This is one thing India was missing on till now- but I see some traction building up now.  And its about time.

Karam Lakshman, this year’s programme manager for iAccelerator (an incubator of internet & mobile startups in India) introduced me to this relatively new but exciting programme they have come up with.

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), an IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad endeavour, has invited entrepreneurs in the internet and mobile space to submit application under its iAccelerator incubation programme.

The incubation programme runs from June 1st to August 1st this year, and the deadline for submitting application for the iAccelerator’s current edition is April 10, 2010.

iAccelerator have their own building in the IIM campus, and the programme has run thrice in the last 2 years, and have already funded about 16 companies.

What to expect from the programme? Verbatim from Karam here:

Its fairly simple. You send us an application for funding saying that you want a startup that does xyz. We read every single application that comes in. If we like your application, we’ll get in touch with you via email and then meet you if the email conversation goes well. We’re funding companies in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, Bangalore & Mumbai.
We offer living and working space in each of these cities if the startup needs them. Once you get selected, you spend 10 days at IIM to sort things like your business plan, get your company incorporated, etc… After that, you spend 3 months building the first version of your product.
We’ll have weekly meetings with mentors & inspiring speakers in your cities + free dinner !
After 3 months, we help you get your first set of customers so you can see if your product is actually viable.
We’ll take it from there after that… if you need funding and your customers are happy, we’d be happy to fund you ourselves or introduce you to other investors too.

The programme will be run by experienced professionals and CEOs from the Indian internet and mobile space.

The selection criterion:

According to iAccelerator, all you need to have is brilliance and a good idea. More here.

This differentiates their programme from other incubators in the present landscape.

More. (Verbatim again):

I think there’s a great story around the fact that there are extremely few incubators in India who are willing to fund a startup even if all they have is just an idea.

The other thing is, given that we’re backed by IIM-A… we can do a tremendous amount to help startups apart from just funding them.

If they apply from a place like mysore for example, we can give them living and working space in Bangalore.

We’ll get them in touch with mentors to advise them if they come across any difficulties and I think the greatest value we provide is the fact that we’ll help them get their first set of customers once their product ready.

The other great thing is that we’re the only incubator that can support a startup across the country, We’ve got amazing partners in Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay & Hyderabad apart from our own facility in Ahmedabad.

And no Red tape.

The best thing I can say however is that we’ve got zero in the way of red-tape even though we’re technically a government organization. That and we read every single application that comes in.

So that’s about it. if you are an Indian entrepreneur, go ahead and try this out. Best of luck to iAccelerator and all the applicants.

Keep on Chasing The Storm.

One thing I feel disenchanted about in Asia, is the fact that there is more “talking the talk” than “walking the talk” – when it comes to encouraging the start-up ecosystem.

Like many other things in life, people look at the West, marvel about how good the start up environment is (can the real slim shady please step up and explain- Silicon Valley is not ‘the West’). But when  it comes to supporting the start up ecosystem, hardly any one seems to put the money where their mouth is.

This seems to be true even in countries like Singapore, with a focus to foster entrepreneurship. There are loads of institutions for start up mentoring and support, but when it comes to seed stage or idea stage funding, there is more talk, than play. Many of these incubation institutions seem to be self serving tools for their founders (“I am a ‘mentor’/father figure for start ups”) than making any tangible real difference to start ups. 

Businesses need more than a garage and some computers to start with- though that makes for a nice story.  For a 50k grant, the expectation is that entrepreneurs will not have any earning and work full time to bring a product out in the market. Which is the reason why you see school/college kids starting up operations rather than serious, mature individuals. (and by that, I don’t mean grandpa). The ones who eventually do get something out of this, will probably be experienced individuals in the game of funding and ‘well connected’.

Most funding institutions have limited sight, angel investment is a rare thing, venture capital looks for (perceived) risk free/me-too projects (Online travel operator? tick. Online book selling company? tick. Online ad network? tick. Mobile ad network? double tick- because “you know AdMob got acquired by Google”) -you got the idea.

