Well,  you saw someone wearing a nice converse shoe, and you end up asking him -where did he get one from. Then you take your best friend and try out the shoes in the store- why did you take your best friend? Oh, because you wanted to get feedback from him on whether the shoes look nice on you or not. And maybe if you were buying an unbranded shoe or a t-shirt from janpath, you might want to take help from your friend in bargaining the prices won’t you?

So, right from getting inspired to getting the location of product availability to feedback and then finally buying; shopping is social even in the offline world!

And that brings us to a couple of questions everyone is asking today- Is Group Buying going to be the next big thing? Or Is Group buying = social shopping?

My answer is -that’s not the right question to ask! Reason?- It’s too early to say anything and is too niche a concept to really take on ecommerce or social commerce.

Let me explain- Group buying as we see today focuses on only one aspect of buying and that’s price or discounts!

Group buying sites like mydala, snapdeal and dealsforyou in India focus on ‘deals’.

And precisely why it’s not the game changing idea.

Let’s take an analogy- in an offline world if you want a deal where would you go? Maybe Janpath or Sarojini Nagar!

And if you want branded and latest stuff where would you go? Maybe to South Extension!

So, there is a need for a deals’ site and there is also a need for regular ecommerce site.

I think there is a clear path for social shopping-which is not just about group buying but about incorporating all the social elements of buying and I think more than group buying it’s the social shopping that will be rather interesting to watch.

Coming back to Group Buying Sites:
Group buying sites today are of largely 2 types:

1. Hyperlocal services based- salon, pizza, spa, restaurant etc.These are city specific services or products which you anyways buy. India, somehow, mostly has group buying sites in this category. ( snapdeal and dealsandyou do)

2. Gadgets- impulsive and good deals. These are not area specific, but things like Netbooks, LCDs, Storage devices, vaccum cleaners those that you will buy if a great deal is offered. (Stuff that woot does).

A 3rd category that I think should shortly make a headway will be where niche products can be sold as deals. They could be fashion items, ethnic items, cruise, even land or apartments. Not sure if any player is already into this. Imagine if a site offers a Car at a deal! I am sure this deal will be a hit in delhi at least!

What are the challenges for group buying sites?

1.Scale- being hyperlocal, one has a challenge of scale. How many hyperlocal areas to be covered? How soon? What kind of infrastructure would be needed to service clients in hundreds of local/hyperlocal areas? The smaller a hyperlocal area the lesser are the chances of getting a deal (it will not be profitable for a vendor in a very small city) hence what is the optimum size for servicing a area?

These are few of the questions that need to be answered while scaling up.

2. Traffic- group buying sites need huge traffic. Because they need multiple numbers of ‘one’ product to be sold. Since group buying depends on free traffic or the social network of buyers-they face a challenge of manipulating or leveraging this traffic fully.

3. How do you sustain excitement-How long can you sell deals on spas in , say, lucknow and keep sustaning interest levels. The challenge will be to innovate in terms of new products and services.

So, today there is no trend in terms of which type of Group Buying site will prosper in future- hyperlocal or Gadgets! Or will the 3rd category that of niche products. It’s too early in the day to make predictions. With Amazon buying woot.com (and a similar frenzy in India too) this space is becoming exciting. So keep observing and do add on here if you have any thoughts-I will be glad to publish the same.

My discussion with Rahul and Geetaj Channana of CTO Forum Magazine, went on for a while and they asked me to share my thoughts as an article in the magazine. SO here is an excerpt of the same article and a link to the full-version below. Hope you enjoy reading the same and do write back with your thoughts! 

 So,  What do you think will power the next generation enterprise?

Maybe you know the answer already – people! Want to go even deeper – it’s collaborative ideas!

The success metrics of new genera-tion enterprise are already very clear: how can we be more innovative, relevant, effcient and adapt to change at 2X the speed thus far?

While the metrics and the power engine (people and ideas) seem traditional, the implications are very futuristic.

