With our mobile devices in hand, we're always, always online. And that pretty much means reading material flies at us from all directions. If we were to stop and read everything we wanted to, we'd get nothing else done. And that's why we have reading apps.Reading apps do three things: They let you save things to read whenever, including offline; they let you read in comfort by parsing content to get rid of other clutter on a web page and making other changes to the way text looks; and they let you email or share content with the world.As with everything, there is more than one application that handles your reading. But three of them are really battling it out for your attention right now: Instapaper, Pocket (ex Read It Later) and Readability. There are others, like Spool and Longform, but they're still to become real alternatives to the big three. READABILITY Zaps clutter and saves web articles for an easy read For a while there, Instapaper for iOS and on the web through your PC, was the clear winner among the three apps. In some ways, it still is, because it's the one that is most supported by other apps. Look at the sharing options on any other content-related app and you'll find there's an inevitable option to send to Instapaper. Getting your reading material into Instapaper is in fact one of the easiest things about it. If you're on the PC or laptop, just log in to your Instapaper account and put the bookmarklet on the browser. Then, click to send anything to the app for reading later. In fact, if you copy a URL to the clipboard on your iPhone, iPod or iPad and then open the app, you will be given the option of adding that URL to your list.Instapaper is a much-loved app with many loyal users who also support the equally-liked creator, Marco Arment, by paying $4.99. A recent update to the app has brought better formatting, more fonts and animated page flipping among others. There are some options for additional features such as text search. This month, Instapaper arrived in Android, licensed but not created by the same developer. POCKET Manage a reading list of articles from the Internet Pocket does much of what Instapaper does. Both — or rather, all three —will let you set brightness from within the app, change fonts, modify text alignment, change from dark to light or use sepia for better reading comfort, and most importantly, change text size for easier reading. But Pocket is more charismatic, and has a more gesture-based and much prettier home screen. And yes, these things do matter. Pocket organises articles in tiles so that they feel magazine-like and you tap to get into full reading mode. People have always felt Pocket looks better. The app also lets you tag articles and search for them. What Instapaper has over Pocket is much wider support from other apps so that there's never any doubt you can save something to Instapaper. Pocket, on the other hand, also saves other content forms such as videos and so is quite a good bookmarking option. On top of that, Pocket is free and is available on multiple platforms. Readability, also free, is the other app that has been around for a long time and was seen on computers before mobile devices became so popular. INSTAPAPER Save long web pages for later offline reading Many think of it as a network rather than a standalone app, syncing across devices. Readability had one of the first few mainstream uses of the Bookmarklet — a little button you can drag and drop on to your browser and use for instant access to a site or feature. Readability would, with a click, reformat your web page for a customised reading experience, including turning the background a soothing grey-black and the text white for reading without much glare from the screen. Sending to Readability isn't as commonly found in other apps as are the first two apps, but on the other hand, Readability has tie-ups with many apps and is automatically available with them. If you're a user of Tweetbot on the iPad or iPhone, you can set the Twitter app to go to Readability for all links that you click. This makes for quicker reading via Twitter, which can otherwise be a time-consuming activity because of the poor signal to noise ratio there. Also, try the amazing browser, Maven, on iOS, and see how a little Reader button converts the webpage to Readability format for easier reading. Both Pocket and Readability are beginning to catch up with Instapaper in popularity and support from other apps. Ultimately, which one you prefer depends on what's most important in your reading experience. For some, it may be the way a page is parsed, for others, a particular font or how the app syncs with other devices or how quickly it works. Many people who consume vast quantities of reading material have more than one of these apps, choosing whichever they feel like on whichever device they happen to be using for reading whenever.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 09-07-2012)
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The first Project Glass products -- Google's network-enabled, computerized glasses -- are set to ship to a select group of enthusiasts early next year, co-founder Sergey Brin said on Thursday."This is not a consumer device," Brin told thousands in an enthusiastically cheering audience at the company's Google I/O show. "You have to want to be on the bleeding edge. That's what this is designed for." Google showed off its computerized glasses at a developers conference on Friday by having a bunch of people wearing them – and streaming video from them – jump out of a blimp and land on the roof of the conference center. The glasses will be available only to Google I/O attendees who are in the United States. The geographic restriction is for regulatory reasons, Brin said. (Different countries have different requirements for radio-frequency emissions.) Brin demonstrated Google Glass, a futuristic-looking eye-glass-computer that can live-stream events, record, and perform computing tasks. The device will be available to US-based developers early next year for $1,500.The glasses, as light as regular sunglasses, come with a touch panel on the side, a button on top to take photos and videos, and a transparent screen to show information. They perch just above a person's regular vision so they don't interfere with ordinary eye contact. Google believes they're better for capturing a first-person view of the world, such as spontaneous photographs people would miss if they had to take time to dig out a camera.The ambition is much bolder, though: in effect, an augmented brain. "Someday we would like to make this so fast that you don't feel like, if you have a question, you have to go seek the [answer]. We'd like it to be so fast that you just know it. We'd like to be able to empower people to know information very, very quickly," one of the project engineers said. And it unveiled the Nexus Q - a $300 device with a built-in amplifier that lets users stream content from Android devices onto their TVs.Nexus Takes On Apple, Amazon But it was the Nexus tablet hogged the spotlight. Sold initially only on the Google Play online store, its $199 price tag and 7-inch stature is aimed squarely at the Fire, but the Nexus has a front-facing camera while Amazon's tablet does