic:
72 million page views
10.8 million unique visitors
8.9 million live video streams

Ustream:
4.6 million total streams
1.6 million total unique visitors
12,000 messages per minute sent through chat/Ustream’s Social Stream

Facebook:
1 million users posted approx 800,000 status
MJ page has 7 million fans

CNN
733,000 status updates
759,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast
6,000 updates/minute at the peak

E! Online
9,000 status updates
87,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

ABC
48,000 status updates
97,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

MTV
5,000 status updates
21,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

Twitter
On MJ memorial ceremony, twitter reported over capacity. All of the top 10 Twitter searchers this afternoon - MJ Memorial, #michaeljackson, RIP MJ and Smokey Robinson - were regarding Jackson or people speaking or performing at his memorial.

Web Traffic on Obama’s Inaugration

Facebook
600,000 status update
Averagely, 4,000 status updates every minute during the broadcast
Obama’s Facebook page more than 6 million fans and more than 500,000 wall posts

CNN
Over 18.8 million live streams
21.3 million streams after speech and 136 million pageviews.

There’s nothing much to say but we’ll Miss You, MJ. No one can ever replace you.

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Why Evolution from Beta is significant?

The very fact that google has let go of the beta tag means that its ready to claim that its products are ready to be considered stable and can be offered on a freemium model. This move is clearly targetted at the business community and to send a message out that Google apps can now be considered as a serious investment.

While Google has moved on from BETA Stage in terms of web apps it also made a significant announcement a few hours ago i.e. the announcement of the Web OS platform christened Google Chrome OS. In their own words “Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.”

Even before any sign of even a screeshot of the OS blogs like techcrunch are hailing this product as a nuclear bomb from google to destroy microsoft.

Here are some revelations on Google Chrome OS

• Its an open source, lightweight operating system targeted at netbooks
• Later this year its code will be  open-source
• By the second half of 2010 it will be available bundled with netbooks
• Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS
• OS to be built in a way to protect it from viruses, malware and security updates
• Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips
• Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android

As its clear from the points above Google intends to hurt microsoft where it hurts the most i.e. Speed and security. They are making this browser for a web savvy early adopter who hates it when his or her machine get hung due to several OS processes which may not be required for his real requirement i.e. browsing the web.

Is this a huge threat to Microsoft Windows?

Well in the short term not that big a threat but in the longterm as cloud computing becomes a reality and speed and security is preferred over features then Microsoft would be very wary of this new competitor. What would serve Microsoft well would be if it can launch a Lite version of Microsoft Windows 7 targetted at the audience focussed on browsing and an option to switch to this Lite version from the main Windows 7 OS itself. Think of it like a web browsing mode just like safe mode on your current PC. All in all this is a BIG announcement by Google and the battle between Google and Microsoft just got even more interesting.

Addition (by Siddarth) : Google’s not the only one seeing the potential of a browser cum OS. Microsoft’s Gazelle’s not made the news in a very big way, but it’s definitely in the pipes. To quote Microsoft from it’s research site, Microsoft Researcher Helen Wang said “We’re really trying to leverage the decades of operating system experience and apply that in the Web and browser setting”. The entire news article (recent one) is here, and the original Microsoft Research article is here and an article citing the latest work on Gazelle is here aptly titled, “When is a browser NOT a browser?” Gazelle will hopefully see Microsoft moving a little from it’s tried-and-tested status quo approach to development. Note, Microsoft is careful enough to keep announcing that Gazelle is not a replacement for Windows or IE (in case it appears like Microsoft has realised that both these will not be viable as per future market requirements) and that Gazelle is merely “just something we’re working on”. The future of computer-experience being re-envisioned?

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How badly are the sectors hit?

In the recession-struck first half of the year companies continue to cut advertising spending. The sharpest cuts were observed in finance, automobile and business travel. Whereas ZenithOptimedia’s ad report also stated that China’s ad growth should still grow 5.4% this year, and India’s 7.7%. Hence the worsening economic activity will strongly hit radio, outdoor, magazines and cinema, while magazines and outdoor advertising looks vulnerable due to their long-lead booking deadlines.  The report eludes stating that there is a  “mild recovery” expected in the sector during 2010. So there is hope in the ad market next year to creep up stealthily with overall decline of 0.8%. Yet, North America should decline for a third year in 2010, shrinking a further 2.4%, while Western Europe will stagnate next year. While in 2011 the report concluded stating that, all regions should have recovered and global advertising expenditure should grow 4.3%. Similarly familiar virtues of ‘transparency, accountability and flexibility have proved even more attractive in a recession than ever’ with reference to online advertising.