CK Prahlad, a world renowned strategy professor and thinker, states that in the new age enterprise will have to focus on a simple formula: n=1 and r=g. What he means by this is that the next generation enterprise will have to create products and services customized for every single consumer and in order to do so they need to source resources globally. No single frm or individual can have a complete monopoly towards satisfying customized needs of individuals in the new age of business. This is the key for Enterprise 2.0.

The next generation enterprise will have to harness the collaborative power of its stakeholders (its buyers and suppliers largely) to generate new ideas, work on those ideas and create innovative, relevant and effcient products that can be adapted quickly.

The next generation enterprises are already facing a tough problem – they are global in nature. Their intellectual capabilities are scattered across the globe. The only means to organise this intellectual energy is email and the age old intranet! Read this article where it was originally published: http://www.thectoforum.com/content/powering-next-gen-enterprise

image courtsey: http://www.searchviews.com/wp-content/themes/clean-copy-full-3-column-1/images/twitter-for-business-intelligence.jpg

In offline world- one of the reasons why despite being free-not many people opt for credit cards these days- because exit is complex, insurance policies-again exit is tough.

One of the reasons why ‘word’ and ‘excel’ became ubiquitous was their ability to get integrated with ‘lotus’ or ‘wordstar’, then the leaders,  (in terms of capabilities of using same commands and importability) as also the ability to function on various platforms. ‘Wordstar’ and ‘Lotus’ kind of tried to lock-in their users, which is perhaps why they lost the game.

It seems that now allowing people the freedom to exit or taking the application to any platform will be of paramount importance towards winning the game.

The new age consumer will soon evaluate a product or service also on it’s ability to allow no-hassle exit or portability.

Is facebook thinking on these lines? Should we be surprised to hear that facebook will allow you to take your friends and conversations to any social network?

I can remember an old adage- if you love someone set him/her free!

What do you think?

You have the option of integrating twitter and using applications like Polls etc. and I guess you already know about them. You also know about the power of interactivity and how small, relevant and continued snippets of information can keep your fan based engaged and growing. So we will not talk about these but let’s talk about 3 things which will create a great 1st impression and almost guarantee you a growing fan base.

1. Use a tower banner for your logo- No need to have your small sized logo on the lest corner. You can use a 200*600 pixels image and upload it. Take a look at how we do at Atomthought’s facebook page.

2. Integrate FBML- You can use this tab as a landing page specially if you have an interactive or dominant imagery. For example at our Bixee facebook page we are trying to promote a service with Free Gift Vocuhers.
Since we have made this as a default landing page, we get the maximum eyeballs for our promotion. Is it difficlut. Not really!

Here is how you can do it too:

 Step-1: Capture a screen shot of a page that you want to showcase.

 Step-2: Upload this screenshot on a  site like photobucket.com
 
 Step-3: Get the html link to this photo (it’s very easy, when you hover your cusror on the uploaded image in photobucket it gives you various options to link up to your photograph including an html link)

  Step 4: Go to ‘edit this page’ on your facebook page

  Step 5: Scroll down till you reach FBM- click on edit and insert the html code.

 Step 6: In the first line of the code where a URL to your page is mentioned-delete the same and add the URL of the page where you want people to go after they click on your image. (See in the first line we have added our bixee-landing page URL, and deleted the URL that came from photobucket)

That’s it:

4. Refer a friend Box-

Step1: In the edit FBM page add one more FBML, and then click on edit FBML1

Step2: Now you can put this code:

<fb:request-form
method=”post”
type=”bixeejobs”
invite=”true”
content=”Check out the bixee page on facebook!<fb:req-choice url=’http://www.facebook.com/bixeejobs’ ‘ label=’GO’ /> “>

<fb:multi-friend-selector actiontext=”Tell your friends about bixee!” rows=”3″ showborder=”true” />
</fb:request-form> Step: make sure you replace bixee’s facebook page address and names with yours

So, now we have a great towering logo, a great landing page and a great referal mechanism-maybe you can give away a movie ticket etc. to highest referres each week!