not.The "Nexus 7" tablet, built by and co-branded with Taiwan's Asus, was one of several gadgets unveiled at its annual developers' conference on Wednesday, as the Internet search and advertising leader dips its toe into the intensively competitive consumer arena.The announcement of the new tablet comes a month after Google acquired its own hardware-making capabilities with the $12.5 billion acquisition of smartphone maker Motorola Mobility. But Motorola, which Google has said it will run as a separate business, was absent from most the new products and services showcased at the event.Google's maiden entry in the tablet market, which will also see the advent of Microsoft Corp's Surface this year, could also help accelerate development of tablet-specific applications for its Android operating software -- a key factor that has helped popularize Apple's iPad, analysts say.Analysts consider the Fire a window into Amazon.com's trove of online content rather than an iPad rival, given the $499 that Apple asks for a device with a "retina" display that far outstrips it in terms of resolution.Google can similarly use the Nexus 7 to connect to its own online offerings, which include YouTube and Google Play, the name of its online store where it sells digital music, movies and games. It will go after more cost-conscious users who might shun the pricier iPad."Nexus 7 is an ideal device for reading books. The form factor and weight are just right," said Chris Yerga, Google director of engineering for Android.Google said it will offer buyers of the Nexus 7 a $25 credit to spend at the Google Play store and it showed off several media-centric capabilities, such as a new magazine reading app."They all but called it a Kindle Fire killer. They're clearly gunning for that No. 2 spot behind Apple's iPad that is currently occupied by Kindle," said Altimeter Group analyst Chris Silva. "But the con is they do not yet have a footprint in people's minds and wallets as the go-to place to purchase and consume media."Jelly Beans Google has partnered with smartphone makers to develop Nexus-banded smartphones for several years, providing a showcase product that delivers Google's ideal vision for a device based on its Android software.Extending the Nexus concept to tablets should similarly establish a model that other hardware makers can emulate, resulting in a more a competitive and uniform line of Android tablets to market, say analysts.Shares in Google gained 0.8 percent to $569.37 in afternoon trade.The Nexus will feature the new 4.1 "Jelly Bean" version of Google's software, as well as a front-facing camera, a 1280x800 resolution screen, and an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.Google's free Android software is the No. 1 operating system for smartphones, with about 1 million Android devices getting activated every day. But it has struggled to compete with Apple's iPad in the market for tablets, largely because it lags far behind Apple and Amazon in terms of available content and tablet-specific applications, such as games.Meanwhile, Apple has increasingly moved to reduce its dependency on Google services on its devices. Earlier this month it unveiled its own mapping software, which will replace Google maps as the default mapping service in the next version of its mobile operating system.And Amazon's Kindle Fire, while based on Google's open-source Android software, features a customized interface that does not use many Google services.Executives showcased the new 4.1 "Jelly Bean" version of Android operating system on Wednesday. The new software delivers faster performance, according to the company, and new features such as "voice search.""That range of services will be the secret to stitching together this rag-tag fleet of Android gadgets into a platform that can compete with Apple for minutes of users' attention rather than premium device dollars," said Forrester analyst James McQuivey.The tablet's limited availability - executives said they had no plans yet to expand distribution beyond Google's own site - may curtail initial sales growth.Google briefly sold a specially designed Android smartphone - the Nexus One - directly to consumers in 2010, but closed the online store after four months saying it had not lived up to expectations.But it's the lack of "native" applications - software designed with a larger tablet in mind, rather than ported from smartphones - that is the Nexus' biggest impediment for now."Unless you have a strong app offering, for a consumer it is a piece of glass that does what a phone does on a larger screen," Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner Research.
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I often stop to feel gratified that the number of people who follow me on the social networks has grown organically and without my having done very much. I don't have the huge six digit numbers that many others boast of... Nowhere near it... But the people who are in my network are engaged and interactive giving me a chance to actually know them and exchange ideas and information. At the same time, I also have followers who annoy me intensely and whom I get rid of at the first opportunity. And here's why.You know nothing about meMany a time, it becomes quite clear that a person has no idea who I really am and has just chanced upon my name somewhere and asked to join my network only to increase his or her numbers. The last thing I want to be is a statistic on someone's list. I need a connection, a common ground, something to base interaction, not a mutual addition to the overall follower number. On networks such as Twitter and Facebook, additional people just means additional noise. Since I'd like to make these networks useful, that's just a nuisance.I know nothing about youIf a person hasn't populated his or her profile with anything, there's little reason to accept an invitation or follow back. It's common enough on all the networks. On Twitter, I find that a person has nothing to say about his own interests and background. On LinkedIn, an unpopulated profile is even more frustrating and surprising. "Head of Self Employed" or some equivalent of that tells me nothing and gives me no reason at all to accept an invitation to connect. It also tells me that the person whose account the invitation is coming from isn't able to confidently define herself, reducing my confidence in the possibility of getting anything meaningful or useful out of future interactions.You just want to sellOn the other hand are connections where people immediately get down to pushing something at you a mere five seconds after you let them into your network. That could be a product, a cause, a request for a job, or just throwing content at you imagining that you have been waiting to read something from someone you have nothing to do with. On Twitter, it's called spam. On LinkedIn, just a step away and particularly annoying. Social networks are social for a reason. You connect to engage not to say ah, I got you, now can you do this for me?Meaningless interactionsThe number of networks one has to keep up with is getting daunting. Even if you can see that there's much use to be got out of your communities online, keeping up is difficult because all this networking is