2020 Social: Because Business is Social

WSJ Story on SMS-Based Social Networking Platform SMSGupShup

Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Media

I was quoted recently in a WSJ article on SMS-based social networking platform SMSGupShup. The article delved into the business model for SMS based social networking platforms in India and focused on the need to limit usage to control outgoing SMS costs –

Analysts say restricting the number of user exchanges is the only option SMS GupShup has to hold down costs. “If 1,000 people in a group can keep sending messages to everyone else, that cost quickly becomes unmanageable,” said Gaurav Mishra, CEO of 2020 Social, a social-networking media consultancy based in New Delhi.

SMSGupShup is often compared to Twitter, especially in US media, but the comparison is problematic because SMSGupShup is essentially a group SMS service. It doesn’t have a searchable public timeline, a robust API and application ecosystem, or the highly engaged user behavior we see on Twitter that is driven by public one-to-one conversations.

Most importantly, the default user behavior on Twitter is to “create” a status update, but the default user behavior on SMSGupShup is to “consume” updates created by others. I’ll not be surprised if less than 5% of SMSGupShup’s 26 million users have ever created an update, or created a profile.

Announcement: Kaushal Sarda Joins the 2020 Social Team

Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Announcements

I’m delighted to announce that Kaushal Sarda has joined the 2020 Social team as a consultant.

Kaushal will head the Bangalore office for 2020 Social and focus on B2B, technology and startup clients. He will also work with Gautam to develop our collaboration/ innovation practice, where we connect employees and partners to help clients achieve their business objectives. Finally, he will work with Upasana to strengthen our “build” practice, where we build online communities using white label or open source platforms.

Previously, Kaushal has worked as a CRM consultant at Capgemini Consulting and founded SaaS based enterprise collaboration platform Uhuroo. He writes about collaboration and innovation at his Creating Connections blog and is a regular speaker on these topics. Kaushal holds an MS in information systems from George Mason University.

Do connect with Kaushal on email, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Cross-posted at Gauravonomics: Social Media and Social Change.

My NASSCOM Talk: Made in India, Made for the World

Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Events

Yesterday, I gave a talk at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 event about how the time is ripe for Indian startups to target the global market: ‘Made in India, Made for the World‘.

So far, Indian startups have focused on tweaks for the local market, not inventions or tweaks for the global market, partly because Indian VCs have tended to fund me-too startups with a business model focused on enabling transactions for the local market (book a air/ rail/ bus/ movie ticket).

However, in the last one or two years, several Indian startups have dared to build products for the global market. On my list are enterprise collaboration players Zoho, Deskaway, Uhuroo, Remindo, Cyn.in and YouSuggest, consumer focused web 2.0 startups like LifeBlob, AuthorStream, GizaPage (and the now dead Fachak and Kwippy), widget company Tell-a-Friend/ SocialTwist, flash-maker Toufee and online tutoring company TutorVista. Do let me know if I have missed out startups that should be on this list. With a little luck, several of these startups can become global players, and some already have.

I think there are five trends that are enabling Indian startups to target the global market –

Forbes India Nominates Facebook For 2010 Person of the Year

Posted on 02. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Media, Trends

Forbes India named nominated Facebook for 2010 Person of the Year in its December 2010 issue and asked me why it should win.

In a recent post, I shared five reasons why Facebook is good for your soul, so my love for Facebook is no secret.

In the interview, however, I highlight the fact that Orkut, not Facebook, is the default social networking platform for Indians. Orkut introduced Indians to social networking, it’s still much bigger than Facebook in India, and with its recent redesign, it might have more staying power than most people give it credit for. Speaking for myself, I have started spending much more time on Orkut after the redesign than I have in the last year or so.

I also highlight the difference between LinkedIn and Facebook in the interview. Most people use LinkedIn like a rolodex, exclusively for professional networking. On the other hand, Facebook reflects our real world relationships better, where we switch between the personal and the professional, almost seamlessly. LinkedIn too offers a vastly improved user interface after its recent redesign and I expect myself to spend more time on LinkedIn in the coming weeks.

DNA Story on Nowism, Twitter and the Real Time Web

Posted on 02. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Media

I was quoted recently in a DNA story on how the popularity of Twitter and the real-time web are a reflection of our desire to want everything now: a trend Malvika Tegta calls “nowism”.

In the email interview, I had mostly talked about how real-time web is changing the nature of content creation and content consumption, but “nowism” is an interesting idea indeed.

Here is the full text of the DNA story –

I want tomorrow yesterday

Malvika Tegta

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 23:06 IST

Nowism is not the 21st century equivalent of the Vedic ideal ‘live in the moment’. It is, in fact, a mindset of importing the future into today; to want and to have it all now — information, experience and self-actualisation. Simply put, it is a demand on life for instant gratification.

Though an ancient human drive, the intensity of the instant is current. And, in the age of the Internet, this need to have everything ‘now’, or real-time, is finally being satisfied. We have the money, the reach and the capability to legitimately stake a claim on what can easily be ours, only by stretching a hand.