This is how our bixee landing page looks like on Facebook:

And this is the refer a friend page:

So, go ahead, use your creativity and create great looking facebook page. Don’t forget there is still no substitute for relevant, non-spam and continued interaction. AND WHEN YOU ARE DONE- SEND US YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE LINK AND WE WILL SHOWCASE IT AT ATOMTHOUGHT!

Header Image source: http://how-to-blog.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/FacebookFriends.jpg

Answer: Precisely why!

Both the portals are huge and overlapping, offer similar services , own similar resumes and display similar openings.

This signifies that:

1. there is a clear need for differentiation.

2. Due to the lack of differentiation people have no choice but to flock to the 2 big players.

Question again: Who is the winner in this market?

The one with the largest repository of resumes?

Answer: Maybe not! If that was the case the market share gap (in terms of traffic)
between naukri and monster would not have been so huge.

Times jobs with such huge investments and claims of highest volume of active resumes
is still number 3 in terms of traffic share.

I am taking traffic share as an indicator of popularity and hence measuring all the top 3 job portals on this plank. (Comscore 2009)

We also spoke to many employers and job seekers and found a few revealing aspects of usage behaviour:

1. Employers are willing to shift to a player which is more performance oriented both in terms of quality and efficiency (time taken to post a job, payment method, time taken to get candidate response etc.)

2. Candidates want a great CV as a first impact opportunity, but do not want to pay and are hesitant to use a webcam to create a video CV.

3. Candidates do not restrict their job search to job portals but also social media. Facebook, twitter and linkedin are fast becoming hunting ground for both employers and job seekers

I think the way to succeed in this market is by creating and capturing value for both parties
- employers and job seekers- SIMULTANEOUSLY. The value should be clear and relevant as also should impart differentiation.

Based on user feedback we presented the following compelling value propositions

Employers:

1. Post as many jobs as they wantfor Free

2. Don’t wait for candidates to apply- bixee’s smart match technology will push matching candidates in seconds after posting a job

3. Get to see complete CVs Free (without name and contact details)

4. Pay only for the CVs that you want to contact

5. Showcase your company through a multimedia enabled microsite Free.

While you can see 5 points above the major value and differentiator is Pay for Performance.

So far employers were paying anything between Rs.500-900 for a single job posting, irrespective of
whether they receive any CV or not.

In our case they pay only for worthwhile CVs. No risks. I thinks this is a great differentiator.

Employees:

1. Create a multimedia Resume for Free. If you got a certificate, scan and integrate with your CV,

If you made a great presentaion or whitepaper, integrate via slideshare, if you have spoken somewhere
integrate a video, even if you haven’t you can always showcase an ad commercial that as a team member you created.

I think given a choice every person can find a multitude of things that he/she can showcase.

Take a look at my CV at http://bixee.com/saurabhpandey

2. Get a Free vanity URL, and be able to share your profile via, Social network and email

3. Get Real Time Jobs- We know that job seekers are on facebook, linkedin and twitter. We also know that
employers are also on these networks hunting the right candidates and pushing job openings.

On bixee- job seekers can search jobs which are being tweeted on twitter minute by minute.

I guess all the features above add immense value for both job seekers and employers to do the transactions on bixee

With this initiative we have launched a few firsts in India like:

1. India’s 1st multimedia CV

2. India’s first Real Time Jobs

3. One of India’s early (not the first) pay for performance model for employers

and also interestingly Bixee is one of the very few online portals that staretd micropayments as early as January 2010. Employers can actually buy one single contact at a price of only Rs 29/-.

I believe that once we reach a threshold of users the revenue stream through micropayments will be very huge. Remember one CV can be contacted by many employers, and hence owing to this overlap and a small price-this model can become very attractive and huge.