Growth in online advertising:

The same report also states that Online advertising will grow by 10.1% in 2009. As stated by UTalkMarketing, companies look at the “transparency, accountability and flexibility” of the web to get the best return on investment. Spending on online ads is expected to overtake expenditure on TV ads by the end of this year, according to Internet Advertising Bureau. We have kept you updated about the ups and downs of the advertising sectors with any growth predictions in the Digital Media Industry. In such a scenario,  the onus of advertising on the web actually begins to fall on the shoulders of publishers. They need to create content that engages people enough that they begin to spend time online. Standardization, transparency and a genuine will to improve conversations between brands and their audience is as much a prerogative of publishers as it is for advertisers.”The economic crisis seems to be actually accelerating the shift of marketing funds online”, said Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer. ZenithOptimedia in their report also mentioned that growth will instead be driven by emerging markets and India is one of them.

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IMI Mobile had earlier acquired digital music distributor DX3 in November and also bought the M2Y digital music platform from Nokia Siemens. Similar acquisitions have happened before but that was when a carrier like  Vodafone bought Zyb in 2008. Mobyko has been around since 2007 and has received first round of funding. On the features front Mobyko lets users backup its mobile contacts, calendar, photos, video, SMS and other files online and to social networks.

Moconews reports that IMIMobile plans to pitch it to carriers in UK as a consumer social media aggregation service. There is no word on the amount it was acquired for.

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Facebook seems to be capitalising on its popularity. There’s always a buzz about Facebook across the Internet. Be it articles on “Is there a possibility of Facebook soon becoming the new Myspace.” (Check PCWorld analysis - not that we totally agree with them ) or the new excitement over Facebook declaring revenue worth $500 million. In an interview with Reuters, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Andreessen who sits on Facebook’s board mentioned that the world’s most popular online social network could pile up $1 billion in revenue this year if it pushed harder on selling advertising. He also lay strong emphasis that social networking sites should try and capture markets and retain user activity and focus on earnings later as they can always be made up in the long run.

Well, Facebook seems to be taking that advice very seriously. Very recently, we posted on how Facebook was growing strongly in India. Well, they seem to be focused on improving their strategies. Facebook has very recently launched the “Facebook Developer Contest - India”. India ranks second in the number of software developers with 3.9 million software developers and Facebook seems to want to leave no stone unturned in gaining their attention. The Facebook Developer’s Challenge focuses on Facebook Apps (on of the most interesting aspects of Facebook with high user retention and thousands of fans) and Facebook Connect, an important useful tool which serves as a good platform for publishers and for social media in general.

Three prize winners in each of the two contest categories will receive cash awards. For each category (Apps and Connect):

• First Place Prize : Four Thousand Dollars U.S. ($4,000.00 USD)
• Second Prize : Two Thousand Dollars U.S. ($2,000.00 USD).
• Third Prize : One Thousand Dollars U.S. ($1,000.00).

Which takes the total cash prize for this amount close to INR 3.4 Lakhs!

Proto.in is on WATBlog’s event list. We had brought you updates about this year’s edition of Proto.in. In a curious co-incidence, Facebook is the gold sponsor of the event. The Facebook Developer Garage will be held at proto.in with Ruchi Sanghvi, senior product manager at Facebook participating as the speaker. Facebook obviously seeks to impress on upcoming developers the importance of social media, its utility and potential for business. The event will obviously promote the Facebook Developer Contest - India.

The Contest began on July 2, 2009 and will end at 11:29:59 AM Indian Standard Time on September 11, 2009. The contest is open  to all legal residents of India who are over the age of 16 at the time of entry. For more information, check www.facebook.com/developercontestindia.

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Sify is probably the 4th largest portal from India (if alexa chart below is to be believed) after rediff, indiatimes and the newly buzzing in.com. Sify kind of lost the traffic battle to these three purely because of a lack of focus on the online properties and no sign of upgradation.

Sify has been on a sort of restructuring and revamp spree in the last 6 months or so with its portal. Late last year it tied up with Google to provide WIYI mail and got rid of its own mailing service. It also recently jumped onto the twitter bandwagon with updates from its website. With all these initiatives it does look like sify is making a conscious effort to improve the user experience and connect. Sify’s consumer business has been a let down and that has been apparent via its financial results last quarter. These initiatives seem like a way to revamp its business on the consumer side and bring users back to sify.com

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10th July, 2009 - VAS Asia 2009, International Conference & Exhibition.

