WildBlueSkies - Trends and strategies in Digital Media

India Adds 8.89 Million GSM Subscribers In June

dhirender — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:30:40 +0000

The telecom tsunami continues, with GSM operators adding 8.89 million subscribers in June, taking the total number of subscribers using the technology to 315.8 million. Compare this with 8.3 million subscribers added in May, and 8.9 million in June.
Bharti Airtel, added 2.82 million, increasing its subscriber base to 102.4 million, while Vodafone-Essar, recorded a lower net addition of 2.37 million in June, compared to 2.54 million in May.
The Aditya Birla Group telecom service provider added 1.61 million subscribers during the month, up from 1.3 million added in May, while Aircel has added 1.11 million new users during the month.
The data did not include additions by Reliance Communications, as the company, which operates both CDMA and GSM service, does not provide separate GSM numbers. [Via]

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After Mobile Blogging, Look Out For Books Via SMS

dhirender — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:27:47 +0000

Come August, and Reliance Communications plans to launch a mobile phone-based novel, Deaf Heaven, authored by Pinki Virani. The book will be packed in a set of 90 SMS messages priced at Rs 30 and made available through an specially-created SMS subscription pack.
“Subscribers will receive the entire novel over a series of SMSes spaced over a period of 30 days. Every day, the subscriber will get to read the novel through three SMSes,” Krishna Durbha, head (VAS), Reliance Communications told Business Standard.
Reliance also plans to convert the book into an adult audio mobile book, which would be available on a multimodal number, said Durbha. “The adult audio mobile book will be offered at a flat subscription price of Rs 30. Users will be charged Re 1 per minute to hear the audio book.” The audio book, which will be made available in English, constitutes almost 60 minutes of audio content. The digital rights of the literary content will be owned by the author.

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Malayala Manorama Launches ManoramaHorizon.com

dhirender — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:22:49 +0000

In a move that will tie up its various education related initiatives (think education fairs and exhibitions), Manorama Online, the new media division of the Kerala based Malayala Manorama, has launched ManoramaHorizon.com – an education portal.
Based on the listing model ManoramaHorizon.com will allow educational institutes to enlist their names on the website and provide details about the courses they offer says Afaqs!. Apart from listing of colleges, the website will also carry education related news and career guidance articles. Initially, the news content will be offered in Malayalam. It will also be available in English later on.
On the revenue model, C Mathew, deputy general manager, marketing, Malayala Manorama, said that there will be a paid listing option, apart from the free listing. A college can opt for a basic paid listing option and pay Rs 500 to provide more details about the courses they offer.
Or pay Rs 5,000 for the feature listing, wherein the colleges can put up details such as student details, photographs and testimonials and upload the alumni directory as well. There are plans to allow colleges to create their own microsites on ManoramaHorizons.com in the next phase.

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Gmail Gets It’s Own Google Search

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:00:00 +0000

With this little enhancement, you will now be able to search the web from Gmail without leaving your Gmail window.
Turn it on from the Labs tab under Settings, you’ll see a new search box on the left side of your inbox.
Type your search in, and a window (like a chat window, but a bit bigger) appears at the bottom of your screen with the first few search results.
Clicking on a search result and it’ll open up in another window (or another tab) so you can make sure it’s what you’re looking for. Once you’re sure it’s a result you need, moving your mouse over the result back in Gmail reveals a pull-down menu that lets you do stuff with the search result.
According to the Gmail Blog, what’s in the menu depends on what you’re doing in Gmail:

If you’re reading a message, you can start a reply to the message with the search result as the first thing in your reply.
If you’re writing a message, you can paste the result, or just the URL into your message.
If you’re chatting with someone, you can send the result via chat.
You can also always compose a new message to send the search result.

As the enhancements increase, it is becoming more and difficult to move out of the Gmail window.

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Blogs Continue To Gain Momentum

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:40:35 +0000

Currently, 27.9 million US Internet users have a blog they update at least once per month, and they represent 14% of the Internet population. By 2013, 37.6 million users will update their blogs at least monthly.
eMarketer estimates that in 2009 96.6 million US Internet users will read a blog at least once per month. By 2013, 128.2 million people, or 58% of all US users, will do the same.
As the influence of blogs increase, expect these to be the next emphasis area for marketeers.

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What Does YouTube Make …. And Spend?