in addition to whatever else you do offline. In such circumstances, one welcomes specific and meaningful interaction rather than unnecessary exchanges like "Look forward to interacting with you" or "Nice to know you" and then follow that up by disappearing. Looking at my connections, I find that those who send these messages are actually the ones who interact the least. Ironic and just adding to the clutter.Don't overdo itJust saying something for the sake of saying something makes it easy to spot a person who really has nothing to say! Take all those people fill your timeline with quotations from everywhere. This may help them complete their quota of tweets for the day, but really if you wanted to read quotations you can easily get to a quotation encyclopedia. There is no shortage of quotation collections on the internet. Why would you follow back someone just to get out of context untimely quotations all of the time? There are many other ways of cluttering someone's timeline, such as by responding to everything he or she says without actually taking the conversation anywhere. This too is frustrating and time wasting.One good way of steering away from noise and making connections meaningful and specific instead would be to mentally draw a parallel with interaction offline. How likely are you to go up to someone and spout quotations from one minute to the next? How would it look if you went up to someone and just said hello, I want a job? And do you really want to go up to someone and say I'm talking to you because I have a certain quota of people who I need to talk to today! Use that yardstick and move towards engagement that is useful to you, your connection, and the network. Mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter
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Small town India is gaining prominence on the cyber threat map. The latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report shows an 81 per cent increase in malicious attacks and 93 per cent rise in mobile vulnerabilities. It is the emerging Indian cities that are increasingly facing the risk of cyber attacks, accounting for 25 per cent of the bot-infections.Coupled with the prevalence of small and medium businesses which are targets of 50 per cent of the attacks and industrial clusters (housing supplier-companies that allow attackers entry into larger organisations and critical infrastructure providers, this year's report show that cyber attacks are going everywhere. More significant, moving beyond spam, cyber criminals are turning to social networks to launch their attacks.2011 was also the first year that mobile malware presented a tangible threat to businesses and consumers targeting data collection, the sending of content and user tracking.Shantanu Ghosh, vice president and managing director, India Product Operations, Symantec says as denizens of smaller and emerging cities are venturing into the virtual world, they are creating a new lucrative pool of targets for cyber criminals. "Lack of awareness and low adoption of security measures makes these cities susceptible to cyber threats and warrants greater vigilance in protecting information assets," says Ghosh.These are the findings of the surveySmaller, emerging cities face the risk of cyber attacks: Smaller cities like Bhubaneshwar, Surat, Cochin, Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Indore have a high proportion of SMBs and industry clusters. Symantec says these locations are being inducted as part of a network of compromised computers. Additionally, some cities repeatedly appear in the list for origin of phishing in India - Ahmedabad, Nashik and Coimbatore also figure in the list of bot-infections. Targeted attacks on organizations of all sizes: The number of daily targeted attacks have increased from 77 per day to 82 per day by the end of 2011. Targeted attacks use social engineering and customized malware to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. These advanced attacks have traditionally focused on public sector and government; however, in 2011, targeted attacks diversified.Also, these attacks are no longer confined to large organizations. More than 50 per cent of such attacks target organizations with fewer than 2,500 employees, and almost 18 per cent target companies with fewer than 250 employees. These organizations may be targeted because they are in the supply chain or partner ecosystem of a larger company and because they are less well-defended. Furthermore, 58 per cent of attacks target non-execs, employees in roles such as human resources, public relations, and sales. Individuals in these jobs may not have direct access to information, but they can serve as a direct link into the company. They are also easy for attackers to identify online and are used to getting proactive inquiries and attachments from unknown sources.Malicious attacks continue to grow rapidly: Symantec blocked more than 5.5 billion malicious attacks in 2011, an increase of 81 per cent over the previous year. In addition, the number of unique malware variants increased to 403 million and the number of Web attacks blocked per day increased by 36 per cent.At the same time, spam levels fell considerably and new vulnerabilities discovered decreased by 20 per cent. Attackers have embraced easy to use attack toolkits to efficiently leverage existing vulnerabilities. Moving beyond spam, cyber criminals are then turning to social networks to launch their attacks. The very nature of these networks makes users incorrectly assume they are not at risk and attackers are using these sites to target new victims. Rise of data breaches, lost devices concern for the future: Approximately 1.1 million identities were stolen per data breach on average in 2011, a dramatic increase over the amount seen in any other year. Hacking incidents posed the greatest threat, exposing 187 million identities in 2011—the greatest number for any type of breach last year. However, the most frequent cause of data breaches that could facilitate identity theft was theft or loss of a computer or other medium on which data is stored or transmitted, such as a smartphone, USB key or a backup device. These theft-or loss-related breaches exposed 18.5 million identities. As tablets and smartphones continue to outsell PCs, more sensitive information will be available on mobile devices, Workers are bringing their smartphones and tablets into the corporate environment faster than many organizations are able to secure and manage them. This may lead to an increase in data breaches as lost mobile devices present risks to information if not properly protected.Mobile threats expose businesses and consumers: Mobile vulnerabilities increased by 93 per cent in 2011. At the same time, there was a rise in threats targeting the Android operating system. With the number of vulnerabilities in the mobile space rising and malware authors not only reinventing existing malware for mobile devices, but creating mobile-specific malware geared to the unique mobile opportunities, 2011 was the first year that mobile malware presented a tangible threat to businesses and consumers. These threats are designed for activities including data collection, the sending of content, and user tracking.