Venue - Le Meridien, New Delhi

Agenda - 0900 - 0945 hrs      Registration
0945 - 1000 hrs     Speed Networking
Know your peers & industry colleagues before the start of the conference
1000 - 1100 hrs     Inaugural Session
The Road Ahead - Future of Mobile VAS in India & Asian Service Provider’s Perspective
1100 - 1130 hrs     Refreshments & Networking Break
1130 - 1330 hrs     Session I
New Services & Drivers of Growth for Mobile Value Added Services in India
1330 - 1430 hrs     Networking Lunch and Exhibition Visit
1430 - 1600 hrs     Session II
Successful strategies to face the future challenges of various stakeholders in Mobile Value Added Services in India
1600 - 1630 hrs     Refreshments, Networking and Exhibition Visit
1630 - 1800 hrs     Session III
Understanding the future MVAS Ecosystem & Network operators perspective on it
1800 hrs Onwards     Networking - Industry Nite Reception

Register here

10th July, 2009 - Conference on “ICT for SMEs” - “Surfing the Wave of Increasing Competition“

Venue - Hotel Intercontinental EROS, New Delhi

Speakers - Shri Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; B Muralikrishnan, Director - Category & Product Management, eBay India; Jyotish Kumar Ghosh
President( SME), Times Internet Ltd. and many more..

For more details and registration click here

11th July, 2009 - StartUp Saturday - Finance Vertical
Time: 1500 hrs - 1830 hrs

Venue - S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai

Agenda -
Showcase 1:  RupeeTalk

Showcase 2:  PayMate

Register here

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Will it really benefit its target audience?

Employment exchanges have been in existence for long and certain employment exchanges (eg.  Delhi Employment exchange) are online for more than 5 years but none of them have considerable number of employers. Most of job seekers registered with employment exchanges are either searching for jobs in Government sectors or related to teaching, nursing, ITI or are unskilled labor. In Delhi employment exchange around 32 thousands job seekers posted resume for teaching jobs, around 30 thousand for ITI, drivers and more than 1.5 lakh are under-graduates.

This  shows that government employment exchanges mainly cater to unskilled labour which wont be able to use online employment exchange functionality. Besides this the process of posting their resume for majority of the audience of employment exchanges which are under-graduates will be cumbersome as most of them are not even computer literate. So there is no impact of this online exchange.

What can be done to make Online Employment exchanges more productive and practical?

As mentioned before more than 70% job seekers are unskilled labor so making online portal will mostly benefit employers so that they can search and contact the job seekers promptly.

I went through the employment portals of various states like Delhi, J & K, Himachal and most of them lack functionality where an employer can quickly search for a job seeker and contact him/her. Even here things work like most Government departments, slow and ineffective. Any employer can’t wait for months before hiring a person making most of the employment exchanges useless.

Hence, the Government needs to give it a second thought to make these employment exchanges more effective otherwise they will be a mere repository of job seekers’ data with no real use.

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We, at WATBlog have constantly kept you updated about any progress in the 3G Saga, and we’ll continue to do so. The futuristic 3G services are awaited since almost a year and has been in the news for quite some time. As the 3G auction saga comes close to its end with the auctions slated by the end of this year we shall continue to cover the 3G updates in more detail here at WATBlog.

Estimated Income from 3G For Government

The rise in the estimated revenues could be due to the higher base price being proposed by the Finance Ministry. The total income from collecting telecom licence fees, entry fees and spectrum charges from the operators for the year 2009-10 included in the receipts from the ‘other communications services’ category in the budget is estimated to be Rs 48,335 crore compared with Rs 33,335 crore pegged in the Interim Budget presented by the previous UPA Government. Other major income sources for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are licence fee, entry fee, fee to offer V-Sat services, long-distance licence fee and mobile phone services. Telecom operators will be able to provide high-speed Internet and video downloads on mobile phones after the 3G auction without any issues. All telecom players contribute 5% of their annual revenue towards this fund and the unutilised amount in USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) is estimated to be over Rs 20,000 crore.

Focus on Rural Areas

Officials in the Department of Telecom (DoT) stated that a bulk of this allotment from USOF will be used for the second phase of the rural mobile project. Under that scheme, the government will subsidize construction of 11,000 telecom towers across 2.4 lakh villages. The Budget also allocated Rs 2,400 crore from the Universal Service Obligation Fund to subsidize unviable mobile, internet and landline operations in rural India.

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In a recent interview posted on chubbybrain.com, the CEO, Phanindra Sama said that they also aim to target non-Internet users. They do this by providing technology support to bus-ticketing operators who manage heavy volumes. They provide inventory-management SaaS (Software as a Service) to such operators and take a cut on the larger transactions.

Pilani Soft Labs Pvt Ltd, the company behind bus ticketing service redBus, has raised second round of funding led by Inventus Capital Partners. Seedfund, an existing investor, also participated in the round.

In a press  release, Kanwal Rekhi, co-founder of Inventus Capital Partners said “The fragmented bus travel market in India offers a significant aggregation opportunity. In redBus we see a set of young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs addressing a large and largely untapped opportunity. We hope to work closely with the founders, existing investor and advisors to create a unique and valuable brand,”. In an earlier interview recently, he had just remarked about how VCs cannot sites cannot hope to depend on advertising to generate revenues. Co-incidentally, that is quite in sync with the view redbus.in takes which does not rely on online advertising.

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