More Social Networking in India

MySpace, the social networking site that was hounded by controversies and hiccups last year, still remains one of the favorites after Orkut, Hi5 and Facebook among social networking enthusiasts. To add to this offering, there are Indian players like Fropper, Big Adda, Minglebox, Yaari and others vying for a piece of the social networking pie.

Launched with much fanfare, News Corp’s announced a series of plans for the expansion for MySpace India. Channel V is already running a campus talent hunt show “Campus Star” that is being judged by celebrities and members of MySpace. Also, MySpace will partner with the music label SaReGaMa for an initiative that promotes over 30 bands across the country. This will be followed by MySpace Live concerts that would be aired on TV. A variety of content would be delivered through a range of industry partnerships and innovative products according to Travis Katz, Managing Director (International) MySpace.

An event for software developers (similar to devJAM) held in other countries, will be organized at Bangalore, to help developers create applications for MySpace users. Recently, Orkut announced applications for its users, while Facebook has been providing such services for quite a while now. The application development event at Bangalore will most likely increase competition among the social networking brands currently active in India.

MySpace India’s COO, Amit Kapur said, “We give unique tools to the users to create a colorful environment on the site”. Despite the setbacks and initial hiccups that MySpace had suffered with malware and ads, it has a vast market and growth potential in a market like India, which has a sizeable number of users on Orkut and Hi5, followed by Facebook. MySpace, currently has round 5 lakh Indian users.

These days, with the average browser getting increasingly aware of bots and automated mail, the presence of well-known and starry profiles no longer appeal to users.

Social Networking Sites around the World ( Click the Picture to Enlarge )