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As the online jewelry industry hits Rs 150 crore in India, more and more players are eyeing the space so much so that Assocham expects the industry to grow nearly five-fold to Rs 700 crore within the next three years.According to sources, online lifestyle store Yebhi.com recently closed the acquisition of the 10-month old fashion and accessories portal stylishyou.in for about $1-1.5 million. The amount includes the cost of stylishyou.in's data base, the cost of taking over the website's team of 10-15 people, their compensation as well as joining bonuses.stylishyou.in, founded by Shraddha Danani in August 2011, mostly deals with leading brands across all categories of jewelry and style accessories. The company also carries designer labels of bags, branded perfumes, watches etc.Sources within the company reveal that Danani has joined Yebhi.com as the Head of jewelry segment for the portal.Sources close to the deal reveal that the transaction took place in April end and since then the website www.stylishyou.in was taken off. Trying to put the domain name in the internet tool bar will only give you the following message "Site under maintenance, please try after sometime."Before the site went off line, it used to receive about 1,395 unique visitors and 13,955 page views a day, according to hypestat.com.In a conversation with Businessworld in April, Yebhi.com's founder Manmohan Agarwal had shown interest in inorganically expanding its presence in the fashion and lifestyle categories. The company, which was earlier known as Bigshoebazaar.com had been looking to acquire smaller players especially in the home and lifestyle and fashion space. Yebhi's nearly one-third of the revenues still come from footwear category and it is aggressively ramping up its presence in other fashion categories.Yebhi currently holds about 30,000 SKUs and gets about 119,538 unique visitors to its website every day.The company so far has received funding of close to $11 million from Nexus ventures partners and Catamaran in two rounds.(With inputs from Vishal Krishna)
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Vikrant Singh just can't do without his daily dose of Angry Birds, the enormously successful gaming app developed by Finland-based Rovio Entertainment. The 29-year-old Delhi-based software professional finds solace in slinging angry birds to smash evil pigs and marmosets on his Samsung Galaxy SII. But he fumes over the "irritating" pop-ups that appear every time he misses a shot. What he doesn't know is that these pop-ups are in-app commercials, critical to whether Singh plays the game for free, or pays for it. And even though a gamer like him may not admit to the advertisements' impact, they seem to have made an impression as Singh is able to recall names such as SBI, HDFC Life, Burberry and ICICI Lombard — with a little persuasion.In a country obsessed with mobile devices, cool new apps on smartphones or tablets are often part of watercooler conversations. This viral growth of apps is creating an ecosystem for a new genre of mobile app advertising. Apps such as Angry Birds — which has registered over 7 million mobile downloads in India across platforms such as Android, iOS and BlackBerry — are creating captive audiences for brands. "The number of mobile users is increasing and new technology is enabling better experience where video promotions are possible due to 3G connectivity," says Shashank Srivastava, chief marketing officer at Maruti Suzuki India, an active spender on the medium. PepsiCo India, another big digital advertiser, believes that a rise in app usage as a result of more mobile phone users makes it imperative for any FMCG brand to get on to this medium. "Given the dynamic characteristics of the mobile medium, in-app advertising could play a crucial role since the delivery mechanism is equally important in delivering a great idea," says Rohit Ohri, executive chairman of Dentsu.India is among the fastest growing mobile advertising markets with over 17 billion mobile advertisements published every month out of the estimated global market of 93.5 billion. "Mobile advertising in India, currently pegged at Rs 150 crore, is expected to grow at least 10 times to Rs 1,500 crore in five years," says C.V.L. Srinivas, chairman of Starcom MediaVest Group, India. Click To View Enlarged Graphic Games can engage users for longer and are thus a favourite among advertisers, followed by social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, entertainment apps such as YouTube, Gaana.com and Saavn Music and news apps such as The Times of India, Economic Times and NDTV. So while for desktop Internet, the primary driver was information, on a mobile unit it is gaming and casual entertainment. And, of course, advertisers are there where the traffic is. "People will more likely click on a newspaper or content app button than type in the web address," says Kiran Gopinath, founder and CEO of Ozone Media, one of the largest digital advertising networks in India.While mobile gadgets provide wider reach, apps have the potential to carry rich media content to the specifically targeted audience and offer possibilities to measure the impact — something that is critical for the advertiser. "With a remarkable penetration of smartphones, in-app advertising is just about to explode in India," says Rachna Sharma, vice-president and head of digital marketing at advertising agency JWT. "We expect this market to grow at 100 per cent for 2-3 years," says Ozone Media's Gopinath. A Compelling MarketBy one estimate, there are over 80 million users of the Internet on mobile devices. Though this is only a small part of India's 900 million mobile phone subscribers, for advertisers, it is still substantial since one mobile phone represents one user while a desktop may have multiple users. This means an advertiser can better understand the customer.Says Atul Satija, vice-president and managing director, Asia-Pacific, at InMobi, India's largest mobile advertisement network firm: "If a company is launching, say, hair oil, InMobi can tell which telecom circles the advertising campaigns should feature in and also the target audience." Even though in-app advertising that lets consumers experience the brand is still 18-24 months away in India, advertising agencies are getting creative with apps. "Mobile services are going to be so imbued with infrastructure that we will expect it to be tightly integrated with everything we do," says Suresh Reddy, chairman and CEO of global advertising network Ybrant Digital, which puts advertisements on platforms such as Facebook and MSN. "The past 10 years were about voice communication. The next 10 years will see a rapid growth in the way applications and services are built," he adds. break-page-breakIn India, Nokia's Symbian and Google's Android platforms dominate. Even though Nokia lags in the smartphone race, its Symbian platform attracts close to 55 per cent of mobile advertising thanks to pre-installed apps on its WAP-enabled phones. Android attracts over 40 per cent of the advertising but is expected to overtake the Nokia platform this year.The Cash RegisterDevelopers are busy experimenting with various monetisation models, including paid apps (such as OMGPOP, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Grand Theft Auto III), freemium apps (where revenue comes from upgrades; for example, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Assassins Creed) and free apps (WhatsApp Messenger, Instagram and Saavn Music). With a paid app, volumes will be lower but the amount earned per download is known. A