Yes there are incubation/funding institutions, but the truth is, it is too little with too much effort (to get at it- not the effort to make a successful company). Add the red tape (wait for 5 months for a 50k grant and still not be sure where you are)- and you are set for disappointment. (happened to some people I know).

This space has more action in words than deed.

Prove me wrong and I’ll dance with you.

“Think About It”- Ideas shaping digital media and marketing in the new decade

Its love’s labour. Really.

After more than a year of running ChasingTheStorm – with loads of loving time spent- and acquiring loads of loving friend circle, this is it. I put together a book.

“Think About It” is a book inspired by Ideas from this website. With more meat, more thoughts and well, in a different format. The title of the book is actually the signature I use in most articles.

The book covers Digital Media and Marketing trends in the new decade, Mobile Media, new marketing paradigms and Marketing Case studies.

It is written not as a tutorial to digital media platforms or Digital marketing 101. Rather- it attempts to raise a storm on specific Digital media issues. Offering an easy read for the evolved, thinking marketer, it is a book to raise debate- and expects a degree of interest in Digital Media.

I’ll talk more about it later- but since I am quite excited about it, I decided to put up the news anyways.

It’ll go in print soon (and available online and on the Kindle)- but as usual, not without your support in its making. I need you to help pick up the right cover design.

My good friend Ankur Khurana volunteered to get the cover design done- and boy- he did get them designed in two days flat. Many thanks buddy. And many thanks to MG Harti- the Art Director who helped the idea come into reality by doing many iterations.

So here are the designs- (the copy/text and some elements are dummy).

Just from a design layout perspective- let me know which ones do you like the best?

You could comment here, or

Email me: shalabhpandey at gmail dotcom

DM or @ at Twitter : @shalabhpandey

The cover Designs for “Think About It”

GROUP 1:

Cover One

Cover 2

Cover 3

Cover 4

GROUP 2:

Cover 5

Cover 6

Cover 7

Cover 8

Comment here, or

Email me: shalabhpandey at gmail dotcom

DM or @ at Twitter : @shalabhpandey

Think About It

Shalabh

Think of some oxymorons. And then think about this- “templatized entrepreneurship”.

In case you are actively looking for starting your own (tech/web) venture- and looking for any kind of assistance- financial or otherwise- be prepared for these templatized requirements from establishments:

Template 1) Single entrepreneurs are not welcome.Entrepreneurship support/financing companies are of the belief system that starting business is something that necessarily needs more than one founders.

This started from the hotbed of all such activities- Silicon Valley. Their Asian counterparts- as expected- take the template apply here. But is this requirement true of startup success /entrepreneurship all over the world? Is the culture in Asia more individual led than partnerships led?

This presentation from TED India descibes some nuances in the different value structures between the East and the West:

Template 2) If you are tech start up- not only do you need multiple partners, at least one of them has to be ‘Technology’ background.

Template 3) The younger you are, the more schemes there are for you. Age is inversely proportional to the chances of getting funding- and is directly proportional to the demands from the prospective venture

Template 4) Don’t get your spouse involved in the business. An incompetent partner is more welcome that a competent spouse. No body wants a Mom and pop show.

Template 5) A bad idea that everyone else is doing- is more valuable than a ‘good’ concept that no one is pursuing.

So in case you are looking for funding- follow these templates. And remember- it is always more important to spend your time in contests, shows and funding presentations.The work on business can wait- get the glamor on first.

Think about it

Shalabh

Welcome to 2010. The year when Social Networks get into early adulthood- and get married. To whom? The real world. FTW for sure. And sure enough- the best man will be the mobile device.

I don’t say this to promote Augmented reality. That I’ve already discounted. No- not given up (I think it is pretty cool) just time shifted- not for the next 6 months in 2010.

Why do I say so? Listen up:

• Facebook has more than 65 million members accessing it using mobile.
• 20 percent of Twitter streams originate from mobile devices
• In 2009, YouTube video watching through mobiles was up 52 percent-  according to a study published in May by Nielsen.