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:51:00 +0000

The fifth most popular web brand online with an estimated 83 million visitors in February – that’s YouTube for you. Estimates reckon that 41% of all US video streams will go through YouTube in 2009, thanks to over 375 million unique viewers worldwide.
However, revenue continues to elude YouTube. eMarketer tabulated what several sources in the market research community have estimated YouTube’s revenues (for 2008 or 2009, as noted):

Jefferies & Co., 2009: $500 million
Bear Stearns, 2008: $90 million
Screen Digest, 2009: $120 million
Forbes, 2009: $350 million
Morgan Stanley, 2008: $75 million to $189 million
Credit Suisse, 2009: $240 million

Not bad, you might think (even though the estimates vary drastically), but compare this with the costs associated with running the site – over $700 million in 2009, according to Credit Suisse analysts who project that while this cost includes bandwidth costs, content licensing agreements, hardware needs and other expenses, bandwidth and content licensing agreements, costs that cannot be easily allayed, will account for 87% of total expenses.

Is a shift away from amateurish user generated videos, and a move towards more professional work the answer?

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Ideacts Innovations Raises Series B From Sequoia

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:37:28 +0000

Mumbai-based Ideacts Innovations, which makes software products targeting cyber cafes, has raised series-B venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital India and Silicon Valley Bank says VCCircle.
Ideacts had raised $5 million from Sequoia Capital in 2007, but the amount raised in second round is higher than first (Economic Times puts it between $5-9 million).
Founded in March 2007, Ideacts is an internet media venture which had launched CLINCK, an active desktop application, which creates a default interface for users to access Internet, and claimed 21,071 terminals at the time of writing this post.
The firm plans to use the funding to ramp up its operation and deploying CLINCK in tier II and tier III cities across the country.
Though it’s revenue streams are based pretty much on advertising, they claim to not have been affected too much by the slowdown, and claim a consistent growth trajectory.

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The Effect Of Spam On Our Environment

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:23:12 +0000

Sure, spam is irritating and frustrating for all of us and it shows no signs of slowing down, but if anyone needed yet another reason for stopping spam, consider this – the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) – equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million US homes—and creating the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline, says eMarketer.
As an example, in late 2008, McColo, a major source of spam, was taken offline—and global spam volume dropped 70%. The energy saved in the lull before spammers rebuilt sending capacity was the same as taking 2.2 million cars off the road that day.
Almost 80% of the energy waste created by spam is due to end-users deleting it from their inboxes—or hunting for legitimate e-mail.
The average greenhouse gas emission associated with a single spam message is only 0.3 grams of CO2. Not much—it’s like driving 3 feet. But when multiplied by the yearly volume of spam, it adds up to driving around the planet 1.6 million times.

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Soon, Mobile Number Portability At Less Than Rs. 300

dhirender — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:04:39 +0000

Come September 20, and telecom subscribers should be able to change their number from one mobile service provider to another for a mere Rs. 300 or less, while retaining their original phone number.
Eagerly awaited, and much delayed, hopefully this will also lead to the service providers improving the quality of their services – lately, the number of calls dropping, and non-connectivity due to traffic congestion has been increasing exponentially.
In the first phase, the facility would be launched in the telecom cricles of Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharastra.
In second phase, the service would be launched in the rest of the 14 circles would be within a year.
I still do not get the point of paying a charge for changing service providers, even though its a fairly nominal amount. I wonder how this matches up to other countries, where mobile number portability is already in existence.

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Console Gaming Online Subscribers To Increase 20%

dhirender — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:05:52 +0000

Even as video game console shipments decline during the global recession, growth in online gaming subscriptions is expected to be grow a projected 20.4% between 2005 and 2013 due to a sizable console installed base and growing consumer awareness of online gaming, says In-Stat.
Some highlights of the report, Despite Slowing Console Sales, Online Gaming Subscriber Growth Continuing Worldwide, which covers forecasts for online game subscribers annually through 2013 for online-capable game console and handheld consoles, and not PC online gaming or casual gaming:

Each of the three key vendors is positioned to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual online gaming revenue from online service subscriptions, download revenue and/or online advertising.
Microsoft’s Xbox Live service will clearly lead, with projected revenue of over $1 billion in revenue annually by 2013.
Worldwide broadband subscriptions will reach 562 million in 2009. The combination of broadband, installed home networks, and pervasive Wi-Fi in gaming devices, is fueling online gaming subscriber growth.
In 2008, total video game console unit shipments reached 88 million worldwide, up 7% from worldwide unit shipments in 2007.

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