free app will have higher volumes, and so increased usage. And if this can be translated into more advertisement impressions within the app, a free app may even generate more revenue than a paid app.Publishers can either monetise their apps by selling inventories to advertisement aggregators or by getting dedicated sponsorship from a particular brand and placing it strategically within the app.Established players such as UTV-owned Indiagames — known for its cricket gaming apps — are able to get sponsored activities. "For our Ra.One game (based on sci-fi movie Ra.One), we roped in Parle-G. For the current IPL season, some major brands such as Volkswagen are sponsoring our IPL gaming apps," says Vishal Gondal, CEO of Indiagames.Sponsored advertisements allow interactivity that advertisers hope will lead to engagement and brand building. The advertisement rates depend on the number of downloads, time spent on the game, among other things. So, some people do not want to put advertisements in the middle of a game as it distracts gamers. "We do not put advertisements in the middle of the game. We would rather put it before or at the end . That is how we are getting a high CTR (click-through ratio) of 10 per cent," says Virat Khutal, founder of Twist Mobile, a mobile app start-up that develops gaming and photo-effect apps. It earns $3 for every 1,000 impressions, according to Khutal.The usual revenue split is that for every Rs 100 earned through in-app advertising, Rs 30 goes to the app store, and of the remaining Rs 70, 60 per cent or Rs 42 goes to the publisher and the rest goes to the advertising network.Experts, however, believe that the current mechanism for the developer industry is not stable and needs to evolve. Currently, they use cost per thousand clicks (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per thousand leads (CPL) generated, and cost per thousand acquisitions (CPA) as a measurement tool, similar to online advertising. "While an advertiser would ideally like to pay using the CPA or CPL method, the advertising network would prefer the CPM model. So they generally settle for the mid-way CPC," explains Anuj Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based app developer and advertisement-serving firm Affle, which has a long-term contract to manage advertising on ESPN's mobile initiatives. It is currently running a mobile campaign for Samsung's Windows phone Omnia W.But the format and revenue model depends on the advertiser's objective. An application that is used frequently and for long durations, such as games or social media sites, may use a free model as it can generate a lot of impressions, while apps that are used only a couple of times and then discarded may use the paid model. Similarly, brands like Coca-Cola, Colgate, Hindustan Unilever or Volkswagen may go for the CPM model as their aim is not to generate sales but awareness. Whereas an e-commerce firm may use the CPC or CPL model as it expects the campaign to stimulate visits to its online store.What Makes It ClickDespite a frenzy to download the latest apps on smart devices, making users pay for apps is not an easy task. This kicks in the model of free apps that leverage their success to attract advertisers and thus create income. The fact that users do not think twice before downloading a free app only helps propagate the app.This model helped Indore-based Twist Mobile double its revenues to Rs 1 crore in just the second year of its operations. "We managed to start making money from the very launch of our apps in the Nokia Ovi store," says 31-year-old Khutal, an architect by qualification. Manish Malik, founder and CEO of Delhi-based app-developing firm Hazel Media, says: "There are other means of monetisation, too, including paid apps and paid content subscriptions. But in-app advertising definitely fares the best." Had it not been for in-app advertising, Angry Birds-maker Rovio Entertainment would not have been making $1 million every month from in-app advertisements from Android alone.break-page-breakWhat gives this nascent advertising platform the much-hyped growth potential is the well-established supply side of the market. "The other aspects are all ready — the consumers, the phones, the Internet connections and the content areas," says Madan Sanglikar, CEO of a recently-launched mobile advertising firm, ad2c.A well-organised online advertising market has helped create a readymade playground for app-based advertising. Similar to the online advertisement market, advertising agencies buy inventory on behalf of their clients from advertisement networks who, in turn, buy inventory from advertisement enablers who aggregate it (media space) from the publishers. In effect, advertisement networks and advertisement enablers play the role of intermediaries bridging the gap between the brand advertisers and the publishers. The medium is also supported by analysis providers who collect location and demographic-based information of the users to help advertisers identify relevant apps. Click To View Enlarged Graphic "Earlier, the market was dominated by publishers who directly dealt with advertisers. But over the past 12-18 months, some of the more recognisable mobile advertising network providers are starting to penetrate this stranglehold on the display marketplace and fill sizeable inventory," says Reddy of Ybrant Digital.In Fits And StartsUndoubtedly the medium has potential but the demand is still slow. Advertising agencies are not always able to convince clients to spend on app-based advertising as agencies themselves often do not know how to leverage the medium. This is why a new breed of mobile marketing solutions firms is cropping up to fill the void. These firms specialise in marketing and advertising on the mobile platform and offer end-to-end mobile marketing solutions, knitting together all the participants in the value chain, including advertisement networks, media publishers, advertising agencies and the brands.Advertising agencies, too, are using dedicated mobile marketing firms. China-based mobile marketing solutions firm MadHouse entered India in partnership with global marketing communications firm WPP. "It will always be an advantage for a brand or an agency to work with a solutions firm that offers end-to-end solutions to its clients, so that it reduces their pain in dealing with 4-5 different vendors to execute just one campaign," says Vinod Thadani, COO of MadHouse India.Then Japan-based mobile marketing firm D2C and Singapore-headquartered advertisement network Affle launched ad2c with Dentsu creative agency. "We will handle whatever complexity that mobile comes with… or at least abstract the complexities for brands," Anuj Khanna Sohum, co-founder and chairman of Affle.The mobile medium is still new. "First they (advertising agencies) need to acquire the skills to leverage the medium. The creative side, too, has to know how to create impactful advertisements for the small mobile screen," says Ravinder Pal Singh, vice-president of media at digital media agency Neo@Ogilvy. JWT's Sharma, though convinced that the mobile medium has the advantage of strategic placement, says, "The main question that faces us is ‘who will take the plunge first'. Other questions that surround advertisers are — have there been any successful case studies? Or what is it doing for my brand? Or should we invest in a new medium?"Apart from it being an untested medium, data charges are also a deterrent for mobile in-app advertising. An app could be anything between 2-200 MB of data, and updates can be as heavy. "Data consumption may be increasing but 3G data pricing, for instance, is still prohibitive," says Rahul Pande, CEO of Converse Today, a Mumbai-based app development firm which develops news content apps for major publishers. (3G tariffs are in the range of Rs 800-1,200 for 5GB data, 4G price is about Rs 1,000 for 6GB.) Its mobile marketing arm bonsai.mobi serves advertisements from brands such as Volkswagen, HSBC, Burberry and Ford on the news apps.Increased familiarity with the mobile medium could turn the tide in favour of in-app advertisements. But the biggest hope rests on the anticipated data explosion when 3G and 4G services proliferate, and the increased competition brings down data usage tariffs.With inputs from Dibyajyoti Chatterjeebweditor(at)abp(dot)in