These three social networks- pretty much rule the web world- and they are slowly but surely being mobility driven. Mobile is the BFF of Social Networking. But there’s one marriage that is long being awaited. That between the real and the virtual world. Tying the knot between real life interaction and virtual (mobile +web) presence.

In late 2007, while being on a panel at GSMA in Macau, one of the things I had felt and brought up was that location awareness could give a great boost to mobile marketing. Though many marketers did not have a great degree of success at the time (with limited bluetooth and SMS campaigns), I always had this hunch that the one obvious advantage of mobile over others is – ahem-mobility. And we finally see it happening now- with the convergence of Social and real life (location) and Mobile.

While Twitter plans to incorporate location based features soon; applications like Google Latitude and Loopt are already in this direction. The ability to connect with ‘friends’ based on location hyper targeting coupled with other triggers is a ‘no- brainer’ path that will be taken soon by many others.

Marketing dollars will aid the growth of such services- we the marketers are hungry for these things. Forever. Ah! The pain of dealing with yet another technology and yet another platform.

See again- I said ‘marketing’ and not just ‘advertising’. Though advertising is the obvious beneficiary as well.

Ad Networks like AdMob are already cashing in to the opportunity (and I don’t mean the Google way) by offering location based ads.

But speaking of marketing, services like Foursquare have been making waves (and I promise you the buzz around this service will almost be as much as Twitter had from 2007-2009 the next year onwards).

Of course you know Foursquare- don’t you? a location-aware app that lets users “check in” at venues in a number of cities. The opportunities for footfalls are immense. You could do coupons (opt-ins of course) to subscribers within a certain radius of a location (say restaurant or boutique); or you could run loyalty rewards for frequent patrons (called Mayors for some funny reason)

Foursquare is not alone. I struggle to find Asian examples (trust me they will pop up within a month or two of this post) but there are other popular ones like Rummble (an interesting story of already brewing competition here) and Gowalla.

Rummble

Gowalla

Update on 7th feb 2010:

Just received a mail from Placepop about their offering too. In case you want to take them for a spin- you could try them free at the iTunes store

This is of course, not all. And there are at least a few solid Asian examples after all.

We saw Friendster acquisition by MoL, a company that will probably use the social network’s remaining audience base to promote m-commerce, micropayment led social gaming and what not.

Alongside, in October 2009, mobile manufacturer Ericsson tied up with Kaixin001. The deal was to incorporate more social activities to the handset and ease of access.

All said and done- Mr Real World- it is time to say “I do” to Lady Social Network. The best man “Mr Mobile” will keep a close watch.

Passion is everything.

It makes up for many weaknesses. It drives you to jump over the hurdles, go around them, or just kick them out of the way.

If you are passionate about your business or product, great marketing ideas will happen.  Great products will happen. Why, even great relationships will happen.

Passion is everything. It is not about teeth flinching, fist swishing, swash buckling, frantic paced walking up and down type. Passion can be quiet. Passion can be fun. Passion can be unassuming.

Passion is everything. Marry it with consistency- and it steers you to excellence.

Just a note to ending a very tough but very learning 2009. Wishing you a happy new year- may it be full of positive passion for newer and more interesting things in life.

Shalabh

I’m sure you must have heard the story of the Little Red Hen.

In a barnyard full of animals, there was a little red hen.

The Hen finds some wheat grains/seeds (lets say an entrepreneurial idea or a project concept) and wants to germinate it to grow into wheat plants so there could be a crop and everyone in the barn could eat the wheat.

She goes to every animal in the barn to sell the idea (team building/funding) and ask if anyone would be interested in joining in. All the animals decline- and so the hen does all the work herself.

Once the crop is done and bread is made, all the animals come in to eat it and demand a share.

Have you been through this?

Here is a beautiful modern adaption of this story here- my bits only in Italics:

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard (say looking for opportunities) until she uncovered some grains of wheat.