Apart from the above there are 2 more monetization model which have not been properly exploited:

1. Brand Advertising with engagement and performance parameters(cannot reveal more as of now)  and

2. Mobile monetization ( i have a few ideas, need to think more)

Let me also admit that this a humble begining, and I have immense respect for what India’s
no.1 job portal has achieved so far-so this post is not about how smart one is or not. This was to share
real life thought process and how we are trying to create value and differentiation in a market where we feel differentiation and re-creation of value can disrupt the network effect of the no.1 player.

The other objective of this post is to listen from you on what else can be done, I am sure I can
do with advice on many things that I have missed so far.

Ending this post with a hope that you will check out www.bixee.com and also revert with your feedback
and advice.

Look forward to listening from you!

I find facebook notes more powerful than twitter. I can put random thoughts, receive comments and the thoughts grow into something more meaningful and bigger in size.

Tweets are ephemeral, they are lost quickly, tweets are also restrictive.

Overall I guess one needs to intelligently use both the apps, it’s a pity though that not many people use notes features.

Facebook also on the other hand needs to work further on notes. For example how do i integrate my notes  with my 2 business pages? How can I have common notes across etc.

On the other hand, I have been able to integrate my blog with it and suddenly I have a populous notes section. I can also feel that it’s easir to pen down thoughts than writing a full fledged blog, writing notes is also quicker and one can do it via mobile from anywhere. It looks like a great tool for establishing thought leadership. Just imagining how this tool can be used by many CEOs to express their thoughts and establish tought leadership, not just that ideas can be invited and discussed as well.

Essentially notes are social but less frivoulus than social network comments, notes are microblogs but more comprehensive than twitter, and notes are complete expression through an online dialry just like blogs but much easier to execute , maintain and share.

What’s your thoughts on this?

buzz

Now that Google has lucnhed Google Buzz, the scene is ripe for other players to get inspired.

What happens if Yahoo also launches a social platform around it’s email service integrated with flickr?

Better still: What happens if Microsoft launches a social platform around outlook email application?

But before we delve further on the above questions, let’s understand that Google already has an orkut and a wave and yet it launched Buzz (despite it’s partnership with Twitter)

Google believes that the centre of communication is email- and hence it’s easy to build a social platform on top of an email service. This may be challenging, as the centre or core of communication has now shifted (from emails) to twitter and facebook (social platform). In other words the communication core in now more real-time than ever. (Which also opens another topic of discussion- Mobile Strategy for Buzz will define the way forward!)

If you noticed, Google Buzz has already opened itself up by integrating Flickr, Picassa and twitter among other apps.So, the game has just begun, and may take a very different turn in future. There is a reason why I say this:

At an early stage , a few years back, Google added Maps as an important element in it’s overall strategy, and licensed data from TeleAtlas and NavTeq. This was not strange, since these two players dominated the market and virtually everyone licensed data from them.

Seeing a major opportunity in Mapping Business, Nokia and ToTom acquired TeleAtlas and NavTeq for USD 2.7B and USD 8.1b respectively.

Google in the meantime wanted ‘more’liberty in terms of usage of maps data, which was declined by NavTeq (and hence Google dropped NavTeq) and continued to work with TeleAtlas with modified terms). This happened in 2008, but Google was already upto something. Google was quitely building it’s own mapping system, and was creating a ’streetview’ and turn-by-turn maps. Google did this by using Freely available data and combined it with it’s own data

And very soon, Google walked out of TeleAtlas too!

Two of the biggest Mapping giants today are without their biggest partner, lost a
huge chunk of revenue and influence opportunity. Google, that was once dependent on them, today has disrupted that market.

The fact is, anyone can have maps data-but the turn-by-turn data was difficult to get-which Google
built on it’s own, and didn’t stop here- Google is now providing this FREE in it’s android phones
and to various service providers across the world, including as an OEM to car manufacturers!

Look at how the market which was controlled by 2 major players got disrupted in just 1 year!