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As funding starts to dry up in the e-tailing domain, small companies trying to raise Round A of funding are finding it hard to sustain their businesses. Case in point is madeinhealth.com – a body-building and fitness supplement store – which after struggling for nearly six months to raise $2.5-$3 million, decided to sell itself to larger competitor Healthkart.com in an all cash deal. Earlier this month, fashion accessories portal Stylishyou.in got snapped by Yebhi.com.The market is anticipating the Healthkart-madeinhealth deal to be in the range of Rs 20 – Rs 30 lakh.According to Healthkart.com's founder and Joint Managing Director Prashant Tandon, "this inexpensive deal" will fetch Healthkart a strong data base, online domain, minimal inventory of Rs 1-2 lakh and a Facebook community of fitness enthusiasts."Though they (madeinhealth) were unable to scale their business, they managed to build a good online community of fitness enthusiasts, and we are trying to cash on to that," says Tandon, who struck the deal in March 2012.Madeinhealth.com, co-founded by Jatin Modi and Maniraj Juneja in March 2011 is a concept based on US's bodybuilding.com.Since March 2011, the company has touched a top line of Rs 1.2 crore. Madeinhealth, which attracts about 1,053 unique visitors per day on its website, get about 20-30 orders a day with an average ticket size varying between Rs 1,500-Rs 3,000. Healthkart.com gets about 25,540 unique visitors a day, according to Hypestat.com."We wanted to expand the company and venture into entire health and nutrition category but since January, the scenario had become bleak in the e-commerce domain," says Modi. "Funding has dried up in last four five months especially for the first round of investments," he added.According to sources, the company was contemplating offers from healthkart, yebhi and firstcry before it closed the deal with healthkart.The founding team of Madeinhealth – Modi and Juneja -- will not be seen on Healthkart board. However, the remaining 6-7 members have already joined Healthkart business. Healthkart will not wipe off Madeinhealth brand and the website will continue to operate separately though back-end integration will take place.When asked why Healthkart chose to keep everything from madeinhealth apart from the founding team, Tandon replied: "We did not require any senior management at this point."However, according to Modi, they got a better offer at Yebhi.com and hence the duo decided to join the fashion and lifestyle portal Yebhi as Associate Vice Presidents. With yebhi.com, the founders have received a joining bonus and some stock of yebhi.com.Health and fitness category enjoys gross margins of about 35 to 40 per cent. Read Also: Health At A Click
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Granted, one wouldn't typically expect a diehard, compulsive Mafia Wars (a social game available on Facebook) fan to be lured by a game called Karma Kingdom; a name that clearly doesn't promise the kind of adrenaline rush guaranteed by the former. Yet, rooted in Indian (Hindu) mythology — one is greeted by a genial Ganesha once you enter Karma Kingdom — the game focuses on teaching people the value of good deeds and supporting charitable causes in more ways than one. Also, it allows certain privileges that can be traded in the real world. No wonder the game has found quite a few takers. Developed by the Singapore headquartered (with subsidiary offices in Santa Monica, US and New Delhi) entertainment and transmedia, company Asvathaa, Karma Kingdom was introduced on Facebook about three months ago (a beta version which will be upgraded soon) and launched on ibibo.com this May, where it has managed to attract over 2,000 players.Although the game is based on the noble principle of earning game points for good deeds, creating healthy island communities with adequate social infrastructure required to create 'happy citizens', it isn't enough to effect a radical transformation in people's mindsets and gaming preferences, overnight. To achieve a virtual-to-real world impact, it takes more than good intentions: an optimum game plan, design and a variegated business model. To their advantage, with Karma Kingdom, Asvathaa has positioned itself to enter at that juncture in gaming where profitability is married to social awareness in what clearly seems to be a mutually beneficial process. Ashok Desai, CEO and Founder, Asvathaa Within the dynamics of the game, players earn karma points for every good deed they do. Plus, there are certain privileges that come which can be traded in the real world, for example, for discounts on a new tablet, much like credit card mileage points, reward points and discount vouchers that are availed for on the purchase of products/services. Fuelling consumerism doesn't hurt anybody. "We all are materialistic at the end of the day and want some reward, but through karma Kingdom you can do so in a way that allows you to support charities," says Ashok Desai, CEO and Founder of Asvathaa. "In our agreement with Cybermedia, for example, whenever a new subscriber member comes (through Karma Kingdom) and avails a 25 per cent discount, they (Cybermedia) will also set aside some money for charity. Thus, a player is not only getting something in return but also enabling a charitable cause," Desai explains. Following a diversified revenue stream, the money from the paid virtual goods purchased by players such as hospitals, libraries, schools etc. (out of choice rather than any mandatory requirement within the framework of the game) 100 per cent of that goes to charities such as the Sankara Eye Foundation, the Salaam Bombay foundation and others. In addition 10 per cent of all profit — from the cross portal, in game advertising revenues — also goes towards charity. The focus on social RoI as an operative strategy drives them beyond tradition CSR activities.Desai states that a big task for them lies in trying to convince charitable foundations to invest in the game. "We want to encourage foundations to put money here because karma points need to be converted into some charitable contribution, Players can vote as to which charity they want to go to; this way they are encouraging hundreds of people to play, think positive and think about other. Even if they give us hundred dollars and if players know that their karma points will convert to, they are more motivated to play, he says. In order to fins a wider reach in India, some of the virtual goods have been reasonable subsidised. Building a Sankara Eye Hospital, which costs $4 in the US costs only $1 in India. Currently over 25 hospitals have been purchased and established by players in their island communities on ibibo.com.The use of mythological characters, albeit in a manner that doesn't suggest any religious predispositions, is a somewhat deliberate medium to reach out to the Indian diaspora. The idea is that Karma