She called her neighbors and said, “If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?” (say, Concept development/fund generation stage)

“Not I,” said the cow.
“Not I,” said the duck.
“Not I,” said the pig.
“Not I,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen, and she did.

The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. “Who will help me reap my wheat?” asked the little red hen. (The prototype stage)

“Not I,” said the duck.
“Out of my classification,” said the pig.
“I’d lose my seniority,” said the cow.
“I’d lose my unemployment compensation,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen, and she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread. “Who will help me bake the bread?” asked the little red hen.

“That would be overtime for me,” said the cow.
“I’d lose my welfare benefits,” said the duck.
“I’m a dropout and never learned how,” said the pig.
“If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen. (Getting the funding, product prototype, business plan, legalities, done- and the concept is now successfully launched)

She baked five loaves and held them up for her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.

But the little red hen said, “No, I can eat the five loaves.”

“Excess profits!” cried the cow.
“Capitalist leech!” screamed the duck.
“I demand equal rights!” yelled the goose.
And the pig just grunted.

And they painted “unfair” picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, “You must not be greedy.”

“But I earned the bread,” said the little red hen.

“Exactly,” said the agent. “That is the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide their product with the idle.”

And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, “I am grateful. I am grateful.”

But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread.

————————————————————————————————–

OK the last bit had communist overtones- but pretty much summarizes the attitude of many people. Has this happened to you? As a manager, entrepreneur or in your personal life?

Think about it

Shalabh

Thumbnail Image: http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/Little%20Red%20Hen.bmp

In part 4 of this 4 part video brainstorm, we discuss how to market a start up.

Start ups usually do not have the luxury of huge advertising spends- and this pushed the boundaries being creative and using only the most efficient mediums for maximum bang for their buck.

Thorben highlights how he uses the Influencers (what I call the MicroInfluencers) to gain traction.

I had lots to discuss- but this was about them- and some good points were made .

Enjoy

Shalabh

In part 1 and part 2 of this 4 series video brainstorm, we discussed Orsiso and Advertising on social networks previously.

In Part3, we discuss whether downloadable appplications have a significant advantage over browser based or web based applications. Also another point- the funding story- the issues- what do investors look for, and the like.

In part 1 and part 2 of this 4 series video brainstorm, we discussed Orsiso and Advertising on social networks previously.

In Part3, we discuss whether downloadable appplications have a significant advantage over browser based or web based applications. Also another point- the funding story- the issues- what do investors look for, and the like.

Enjoy

Shalabh Pandey

We featured Orsiso in Part 1.

In part 2 of the discussion between myself (Shalabh Pandey) and Thorben, amongst other things, we discuss advertising on social networks, its significance and nuances.

Enjoy!

Larry and Sergey

These guys are the stuff dreams are made of. They ruled the world before thirty and double handedly (single handedly won’t be an appropriate phrase right?) altered the online advertising space.

For this company, at one time, normal was ordinary.Excellent was not good enough. And Extraordinary was default.

Buying a private Jet matching Air Force one wasn’t good enough. These guys had permission from NASA to use its landing strip. Now that is something.

Yes it is Larry Page and Sergey Brin- the founders of that Dream factory called Google.

As I always used to say- It is tough to form a company that hires its own celebrity chef. ( Google hired the chef of the rock band ‘Grateful Dead” once). But it is tougher to form a company that makes news when their menu changes. Or sweeps the press when the chef leaves.

Author- Richard L. Brandt

No these are not the facts Richard Brandt’s boook : “Inside Larry & Sergey’s Brain” delves on. These are things dotcom mavens like me have professionally grown up experiencing.

Richard Brandt’s book is a different take on Google- and actually it is about it’s two young and talented founders from Stanford University- and what goes in their minds while deciding the future of not only their company, but decisions impacting the Internet itself.

The book hinges on the moral stance of the duo- and the “Don’t be evil” motto of Google.

Richard does succeed in painting a picture of the duo in your minds. They actually come across as aggressive, resolute (unyielding) and brilliant (obviously)- quite contrary to the warm smiling faces that one is used to seeing in pictures.