Read More

Mail Today Story on the Biggest Technology Trends of 2010s

Posted on 27. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Media, Trends

Mail Today interviewed me recently for a story on the biggest technology trends of 2010s.

I think Augmented Reality will be the biggest digital technology trend over the next decade.

Augmented Reality applications add a data layer to physical objects, and augment our physical reality by making it interactive. Basically, you point your mobile phone camera at any physical object (a building, a book, a person) and get information about it, superimposed on the screen, in real time.

As an example, you will be able to point your cameraphone at the cute girl in the neighborhood cafe and see that she is single, likes super-achiever type men, and has three friends in common with you, but tends to complain about her ex-boyfriends in public. The app will achieve this feat by identifying her through face recognition technology, then quickly scanning her profile information and status messages on Facebook and Twitter. If you still fancy your chances with her, it will request your common friends to introduce you to her via Facebook Connect driven dating service Thread.

Layar and Mobilizy/ Wikitude are early examples of AR apps and Pranav Mistry’s talk at TEDIndia is a sign of things to come.

Five Reasons Why Facebook is Good For Your Soul

Posted on 25. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Ideas, Media

I just came off a panel discussion with writers Greg Atwan and Tom Hodgkinson on BBC World’s ‘World Have Your Say’ talk show. The topic: does Facebook improve our lives?

The discussion touched upon several topics. We discussed how governments, businesses and individuals can use Facebook in good, bad and ugly ways. We talked about reasons why Facebook is the most popular social networking platform in the world. We also touched upon some fascinating conspiracy theories from Tom on why Facebook is evil.

I believe that Facebook is indeed good for your soul and here are five reasons why –

1. The Facebook activity feed enables an ambient awareness of your social circle. Even if your friends are scattered across five continents, you can keep up with their lives on Facebook. So, when you meet again, you feel as if you were never really out of touch with each other.

2. The boundaries between your online and offline lives have blurred. If you meet someone interesting at a party or a conference, you are likely to friend them on Facebook, and get to know them better, so a chance encounter is more likely to result in real friendship. Similarly, if you meet someone interesting on your blog or Twitter, then friend them on Facebook, you are likely to meet them in real life and sometimes become close friends.

2010 Social Media Predictions: Online Brand Communities Will Come of Age

Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Trends

I was recently quoted in two compilations of social media predictions for 2010, by TrendsSpotting and Junta42, along with social media influencers like Pete Cashmore, David Armano, Chris Brogan, Peter Kim, John Batelle, Drew McLellan, Jason Falls, Charlene Li, Robert Scoble and Paul Gillin.

I think the big social media trend in 2010 will be that online brand communities will come of age.

Brand marketers will create compelling micro-content to seed these communities, then run contests to invite consumers to interpret their brand, create their own content.

I also see brand marketers investing in communities that are built around a bigger social object: a lifestyle, cause or passion.

Here is the TrendsSpotting 2010 Social Media Predictions –

Cross-posted at Gauravonomics: Social Media and Social Change.

Singapore Management University Social Media in Asia Wiki

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Trends

The students of Singapore Management University have put together a nifty wiki on social media in Asia.

The wiki has sections for each country (see India) with pages for introduction, case studies, resources and interviews with local experts (Kiruba, Rajesh and myself).

In my interviews, I talk about how the social media marketing scene in India is maturing –

:: Tell us about the use of social media by businesses in India.

About 5% of Indians have access to the Internet and 35-40% have access to mobile services. These numbers may seem small but actually it means 30 million users. For several businesses such as Pepsi and Reebok these 30 million internet users are sufficient because they are urban, educated, and upwardly mobile. For other business this number is not enough. Eventually we need to analyze who the target audience are for businesses. Hence, not everyone needs or wants to use social media at the moment. Further down the line, this might change.

:: Could you give us a brief comparison between the Indian and the U.S. market?

Tata Indicom Uses Account Statements to Invite Customers to Participate in Its Blog and Forum

Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Case Studies

I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that Tata Indicom is using its account statements to invite customers to participate in its blog and forum –

I have been presenting slides on how real employees (including old friend Nidhi) use the Tata Indicom corporate blog to have real conversations with their customers –

I tend to be very particular about building the right customer community platform using the right software (which, very often, is something like Lithium), and for a reason. The right platform enables and encourages the right behavior, opens up new degrees of freedom, both for community users and the administrators.

However, the Tata Indicom example is a reminder for me that brands can do a lot of right things without using sophisticated software. Their blog is built on the free Wordpress blogging software and their forum is built on vBulletin, not a particularly sophisticated forum software. The forum user interface is unwieldy, the different pieces of software don’t speak to each other, and there’s only so much that Tata Indicom or their customers can do with it.

However, even though Tata Indicom doesn’t have the right software to run a customer community, it sure has the right soul and, in the end, the right soul matters more than the right software.