kingdom should soon become a platform where we bring in other cultures since every diaspora wants to deal with its own charity, in their own geography. "With Facebook, we need to provide a menu of charities which they can choose from in their geography. We are a hardcore 'for profit business' but we want to be able to bring together individual businesses and non profit organisations to be able to work with them together" states Desai. Preparing For A ChangeoverIn the gaming industry, overall, the impact of socially responsible, educative, online games is becoming palpable. Games for Change, a New York based non profit organisation, has been playing an instrumental role, since 2004, in the creation and distribution of games that support humanitarian causes: international conflict resolution, human rights, saving the environment, health and labour issues, among others. Some of their games such as Food Force (based on the UN's World Food Programme) and We Topia are available on Facebook. Their rise to prominence can be estimated by the fact that at this year's Game Developers Conference, held in March in the US, for the first time, Games for change made its debut while administering a day long summit on their projects.In India, however, the trend of leveraging games for social cause - especially when considering the gamut of issues which could be easily transposed into virtual game play- remains vastly underexplored. "We had launched a game called Yes Prime Minister last year on ibibo. It was about building a corruption free India and was launched at the height of the Anna Hazare movement, when there was a lot of angst and outrage among people," says Rahul Razdan, President - Products & Operations at ibibo web. The game captured that essence and met with a lot of traction in those couple of months, says Razdan which proves that the youth is likely to be mobilised by such experiments. The challenge however is that while a lot of games (such as Yes PM) catch the fancy of gamers for a short period, they haven't quite converted into long term engagements where people would want to play on a sustained basis. ibibo is therefore optimistic about the fate of Karma Kingdom as it is designed in a way that makes people want to do good deeds on for a relatively long term and follows a layered, free flowing architecture that would keep players interested.A few months ago, matrimonial company, Shaadi.com launched an online game called Angry Brides; an anti-dowry game with a simple enough structure where players can choose from a range of weapons: broomstick, red stiletto, football etc. and hurl them at greedy, prospective grooms. It received a lot of attention and Facebook 'likes' (around 2,72,000) initially. At the moment the game has about 8,000 monthly users on Facebook and its popularity on ibibo is clearly dwindling. Angry Brides is a classic case where people were attracted to the core issue but because of its one dimensional interaction, they participated for a while but eventually moved on, Razdan opines. "(With social games) there is a fine balance between entertainment- where people want to play games because they enjoy them- and promoting a social cause where people are left with an elevation of self esteem. They (social causes) need to be woven beautifully into the game because if that doesn't happen, only committed activists and not people at large will end up playing the game," he says. In that respect game developers in India still have a long way to go and there is a wide arena to survey.According to Facebook statistics, in India there are about 40 million people who use Facebook among whom about 4 million people play social games. The target demographic is between the ages of 18-30 with two third of the population being male. Approximately 3 million people among this group have expressed an interest in contributing towards charities, which gives Asvathaa a lot to look forward to. Even as multiplayer games such as Teen Patti, Rummy and cricket games, for instance, Howzzat continue to be the most popular choices on ibibo, one of their top social games has been Mumbai Underworld; where players assume dark characters in a crime infested city's underbelly. The standard joke in ibibo these days is that Karma Kingdom can help balance out the 'bad karma' acquired from Mumbai Underworld with the emphasis on good deeds. Perhaps, forgoing the commission earned from the sale of virtual charitable goods on Karma Kingdom is ibibo's first step in that direction.
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HealthKart, launched in March 2011, is an e-commerce company focused on consumer healthcare products. Within a year, it has grown to become India's largest e-health store, where consumers from all parts of the country find a large variety of healthcare products under one umbrella. The company sells over 12,000 products across fitness, health and personal care categories such as nutrition, diabetes, home devices, eye and personal care. HealthKart also sells various health services, such as preventive health packages, diagnostic tests and gym memberships, to provide one-stop solution for all consumer health needs.On Monday, Healthkart announced acquisition of MadeInHealth, a premier online fitness and body-building community and supplement store which targets bodybuilders and fitness-enthusiasts (Read: Healthkart.com Buys Madeinhealth.com). Here, Sameer Maheshwari and Prashant Tandon, Joint MD, Healthkart.com, share with BW online's Poonam Kumar the idea behind Healthcart.com What made you start this e-commerce portal? What is unique about your health portal? HealthKart (www.healthkart.com) is an e-Commerce company focused on consumer healthcare products. We sell over 12,000 fitness, health and personal care products across various health categories such as nutrition, sports & fitness, diabetes, home devices, eye and personal care. We started HealthKart when we realized that internet/e-Commerce was on the cusp of growth explosion, and it presented a viable medium of distributing thousands of consumer health products in a country, where organized retail such segment is mere 3 per cent. HealthKart's objective is to become go-to online destination for consumers for all their healthcare needs, we offer three-fold benefits to consumers - a) Authenticity – given the large counterfeit / grey market of healthcare products in the country, assurance to get genuine products, b) Assistance - proper education about the available products before purchase, and c) Access – one-stop-shop for getting maximum product range from any part of the country.How many registered and unique visitors does your site have?We have approximately 50,000 registered users and get approximately 600,000 unique visitors every month.How do you plan to increase your sales?In addition to improving our product portfolio, which already contains over 12,000 products, we plan to grow by leveraging online marketing channels, such as Google, Facebook, and social media. We also have a referral programme which helps in customer acquisition through word of mouth. Additionally, we focus a lot providing best of the breed customer service, which drives repeat purchases.Who all do you consider competition?There isn't any comparable healthcare focused eCommerce player, but we do have category specific competitors, such as firstcry.com, babyoye.com etc in baby and health categories.Who are your potential target customers for health products?We target different age groups for the various categories. Fitness products are targeted largely towards males in the 20-40 age group, audience for health products is 50+ males / females; and personal care and beauty products are largely focused at females in the 18-40 age group.Do you have any tie-ups? Also, how do you ensure quality of the products?We have strong tie-ups with several brands such as Abbott, J&J and Roche, for procurement. Ensuring authenticity of products is one of our core value propositions; we procure either from authorized distributors or from manufacturers directly to deliver 100 per cent genuine products to our customers. We also have strong partnerships with almost all the premium logistics companies, such as BlueDart, DTDC, FedEx etc, which enables us to provide timely delivery of orders to customers. What is your revenue model? When do you expect to break even?We are a virtual retail store and our business model resembles any offline retailer's business model, but with superior economics. Revenue is generated by selling goods to consumers online and profits accrue via margins received from distributors / brands that sell through us. Our margins are typically higher than offline retailers, since we don't incur any real-estate costs. We further derive additional margins by procuring goods directly from manufacturers or authorized distributors, eliminating the middlemen in the process. In the early stages of e-commerce industry, we are currently investing heavily in customer acquisition and marketing, once that tapers off, we will break even, likely in 2-3 years. What are your future plans? What is your projected revenue for the coming year on a half-yearly basis?We wish to scale up the business at a sustainable pace. We are investing a lot in processes, analytics and automation, which will allow us to use capital efficiently, as we grow. We will likely do 20Cr of revenue in next 6 months. What payment systems do you use?We offer both prepaid options, such as credit / debit cards, NEFT etc, and Cash on Delivery options to our customers. We have partnered with Techprocess and Citrus payment gateways to enable payment options on our website. Is this your first e-commerce foray? Are you involved in offline business too?Yes, this is our first e-commerce venture and the journey has been an incredible one thus far. We spent significant amount of time in the US and left very comfortable jobs to pursue entrepreneurship. But excitement to build something from scratch, which has a fair chance to redefine the distribution of health products in the country, has kept us going. We currently don't have any offline business.Read Also: Healthkart.com Buys Madeinhealth.com
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Walmart may be the largest company in the world in terms of revenues, but its global e-commerce websites are lagging far behind. Walmart e-commerce is facing tough competition from local e-commerce firms as well as Amazon, the largest e-commerce website in the world. Walmart's websites in China, UK, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the USA are all sitting isolated and need a focused strategy to deliver a global view for Walmart. Consolidating all that data of shoppers is becoming more complicated and is not giving Walmart a full view of what its customers want on an e-commerce site. "We are creating a global platform so that these e-commerce websites can be integrated, there will be one world view for all our shoppers and we will cater to local needs too," says Anand Rajaraman, Senior Vice President Walmart Global E-commerce. He says that this strategy was to enable better consumer experience and ensure real time knowledge sharing with different countries. This platform is going to be built from scratch in Bangalore and is going to have over 200 people working on it by the end of the financial year 2012-13. This will also be the first time that Walmart is ramping up its R&D operations through Walmart Labs. This is a clear signal to take on Amazon because not only has Amazon entered Indian operations in the form of a market place called junglee.com, but its R&D centre in India has over 500 employees. "This should not be a problem for Walmart because they have all the experience for the last three years by working with Bharti," says Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy.Coincidentally, Anand Rajaraman sold junglee.com to Amazon in the late 1990s for $250 million and is now involved with Walmart after it acquired his analytics company called Kosmix for $300 million.Why a global platform? "The global platform is going to be created because we can easily ramp up in emerging markets as part of our new strategy," says Jeremy King," Chief Technology officer of global e- commerce.Analysts say that Walmart's e-commerce revenues are small because the numbers add up to less than 3 per cent for a $425-billion company. This new strategy is being created for taking on the likes of Amazon which is the largest online retailer with revenues of $34 billion, and other home grown e-commerce retailers in emerging economies. Walmart's e-commerce revenues are $10 billion, which is larger than any retail business in India. FDI rules do not permit Walmart's e-commerce unit to come in to the Indian market, but its global platform can be ready because Walmart's back-end work of tying up with suppliers is already on through the cash and carry business. It has a 50:50 JV with Bharti retail, although 100 per cent FDI is allowed in B2B operations.Walmart has created a business unit called Global.com to study and understand how its products could be bought online globally like Amazon. "We will focus on mobile apps because shopping is becoming social and people are collaborating real time. Our apps are in the top twenty lifestyle app downloads on the Apple store," says King. He adds that new platform will help Walmart analyze inventory, in shop research and allow shoppers to access Walmart anywhere, anytime. Cloud computing to scale up operations is being implemented at Walmart's own private cloud; it runs its own data centre. "In any e-commerce business it is important to offer a large assortment of products at the right price and deliver it efficiently," says Pinakiranjan Mishra, Partner at Ernst and Young. He says that e-commerce was becoming firmly rooted in India as a big business and when FDI opened up, big global brands will be eager to set shop in India. Today Indiaplaza.com and junglee.com are market places that have tied up with 1000s of vendors. "India has so many vendors that one can tie up with for the e-commerce business, global brands will wait for FDI to open up while they develop their local sourcing arms," says K Vaitheeswaran, CEO of indiaplaza.com.Analysts estimate the e-commerce business in India to be around $7 billion and growing at 50 per cent year on year, but markets like the USA and Europe have an e-commerce market of over $200 billion each. Therefore for a Walmart with only $10 billion revenues from its online business, it is important to scale up, as brick and mortar retail is showing only single digit growth. "India is going to be helping the global R&D business for e-commerce," says King of Walmart.com. While Walmart closely watches emerging markets and the way local businesses function, they would be treading carefully.The homegrown online businesses in China have given American brands such as Amazon a run for their money. Similarly, India seems to have the likes of flipkart.com use the Amazon model to become big in India. But Walmart has the cash in an age when countries struggle to repay foreign debt. It would certainly take on the likes of Amazon, may be the battle for India could be the one to watch out for.
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