It is an easy read- one of the few books I finished in about 2 days- and a good read for anyone who is starting up- specially in the Internet industry.  These guys are icons and we needed to know what is happening in those sharp brains resting on the smiley faces.

Larry is the main strategist – with business acumen and practical drive, while Sergey is the primary technologist and idealist, with brilliant ideas and strong moral positions. But they work closely together- almost like complenentay halves of a single brain.

Many things struck me from the book-

• Like AdSense was not developed by Google. Why even the name “AdSense” was not by Google. And all the while I thought it was a nice name to match “AdWords’
• Like what the founders said on their hiring policies- they like someone with a “slight disdain for the impossible”. It struck me because I have been searching for a single line short but powerful explanation to the question people often ask me- What is Chasing The Storm about? Well, it is about “A slight disdain for the impossible”.
• Even Adwords might not have been an original idea. As a matter of fact, Google settled out of court with Overture with regards to a patents battle in 2004 in exchange of 2.7 million shares. But Google did fine tune and develop the product in a fantastic way.
• When Microsoft bid to buy Yahoo, Larry, Sergei and Eric Schmidt opposed the scenario- saying almost the same things- as I mentioned in this post of mine in May 2007 . (Being a bit pompous I know- but feel happy that the thinking is similar. So what- if one is writing a post in the middle of the night and the others are probably sipping martini on a private island?)
• OK, on that- another common thread- while most web watchers are betting on Augmented reality and brain scanning as the next thing on the Internet- I have often said one of the next big things (media wise) is probably Video- both on the web and digital rendering over the TV. Interactive TV with targeting and measurability rivaling the internet- and so on. Google has tied up with Echo Star- a company that makes cable set top boxes and is working towards  delivering a better system to achieve its goals
• Perhaps the best quote from the book: Entrepreneurship is a crime of passion. It requires motive, means and opportunity.
• The ratio of revenues per employee at $1 million each- is the highest in the technology world- Microsoft weighs at $700,000 Revenue per employee
  
• “Don’t be evil” is a phenomenally simple and yet powerful philosophy. Simple yet difficult to achieve. Simple yet difficult to live up with. And to me, it should be the mantra of every single person on earth.

There are too many things to mention from the book. At least more than a mere blog post can merit- for what it is worth.

Facts that I think went missing from the book:

• No mention of Sir Vincent Cerf- and what impact did he have in the shaping of the company or future goals. Richard talks about a whole host of people but leaves behind Cerf- popularly credited as the Father of the Internet, who is now the Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. Google has a coup with the most respect respected brains- Sir Cerf, Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian- Chief Economist- whose writings we have read while in college. (Yes I graduated in Economics and sucked at it – coming from a science background- the only thing I liked was statistics I think)

• The second thing that I found conspicuous by its absence is the skipping  of click fraud as a topic. I mean if we have chapter or two dedicated to Google consenting to China censoring - we have totally missed a big huge debate in the digital media industry. An issue that every client spending their millions and every small business spending their hard strapped funds is worried of.

Of course Google is doing all it can (we hear it all the time- and see the credits in our ad words accounts), but if there ever was an issue- on transparency and Don’t be evil- it is probably click fraud. This book could have been a good excuse to tell the story on what is being done and how.

In case you happen to buy and read the book, let me know some discussion points. Thanks to Christy from Penguin Group for arranging to send this over.

I was on a panel at the Social Networking World Forum Asia  held in Singapore recently.

Posting the audio podcast here- will soon follow it up with the video version.

In case the above player does not work for you- here is the direct link to the audio to play online or download to your players: Shalabh Pandey at Social Networking World Forum Asia

The Panel’s topic was

Home entertainment, broadcast television and social media

and the topics covered were:

• The marriage of online video and social media
• How communities can help develop better TV programming
• Using social networks to engage new audiences and expand reach
• Integrating social media within the Television proposition
• Developing pay-tv with web 2.0 applications.

