THE INDIAN VERDICT- FACEBOOK IS TEASINGLY HOT

The message is loud and clear that Facebook is certainly a top contender in the race for the hot spot of being the most popular social networking website. I would scream- "Facebook is clearly a global phenomenon". In my opinion, not only it picked up it's user base in India and Brazil but also it is potentially growing at a great pace in all other countries. Facebook was there for a long time but it was Google's very own Orkut, which came into big league and dominated India. It was a complete new thing for the Indian audiences, something which they have never experienced despite the presence of other social networking websites in what I call as the virtual world(Internet), but Orkut made its mark. Orkut came to India and instantly, it was a big hit. I would say- one of the major reason for Orkut becoming so popular in India was because people were already used to Google through the Gmail and the Google Search Engine that particularly gave Google the platform to market and to launch something new like Orkut. I have to say it was Orkut, which laid the foundation stone of what is called Social Networking Website in India, and it worked big time. People loved the status message concept, the community concept, the sharing of photos and videos, and most importantly the messaging (Scraps- as Google would call it) concept, which actually brought the demise of the e-mails to some extent. Overall, the popularity grew like anything and Orkut became a SUPERHIT!!

Orkut pretty much ruled the social networking arena till the mid of 2009 when all of a sudden there was Facebook explosion in India. By this time, Indian's have mastered the so called concept of Social Networking and thanks to Orkut for it. With Google's Orkut application becoming heavier and heavier day by day, and with new users being added everyday Google server did face performance issues, pretty much making the Google's very own funny line- "NO DONUT FOR YOU", a really irritating and frustrating site to see on the screen. Google did overcome the performance issues but overall it was kind of moratorium period for the users with nothing new coming from Google in terms of features. Meanwhile, Twitter was evolved in India and thank god to all the celebrity hype across the globe, which pulled the attention of the Indian audiences to Twitter. Yes, Twitter's most important factor for growth in India was celebrity presence and of course, celebrities have found a new channel to market and to connect with the common man. Twitter actually made the concept of short status messages popular, though Orkut had the samething but Twitter actually engraved the impact on Indian audiences. After all, Twitter helped the people to express themselves in the shortest possible word limit. Yet there was one thing common between both the Twitter and the Orkut i.e. their privacy strategy. Both the Twitter and the Orkut supported the security/privacy features for the users and that made sure that without user's permission no body can sneak into their internet life. Not a bad thing in terms of giving more security to people but yet conservative.

Facebook was a sudden outburst in India, one of the main reason it grew in popularity so enormously is it's very much belief in the "Public Social Norm". Facebook's founder Zuckerberg says- The Age of Privacy is Over and yes, Facebook has struck the right chord with its relaxed privacy features and has echoed the world of Social Networking with the word "Public". Your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List, and all the pages you subscribe to are now publicly available information on Facebook. This means everyone on the web can see it; it is searchable. Different and yet exciting was the response of public social norm among the Indian users of Facebook. The Indian audiences that matured a lot in the internet world especially the Social Networking Concept(thanks to Orkut and Twitter) loved the Facebook's share all concept the most and started multiplying in numbers to be a part of it. So, what Indian people started witnessing was a social networking website with all the features of Orkut and Twitter backed with better performance, and the vast application bundle, few funny, few crazy and few total non-sense,but yet popular. Facebook was right into the action and started growing in India big time. Seeing at the growing popularity of Facebook, it is pretty much inevitable that Facebook is here to grow and grow big. Already, Facebook has realized the potential user base in India and has planned to open its support center in Hyderabad, India. Overall, its a thumps up to Facebook in India and the verdict is- "Facebook is teasingly hot". 


P.S. I DO NOT WORK FOR FACEBOOK, NOR ZUCK HAS PAID ME ANYTHING TO WRITE THIS.

IPL 2010:LADY FRANCHISEE CO-OWNERS & THEIR DISRUPTIONS

IPL 2010 has started and once again all eyes are now set on it. The moolah, the glamor and the hype makes the IPL all the very interesting event in itself. IPL is certainly the cynosure of cricketing world and that gives it immense attention. As part of the immense attention and through my curious observation I have noticed an important factor that might just work in favor of any IPL team in turning the things around. Yes, I m serious and I will try to justify my observation as much as possible through a case study.

Ok, now coming to the observation. Few of the franchisee owners sit with their teams in the player's dugout during the IPL match especially Priety Zinta- the Kings XI Punjab's co-owner, and Nita Ambani- the Mumbai Indian's co-owner. Both the ladies are big time cricket crazy fans and their enthusiasm is unmatched to anyone else on the cricket field. Thanks to their so called celebrity quotient that their every reaction is captured by the TV channel along with the real battle between the bat and the ball taking place on the cricket field during the IPL match. As a result, everyone pretty much who is glued to the television set during the IPL match will know how active are our cricket crazy ladies during the match. Yes, they clap, they shout and they do all the things that a crazy cricket fan will do. They both love their teams and support them as no one else do - just like the biggest fan of their IPL teams, but there is a catch!!

In the IPL 2010, it is very much observed from the initial matches that both our super ladies ( Preity & Nita Ambani) sit primarily in the player's dugout along the team and mostly, the team's coach sits just next to them. I m very critical about the fact that the franchisee owners sit in the player's dugout during the IPL match. I think its a very important thing strategically and it may very significantly impact the team's overall performance. It's probably very important to give the space to the team of its own. The reasons- (1) its an all men cricket team and, the atmosphere and the comfort level among the players is definitely disturbed with the presence of the lady in the dugout; (2) there is that men's talk that takes place among the male athletes during their match that is completely thrown out of the window with the presence of the lady; (3) the outburst of lady emotions during the match when its a pressure condition just adds extra pressure on the team members as they can see their owner-ladies right in front of their eyes; (4) since, both the ladies are pretty much new to the game and are cricket enthusiasts, they discuss all the minute details of the game with the coach or the players during the course of the match, which could be really annoying as it may just cause the collapse in their concentrations; (5) there is a worst case possibility that in the dugouts when the owners sit besides the player with whom they share greater camaraderie, it may cause tiff among the team on the lines of politics and favoritism; and (6) last reason is very obvious that when the pretty lady like Preity Zinta sits in the player's dugout it's very human of the male team members to lose focus of the match. So, my conclusion with this case study will be to leave the team alone in the dugouts during the match and let them completely focus on the game. At the maximum if our franchisee owners want to meet their team they can come for few minutes  during the match and let the coaching staff take care of everything else. I m sure it will only reap better results for the IPL teams.

P.S. This case study is purely my opinion only. I love the enthusiasm of lady IPL franchisee owners especially Priety Zinta, she is live-wire, but I also want to see Kings XI Punjab win and for that matter Mumbai Indians as well.