Apnacircle.com merges with Viadeo.com

ApnaCircle.com, a social and career networking website situated in the Amity Innovation Incubator backed by Sabeer Bhatia has been merged with Viadeo, a france based business networking site.

Now apnacircle will get a huge advantage as the 7 million registered users on Viadeo will be linked to apnacircle.com. ApnaCircle claims to have about 0.3 million users all over India & with this merger they are hoping to touch a figure of 1 million by the mid of 2010. The name Apnacircle will remain as it is as a part of the deal.

BIGBOOM in Recession

BIG entertainment, the media firm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group have recently launched its movie and entertainment marketing division, BIGBoom. BIG Entertainment is already into film production, distribution and exhibition, home video, music and DVD rentals, and now BIGBoom will help the producers and advertisers to leverage with brands across the country.

In India Movie marketing has come of age & with time producers have now realised the importance of strategic & cost effective method to promote their films specially in times of recession where every penny counts.

BIGBoom will be a one stop shop for all marketing solutions for films, ranging from associative marketing to publicity design, PR, promotions and merchandise.

BARCAMP DELHI 6 - MDI Gurgaon

BARCAMP Delhi6 is coming up & is scheduled on 28th Feb - 1st March in MDI Gurgaon.

No Spectators, only participants..

It is an open entry for all as always. A lot of technies, entrepreneurs, bloggers meet at this event & this is a very good platform to learn & most importantly to network with people with similar mindset as yours.

Some of the sessions/presentations will be on Knowledge Management, Content Strategy and Social Media, Youth Marketing etc.

If you have not attended this event earlier the it'll be a great experience for you as everyone are participants. You can register here & here are the rules.

Something creative - Sending resumes via SMS

 SMSResume an Indian startup is making sure that you can apply for a job by just sending an sms to the HR of that company.

 

As the internet penetration is poor in India but mobile subscribers growing at an enormous amount month after month, this service surely has a large market ahead & can be even scaled up to those cities and villages where the mobiles have penetrated but not internet.

This can reach to the masses when they also introduce the service in other languages also but right now it is in beta stage so probably they'll be doing that in the future. It is very simple to use as one just needs to send an sms to 9711532380 in their format & it will delievered to the HR of the company and you will get a confirmation for the same.

And the best part its totally free for users. So go ahead register with them.

Cheers

JustBrands - Startup based in Delhi for SMS discounts

If you are based in Delhi and go to eat outside regularly so you must visit JustBrands which has tie-up with good bars & restaurants in Delhi for discounts ranging from 5% to 20% on the total bill. You can request for the discount via SMS & show at the time of bill payment. By looking at the discounts it seems it is aiming at only food outlets in the city unlike khojguru and asklaila who provides sms discounts from buying flowers to buying clothes. Till now JustBrands only have limited tie-ups with mostly expensive restaurants like Mojo, Ruby Tuesday etc where discounts are easy to get. With the industry moving at a face pace and new players entering into the market, JustBrands will have to catch up with the speed & tie-up with the maximum restaurants possible to get a loyal customer base & generate real value for them.

I think JustBrands is very limited & giving discounts for only restaurants/bars but they should actually enter the big picture & try to get as many discounts as possible like khojguru and other portals so that the customers need not go to other websites looking for discounts for shopping, flowers, gifts etc.

Business Lessons to be learnt from OBAMA

"The Social Pulpit" is an analysis of how Barack Obama used social media in his campaign. How he was successful in creating synergy amongst the people of America, how he was successful in raising money online when McCain in '00 failed.

Its a must read.

Techtribe on the verge of closing down

Rohit Agarwal, a renounced serial entrepreneur, the founder of TechTribe.com a niche player in the indian online networking space is on the verge of shutting down. He admitted that the company is looking for a strategic partner or a buyer & if does'nt find any then it would have to shut down.

“The model for referral recruitment as we had planned is not working out,” said Rohit.

He has experienced the reality of the web scenario in India so he gives the following advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Only mass internet plays can work in India, not niche plays. Unless it’s a service that is a must have, it doesn’t work in Indian web”

So if niche does'nt work according to him then how will apnacircle.com (Incubated in AII), brijj.com (a naukri.com venture) plan to survive in the market as they cater to niche segments in business networking.

Want to start a business ? - get advice from DELL

DELL is back again & is promoting entrepreneurship & is encouraging people to TAKE THEIR OWN PATH.
Dell has lauched this website - takeyourownpath & has given examples for five entrepreneurs who chose to be entrepreneurs & their success stories are given in the website. The main content of the website is the step by step procedure (explained very well in detail) of how to start your own business from scratch from Getting started to finances to marketing to security.
I think its a must read for people who are planning to be entrepreneurs or have just started their journey.

All for this one Moment - Meet your Dream icon

Do you think that you have it in you to be the next big entrepreneur of India ?

Do you dare to dream big like those legends once did ?

If you have started your journey of entrepreneurship & have started working on your dreams, then now you have a chance to meet your dream icon live and in person on CNBC-TV18.

Lufthansa & CNBC-TV18 now gives you a chance to share your story with them about your business idea, how you started your business journey, what have you achieved till now, what do you plan to achieve in future etc. This anchor of the programme will be none other than Shereen Bhan, Executive Editor of CNBC-TV18. So if you think that you have that fire in the belly & you have it in you make it big then share your vision by November 10,2008. You can register here

KhojGuru - Another startup in the search domain

As we all know search is the number one activity online & it is also one of the most difficult businesses to step into because there are already established global leaders in this domain but Indian startups are trying to win over them by taking an advantage in local search in the country.With already some search startups like Burrp, Guruji, Asklaila etc now here is another search startup khojguru. It gives us information about movies, restaurants etc with the reviews of various places so that you can actually read from people who have already been to those places & then decide where to go. It also gives us sms discount coupons of restaurants & clothing shops and accessories. I think this sms discounts can really help them build their portal as they have some good brands like Ferns n Petals, Khajja Chowk etc discounts with them.

Along with all this stuff, it also has the social networking component in it using which you can interact & participate in their promotional offer of gathering points and redeeming them for some gifts.

Till now no company has been able to successfully make a mark in the local search scenario but with Khojguru here with some interesting features, this might be a strong competetitor in this market but that time will tell.