Panelists:

Thorben: CEO Orsiso

Nicolas Colinos, Deputy Sales Director, Eurosport Asia

Shalabh Pandey, Digital Marketing Thinker and Strategist, Singapore

Chaired by Euan Wilcox from The Upper Story (Who did a great job in steering conversations)

The premise or build up was thus:

Premium content and advertising is fast becoming a key strategy allowing social networks to monetize their sites. Viral content distribution has created a valuable new inventory for advertisers and a new business model for the entire media industry.

We look at at content services, the strategy behind there delivery and how this can be developed.

In the audio clip, podcast and video, I have basically cut down the talk to my opinions – so apologies to the rest of the panel members- I will take the first opportunity to upload entire content (runs into 3 GB+ and it is a pain- so had to cut down)

Think about it

Shalabh

Whew!

We did this about a fortnight ago. A (apprx) 40 minute discussion caught on video- on Start ups, funding story and advertising on Social media- amongst many other things. Between me (Shalabh Pandey) and the CEO and co-founder of Orsiso- Thorben Linneberg.

I finally managed to clean up the video and uploaded the final video brainstorm- after about 2 weeks of having shot it.

Featuring the entire series in 4 parts- so enjoy this over the next few posts.

Part 1 of 4:

This is our first time doing a video- and the quality is a bit low. The video was on analgue tape- and I had only Windows Movie Maker- to help me with the editing. There was a time lag between the video and the audio- which was proving impossible to curate in WMM. And hence the quality is still not up to my satisfaction, but after having spent close to 25 hours or more on this- I thought I’d better get this up and running now.

The problem with me is I cannot compromise on quality of end product- and that pushes me to do as much as is within the outer boundaries of my limits.

But I believe web video is the future- and there are learnings for the next time.

• One learning has been that even though you can manage without the best equipment and software- it is not advisable to do so. You end up spending too much time and effort just cleaning the whole thing up.
• Another learning for me has been- in the absence of external mikes, speak up! My voice is a bit soft, and I also have a bit of a hunch- and since video is about presentation, it shows. Tip to remember next time.

Overall, it went off well- we had some help too- from Orsiso’s side- we had Laurent Roux- Business Director- helping co-ordinate- and from ChasingTheStorm we had some great help from Mohd Hisham with the camera set up.

The objective was to introduce Orsiso and alongside also have a little discussion session around the Web landscape of today.

In the first section, we discuss largely about Orsiso- how it aggregates various social networks and organizes your social life on the internet.

In the second section, we move on to discussing advertising and social networks

In the third section- we discuss whether downloadable applications are back or the browser based applications?

And in the last section, we discuss How to market a start up- basis Orsiso’s experience.

Enjoy!

Shalabh

Who will fuel the next wave of the growth of the Digital Media? Or more specifically- the Internet?

In an earlier post, I wondered if the new phase would still be fuelled by the Internet biggies. I also wondered if many small players are hugely susceptible to the might of the big guys. After all, the Internet biggies have been known to ‘eat up’ or acquire smaller promising companies.

Specially if you are a small player getting into their turf- they either acquire you, or (attempt to) kill you.

In this post, I turn the things a bit around. And argue in favor of these smaller companies.

To start with- there are signs that many big internet firms are precariously going the route of being “just another internet company”.

Or maybe these guys restart their growth story- with tremendous resources at their disposal. Only god knows!

Whatever it is, these are formidable forces. They fueled the growth of the Internet in the late 90s and 2000s- and grew exponentially in the range of product they owned- most of the times by the virtue of inorganic expansions.

You know them- the Googles, the Yahoos, the Amazons, the MSNs and the ebays.

The big question to be asked then is – are they able to play the same role in today’s ‘World Wide Web’ ecosystem as they have played over the last decade or so? With new players, new paradigms, escalating costs and cascading economies, what mantle are they going to wear?

Conglomerates by acquisition? Growth fuel-ers? Facilitators? Fence sitters? Or worse…hang on- there isn’t probably a “worse” than being ‘Fence Sitter’ for these guys.