The scene is similar now- Social Networking scene is dominated by Facebook and Twitter. Google is trying to partner with both of them -for real time search. And quitely announces Buzz (which is very similar to twitter, and so far has no integration with Facebook)

Google is also quietly buying companies around emails , adserving and what have you.  Google’s mobile strategy is already giving jitters to iphone.

 Can we see a similar disruption (that we saw in maps) in less than a year from now?

Coming back to the first question:

What happens if Microsoft Outlook becomes a PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING PLATFORM?

It can instantly connect all professionals who do business together, and also add some prediction technology so that service providers know when to pitch for which product to which person.

Data can be mined, and passed on to different divisions withina  company which may have an opportunity to sell soemthing to an existing contact ina  different division.

Can this beat Linkedin? (Outlook already has a linkedin integration though)

We surely are in a state of flux today, with so much development around- it’s difficult to say who has a hidden agenda. Keep watching though!

(An interesting read on Google Maps strategy-discussed above at http://www.abovethecrowd.com)  

Image Source: http://www.rowancabarrus.edu/lrc/bill/nf/intro/images/Buzz.GIF

Is Apple launching it’s tablet to compete with Kindle only? Or is it a strategy to converge all devices together and redefine the way we compute? With wifi internet, iphone and ipod capabaility alongwith multimedia content rendering and storage- it can completely redefine the way we compute, converse and consume content!

Some people have apprehensions about the size!

What if apple designs the tablet in such a way that it can be folded and reduced to a size of an iphone? Will it become a killer app then? will it disrupt the market then.

Even after doing this- one thing which Apple really has to work hard towards is:
creating a marketplace for apps that can be used on the tablet. This is not limited to games, music and tools alone.  But also movies, books, newspapers and magazines.

Kindle has over 300000 books in it’s ecosystem, that is a pwoerful selling tool, let’ see what apple has in store today for us!

It’s heartening to see that management institutions and students are begining to realise the potency of digital marketing, but I guess it’s a long way to reach a situation where these courses are integrated into their curriculum

But today I am not going to talk on this subject. I feel that there is an even greater challenge for young

professionals in the advertising, marketing and PR functions who want to get trained in digital and social media marketing but are perhaps confused as to

who to trust?

I am talking about 2 types of training institutions which have popped up overnight:

1. Small search engine marketing companies that have diversified into training
2. Training institutes whose only claim to fame is unknown foreignersas faculty members.
to my mind both the above options cannot do justice to the training needs of young professionals, and are nothing more than money minting outfits: Here is why?

The small search engine marketing companies/small didgital agencies- have very restricted intellectual capital and exposure.Many of them can make you believe that digital marketing or even social media

marketing is 90% search engine optimization. Which is not just factually incorrect but also leads the student nowhere.
The second types- have only 1 thing to showcase- the international faculty- but my advice to students is to go skin deep (pun intended)!

The international faculty for all you know may have been just an operations person responsible for let’s say online community interaction or worse a low end email marketing person in an obscure direct marketing agency!

While one should stay away from the above two types - what if there is a large institution which ties-up with an industry association and starts dispensing courses in internet marketing?

The answer to this is in the following points:
1. Ask yourself-why would you do a course in internet marketing?

a. To enhance your knowledge

b. To show on paper that you have attended such a program

c. To network with others
2. Ask yourself- what do you intend to focus on- Operations, Strategy & concepts or a mix of both
Ideally join a course with a good mix of both, but again it’s a personal choice.
3. Find out- the background of people who  designed the course and people who deliver the course.

Are these people from reputed internet and technology organisations? Have they achieved something in these organisations? Have they held leadership positions? What is their academic or exposure quotient?
4. Check if there are case studies, whitepapers and discussion opportunities alongwith project or assignments
Very few training institutes can boast of original whitepapers and case studies or use of licensed videos and softwares.

Opportunity to engage in group dscussions and group projects also enhances value of the course

5. See if the pace of learning is well spread (see the duration and how well the course is spread)
One day courses have a different objective and can work well as a plug-in course.

