Indyarocks.com: Will this Indian social media site rock?
Posted on September 6, 2007
Filed Under Start-Ups, Social Networking / Media, E-Marketing & E-PR |
Indyarocks.com says it is an online and mobile based social networking site for connecting Indians across the globe. It allows members to build and leverage their network of contacts in incredibly powerful ways. It is a place where you can invite, connect, share, speakout and have fun.
All promising, but will the cash registers jingle for this new kid of the social media block in India? The site’s founder Kalyan Manyam certainly thinks so. Here’s an exclusive interview with him on how brands must look at Indyarocks to reach out to the Indian youth.
How do you see your offering being beneficial to companies as an advertising and communication channel?
Indyarocks currently offers online and mobile advertising opportunities. Both the advertising channels are non-intrusive to ensure effective use of brand messages. The community at Indyarocks primarily constitutes of members in the age group of 18-35 years and Indyarocks offers a clear market segmentation based on age group, preferences, geography which will allow companies to target their ads much better.
What kind of traction are you generating currently, and what do you see in the future?
Indyarocks was launched on June 21st and since then we have been seeing a 100 percent growth rate month on month. Indyarocks has been very well accepted by the members and the word about various features is spreading virally. We hope to reach 100,000 member mark by December 2007.
What competitive advantages would you offer to clients who would have options like other Indian and global sites offering similar audiences?
We are aiming to provide a complete real life experience online. When I say complete it includes interaction with family, friends, politicians, NGOs, professional organizations, social events, etc. We have also enabled recommendation based entertainment services. We will be adding more features which will take advantage of the power of community.
How do you see a medium like yours scoring over traditional media in the times to come, keeping the market segment you are addressing in mind? Is the Indian youth on the net over-rated?
The dynamic state of the online medium and the reach to audience across the globe are huge differentiators when compared to the traditional medium. Add to it the power of social recommendation and it will create a huge wave of filtered information and services that are relevant to every individuals needs. The new features which are to debut on Indyarocks in the month of November will allow our members to create a huge value to the community.
The internet penetration and the quality of internet in India is very low. Times are changing though and the growth rates are phenomenal now. We hope to see more active Indian netizens in the years to come.
Do you see delivery platforms evolving more towards the mobile platform in the not-so-distant future? Are you technologically gearing up towards it?
Mobile has a very strong role to play in the near future. Most of the mobile phones now are capable of handling high end online activity. The gadgets are turning out to be wonderful source of rich media (photos/videos) too. Technological and cost limitations in terms of GPRS service has probably slowed the adoption of online services through mobile phones in India. But we are witnessing an upward trend in GPRS adoption.
Indyarocks already offers an excellent platform for mobile users to communicate (free 2 way SMS), upload and share (photos, videos, blogs). Additional services like free calendar notifications are also enabled. We will soon add entertainment services to our mobile platform.
The “I” in the Indyarocks logo has been deisgned to look like a mobile phone and it signifies how important the mobile medium is for us.
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3 Responses to “Indyarocks.com: Will this Indian social media site rock?”
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Hi Ajay,
Time will come when internet will be full of Soical networking sites, like Bigaada.com, desimartini.com and many others…
But, as mentioned in the conversation, the internet penetration is very low in India i.e around 4%in Urban areas..and it has to go long way even if world s changing and the penetration of Mobile is increasing at fast rate but it does not mean that mobile user will use it inbuit facilities provided with mobile set.
Hope, soical networking site will definetly bring some big revolution in internet marketing.
[…] To read a previous interview with the site’s founder Kalyan Manyam, click here. […]
Indyarocks.com is a very good site thanks 4 kalyan
4 such a great site……