If that scenario becomes a reality- these might be the possible causes:

Breakneck momentum and Survival of the fastest. Because anyone is giving a fight to everyone:
Vibes on the ground (and some in the stock market sentiments- where Apple has a market cap more than Google quite consistently now)- and yet some more in the virtual space- (with FaceBook and Twitter counting on conversation searches, and others like ‘bookmark search’ nibbling into their audience share etc) are indicators that in order to grow, Google and others might have to undergo another wave of serious innovation sooner than later.

It is not new to note that the big web brands have had various failures and limitations inspite of having deeper than deep coffers. Really.

Not only from the nimble small/independent companies that are causing disruption but competition is getting fiercer even within the biggies themselves.

It is a “Goliath against a David and another Goliath” match- where everyone is fighting everybody. Just like everywhere else. But this is the Internet. Battles here are fiercer- and shorter. These are the webDavids and the webGoliaths.

As an example of “Goliath against Goliath”, Apple is reportedly coming up with its own social network ( I can see the fanbois rejoicing)- with the threat of eating into audience attention span from Google properties & Microsoft and Yahoo eventually eating up search ad share.

And for the webDavids- I am surprised that so many nimble local map players have come up with such a variety of cool services, many ironically utilizing Google’s API. Apple’s iTunes is being challenged on its own turf- by small players launching competing apps for the iPhone!

Weak Products and weak marketing

The webDavids are slowly but surely gaining their footholds against the webGoliaths. They have not only been more nimble, with lesser cash burn rates, but in many cases even have also been able to develop great products- exploiting conspicuous gaps. (Twitter apparently had half of their earlier funds still in the bank when they received a fresh round of funding).

Also, for the webGoliaths, there have been surprising failures in the product development or product marketing front.

There are services not picking enough steam for the big players. Like VoIP forays by Google. It caused a bit of hype in the beginning and then died off. What was the unique disruption this service was causing? And why has is failed to retain the level of consumer interest?

And these are just web based business models – there are many forays by Google in print and radio that have proved quite disastrous (or ahead of their times). A case of trying too fast too soon.

Small does not mean- you can eat it

Traditionally, the big guys attempt to subvert smaller rivals by launching their own offerings against the smaller players. After all, big muscle means bigger market share right? Wrong.

PayPal-eBay: Ebay brought their own payment service to the market to kill payPal. It could not. PayPal became so popular, that eBay had to follow the philosophy of “If you can’t beat ‘em- BUY ‘em!”

Youtube-Google: Google had great reach and a repeat visitor base. YouTube was a baby. No match for the reach. Google Videos was launched- as  a me-too service at best at that point. Burnt some cash. And then ‘had to’ buy YouTube. Not bad. The small fish of yesterday- YouTube us the second most popular search engine on the Internet today.

There are many more examples- and I’m not even talking about the new Davids and Goliaths (Facebook trying to acquire Twitter- finally buying small FriendFeed, etc)

The never ending story continues. Grow big fast, subvert, kill.The mantras of survival in the internet ecosystem.

While everyone’s back to furious product development (igoogle social network, Google waves, Bing, conversation search, social shopping, etc) it is truly the survival of the fastest here.

Think about it.

Shalabh

(@shalabhpandey on twitter)

Sometimes my mind plays the Gemini tricks. Indecision. Yet sometimes I grant it the liberty to fly. Like when I am in one of those futuregazing whims.

Been observing the case of some niche services around Social Media offerings that have entered the market and got themselves flush with VC money. One cannot but wonder if they are riding the wave OR really have a solid ground OR are here for the taking (buyouts). Or worse, for the kill (low entry barriers by more established players).

Come to think of it. The web is becoming dangerously monopolistic. Or maybe cartel like. Or maybe we need to device a new term.

Where the big 5 or so players (across media/platform/services) take over anything with a probable potential. Like the lesser publicized acquisitions made by Amazon. Or in cases where they can’t, they decide to kill the infant in the cradle. By launching against their offerings with their own version- only with bigger and better resources.