If the need is to get well acquainted with a subject choose a spread out course

6. Does the content appeal to you?- you can immediately fnd out if the course content and design appeals to you by just looking at the topics.

7. How many intakes- The real guys will never have a large group. Beacuse the real objective is not to make money but to create equity and really give maximum focus and time to everyone. Choose an institution that has the guts to say that they wil only take 5-8 people in one batch.

8. What next?

what happens after the course is over. Is there a forum or email support that continues to send you whitepapers or supports your queries even after you pass out

Don’t believe this?- check out the so called top 3 training institutions and see what do they tell you about the faculty’s background or about the depth of course structure. You will see that there is a very ambiguous information about both aspects and focus is always on format and fee. 

My take is that most of the training instituions in digital and social media marketing seriously lack many of the above points- and as prudent learners all of us need to ponder and support the training institutions that may be small but have great people, content, accessories and passion for digital media.

I am not an entrepreneur (so far!) or a CEO of an Indian Internet organisation, but I am an Indian who has worked for a few years in global and Indian internet companies and over the years have tried to fathom the gaps that have succeeded in disabling Indian companies to scale heights which they deserved as also tried to understand how Indian CEOs can make their companies fare really better and not just look better!

I guess the first day of 2010 is a good time to reflect and express on a few of those things.

2010 is the year when CEOs of Indian Internet companies need to ponder and re-think on whether whatever they have they been offering to their fellow Indians is worthwhile, and what ails them-

1.       Don’t pretend and don’t show off- Indian CEOs tread fast in acquiring and displaying bean bags, multi-gyms and play-stations in their offices thinking that these acquisitions will help them look like a Google or make them a Google-kind-of-a-company. And this doesn’t stop here- they also think that talent can be attracted and retained by flashing these acquisitions.

Bottom-line- Google is Google because of it’s culture-not because of the flashy acquisitions.

2.       Don’t be a Scrooge- If you have a play station and the works-for heaven’s sake let your employees use them. Let them have some fun with the stuff. I have seen these things rot, because there is invariably a feeling that if you are having fun then you are not working or not serious about work.

      3.   Can you create a fun element in your organisation-I don’t know why people are afraid of           having fun or creating opportunities for fun. CEOs need to create an environment where           employees enjoy their work and their workplace. My question to CEOs- why are you making it complex and difficult? Have fun and create fun. That’s the only way to create passion and involvement for your products and organisation.

      4.  How can you REALLY help your employees- Many CEOs hire the smartest people but then do not let them be. They would micro-manage, backseat drive, and try to show that they are smarter than their employees. My belief is that the CEOs can never be more knowledgeable than their employees and they don’t need to be. The CEOs need to help the employees by giving them a vision, a periodic feedback   and create an impactful image of the employees and the organisation in the outside world. If they can do these 3 odd things that will be a big favour on themselves and their organisations.

     5. Build a culture of trust and affinity- Culture is built from the top. Period. If people in a company are not cohesive, if there is a synergy issue in cross functions, if people work to show that they are working, if you cannot see the CEO eating lunch in the same cafeteria as the employees, if you find people avoid any interaction with the CEO , the CEO and his company are in trouble. The CEO has to himself create a culture top-down. The values have to be practiced and displayed first by the top management.

    6. Don’t copy- You would hardly notice world class Indian products/brands in the internet space.  Indian products infact have a tough time making a mark in India itself. What is our claim to fame- one more YouTube, one more Facebook, one more Netflix, one more LinkedIn? Are we thinking about solving the Indian challenges and problems or are we thinking about how to copy the international products fast and launch new features and products-just because a majority of Indians are new to internet. That’s not a recipe for success. In my earlier articles I have articulated how Japan, Korea and China have developed products with absolutely local business models and are fairly successful.

Indian CEOs are smart, have thought process, and are easily among the best brains in the world- My humble suggestion to them is to take it easy and to start having fun, because bean bags don’t make a Google!