Adding to the list of his attempts to create an ongoing business Sabeer Bhatia has gone for yet another attempt. This time its called ApnaCircle.
Social networking is hot. In fact with Facebook on the block from last 3 years its gone red hot. Everybody wants to start a Social Networking site. We at here in India have got a lot of them.
However, till recently the market for professional Social Networking was un-addressed. Across the seas Linked-In is the biggest site for professional networking. ApnaCircle aims at tapping this market in India. The competitors to ApnaCircle are InfoEdge's Brijj.com and SiliconIndia.com. As far as I can see its a good move by Bhatia. But as we all know the difference always lies in execution,marketing and adding value for the user.
Unfortunately, initial look says, ApnaCircle is a disappointment. The site design is average. At least with the $400 million deal on hotmail I would expect that Bhatia wasn't low on money to pay it to a good web-design company. The site which started with professional networking at first now displays "Social & Professional Networking" as its aim. So, it seems to me that it has changed (or should I say lost? ) its focus.
The News Feed section contains feeds where users are advertising their products. For e.g. as of writing this, my News Feed section is showing "Your Horoscope of the Day" and " New Products available on apnacircle.com". Did they get into shopping as well? I didn't know that. There is no clear distinction between Social circle and Professional circle. What if folks at my office are also in my social circle?
Also from the time I've joined I've got several mails from some Russian girls who would like to date me. Although I'm excited about this proposition I can't help to note that its spam and am surprised that ApnaCircle's folks are not doing anything about it. These Russian girls are also notoriously famous for spamming your email boxes too. Now they seem to have found a new ground as well.
To attract users they also have a point system which adds more points as you invite more friends and send more scraps, etc. The points can then be redeemed for some gift which will be delivered right to your doorstep.
Conclusion: I think ApnaCircle folks tried to get greedy with grabbing the wholesome pie of Social as well as Professional networking. And as far as I can see they are not getting anywhere. With confused focus, bad design and no value add to the user I don't think this venture is going anywhere. Social NW is already crowded and Orkut currently reigns there. If they change their policy to only stick to Professional NW I think they can still resurrect and make a difference.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The Begining
Starting a blog profiling technology startups in India was a plan on my mind from a long time. I had canceled this plans because there were already a bunch of bloggers at this and some of them were and are still doing a good job. Its one of my passions to read and keep up-to-date with the Tech Scene all over the world, let alone just India.
I currently read StartupSquad, StartupDuniya, Watblog and Startups.in. Earlier I also used to read Amit Ranjan's blog. I've been following these blogs for quite a while (around 6 months now).
The best among the breed right now is StartupDuniya. These folks are the most committed to delivering news and statistics of the latest that might be happening in India.
Even better than that was StartupSquad. However, its more focused on Startups in general rather than just Indian ones. Also, its not regularly updated as well. Apart from that, the content out there was fantastic. I always made it a point to check its latest feeds every morning.
WATBlog is a joke. They are a bunch of fools who have no idea of anything. Not Web, not technology nor advertising. The WATShow feature is absolutely loathsome. This one is definitely worst of the breed.
Startupduniya is the only one which is regularly updated, cares about statistics and also brings in interesting folks for an interview once in a while. Also the thing I like about them is the focus is mostly on the Indian technology scene.
If there are other blogs out there let me know. I would like to follow them as well.
This blog is another attempt to profile, showcase and statistically (as far as possible) analyze the Indian startup scene. To start with I will commit myself to profile one startup every week. I know one a week is too slow. There are probably 100 launching every week out there! However, I don't want to over commit and fail at it. Moreover, I've never been a avid writer nor do I consider myself really good at English. I can speak very well but can't put down those thoughts on paper. So its all going to be trial and error. I'm sure I will get better with time but till then the readers will have to bear with me and my English.
Regarding the name of the blog, I've chosen 'TechEgg' for the lack of a better name and for the lack of all the better names being already taken on Blogspot. If this blog ever gets big I will shift it off to a hosted solution and change its name for a better one.
My philosophy behing TechEgg is this. New life springs up from an egg to a living being. Just like that I would like to profile Tech Starups from their birth to their success. Sorry, I couldn't get a better idea. If you have one let me know.
I currently read StartupSquad, StartupDuniya, Watblog and Startups.in. Earlier I also used to read Amit Ranjan's blog. I've been following these blogs for quite a while (around 6 months now).
The best among the breed right now is StartupDuniya. These folks are the most committed to delivering news and statistics of the latest that might be happening in India.
Even better than that was StartupSquad. However, its more focused on Startups in general rather than just Indian ones. Also, its not regularly updated as well. Apart from that, the content out there was fantastic. I always made it a point to check its latest feeds every morning.
WATBlog is a joke. They are a bunch of fools who have no idea of anything. Not Web, not technology nor advertising. The WATShow feature is absolutely loathsome. This one is definitely worst of the breed.
Startupduniya is the only one which is regularly updated, cares about statistics and also brings in interesting folks for an interview once in a while. Also the thing I like about them is the focus is mostly on the Indian technology scene.
If there are other blogs out there let me know. I would like to follow them as well.
This blog is another attempt to profile, showcase and statistically (as far as possible) analyze the Indian startup scene. To start with I will commit myself to profile one startup every week. I know one a week is too slow. There are probably 100 launching every week out there! However, I don't want to over commit and fail at it. Moreover, I've never been a avid writer nor do I consider myself really good at English. I can speak very well but can't put down those thoughts on paper. So its all going to be trial and error. I'm sure I will get better with time but till then the readers will have to bear with me and my English.
Regarding the name of the blog, I've chosen 'TechEgg' for the lack of a better name and for the lack of all the better names being already taken on Blogspot. If this blog ever gets big I will shift it off to a hosted solution and change its name for a better one.
My philosophy behing TechEgg is this. New life springs up from an egg to a living being. Just like that I would like to profile Tech Starups from their birth to their success. Sorry, I couldn't get a better idea. If you have one let me know.
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