Ironically, many a times, it might not be so evil as it sounds. Specially in cases where research has already been done, markets have already been explored and a solid product has already been delivered.

In such a scenario, if there is a new product in the market that sells due to package innovation, and makes money (and noise), there are obvious reasons (and lesser barriers) for the bigger brand to get a foot in that market’s door.

I talked about the lesser known case of Amazon acquisitions. Now take the more well known case of Google. Probably the most powerful force on the web- with its fingers in every pie and head in the rolling cheese.If it wanted, what are the new offerings it could eat up today- if it wanted to?

And Google is just an example. Though a strong contender to bulldoze through many niche and upcoming services, there are some services dangerously in Google terrain and so especially susceptible. I am listing three of those here.

Buzz monitoring/Social Conversations


• The PR folks have ruled and brought about the Web 2.o communications revolution, according to me. And they probably brought with them this entire idea that people are talking about brands in online various online forums. “If you could track down how many events for discussion around your brand are taking place- it would give you unprecedented tracking abilities”.
• Sure enough- many companies including traditional research agencies to web security agencies to nimble programming-business brains- sensed the opportunity and launched products that are being sold and used by many today.
• Companies- the likes of Google- have been delivering some of these services since ages.  Google has services like Alerts, news, Blog search, maps and local search, trends, insights and now the likes of Video insights. These products are free to use.
• So if there are free products, why would someone pay? The common contention for going to paid services is that they have less noise and could dig deep into forums etc- sections not indexed well by Google (or others) Other reasons listed here . Alongside others contend that the tools don’t matter, efforts do.
  

The question then is- how much does it take Google to scale up/package? It already has the reach and the infrastructure. Not to mention the products.

Sentiment tracking/Social conversation Search


• This is another differentiation by the niche service providers. While the likes of Google could provide instances, how would you know their relevance and context? Enter Sentiment tracking- where these companies identify positive or negative references in context of your brand
• How do they do that? Many ways- including ‘semantic’ methods to a mix of human-machine analysis.
• Again, the likes of Google have been doing this research for ages now. If they want to enter this space, will they hesitate?

Examples of both buzz/sentiment (and others like influencer tracking etc) are Radian6, Buzzmetrics/Nielsen Blogpulse, Techrigy, Samepoint, jamieQ, CC, Brandtology- just a few that are top of my mind


Enterprise Group Collaboration systems

• There has been a lot of talk around Social Media-tizing the organisation. Inspite of the fact that many group collaboration systems have been around since ages, like (Zoho or webex), the social media element was missing. Of course they are charged for, or at best freemium.
  
• So smart entrepreneurs grabbed a chance at it- and developed products that employees could use for better project management efficiencies (like Yammer, or SocialWok- a good Asian alternative) and where employees could co-ordinate via tweets 0r other popular social media tools

Google has been delivering some good products around the enterprise space. Their offerings on emails on custom domains etc have been quite successful. Similarly Yahoo with small biz solutions. Lately with the demonstrations of Google wave, it becomes clear that the likelihood of Google entering this space is not a remote concept to say the least.


Real time search

• This is where the big fight is. Though many smaller players are in the fray, the frenzy of the big guys is what makes this a different category
• Another reason that niche conversation tracking tout- real time search for “in time crisis management”- is where the big guys have already taken big steps

Facebook and Twitter are in the fray, with Google already working on some solutions in this area (Google Caffeine)

• This is the area where the fight is concentrated right now
• Latest developments like Facebook buying FriendFeed might have future impact in this domain
• On Facebook’s search capabilities, Mashable reports: While the new Facebook Search only launched this week, the new real-time search platform can search far more than status updates. With access to 250+ million users, the world’s largest social network can tap into photos, links, events, apps, and more for its new search engine.

Long post. I will try to highlight in the next post why historical evidence proves it might not be such a bad thing for the niche players.

Shalabh Pandey

(twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

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