Business2.0 August 2007 Issue - A Big Let Down… with highly inaccurate India Web2.0 information
The August 2007 issue of Business2.0 made me question the credibility of the sources from which Business2.0 got some of their data. I’ve always thought the data and articles presented in this magazine were highly credible, but a couple of things mentioned inthis article will now make me think twice. I’ll shoot off a letter immediately to the editor and await his feedback.
Page 75 is a fold out section titled “It’s a Web, Web, WEb 2.0 World”. They’ve basically listed 10 world shaking business models - and their clones that have sprung up globally. Being familiar with the Indian Web2.0 industry - I was not happy to see some of the listings out of India, and they are very questionable.
For those readers who don’t have access to the print edition, you can see the online version here. The print version starts by saying that they began this years roadmap of international Web2.0 sites with an initial list of 90 sites and then boiled them down to 32 most important not counting the Web2.0 clones mentioned on the back of the fold out.
The writer(s) have messed up in both the short listing as well as the clones list. In the shortlisting of 32 international sites - they have included khichdee.com classified ads site in India which is probably falsely claiming to be getting 4500 new classified posts per day. Pixrat and Burrp were the other 2 listings from India on the global map and in this first section and are defintely justified and apt - other than the fact that Burrp probably inflated their traffic figures. (question - does anyone know how much traffic Pixrat is generating? I know its been gobbled up by the MIH guys and is not part of ibibo.com - but i was just curious).
The second part of the fold out article was titled “Send in the Clones“, and this is where I had my conflicts. The print section has a table listing local knock-offs of global Web2.0 models, telling readers to save this clipping for their next business trip overseas. This should not have been said by a magazine that is part of the CNN group, unless the data was accurate - because they are now completely misleading business executives.
Here’s whats wrong…
Basically, they’ve got a table with 4 wildly successful global Web2.0 models namely Digg, Facebook, Linkedin and Youtube - and their clones in various countries of the world. Since I am familiar with the local Web2.0 sites here in India - I can firmly state that the Indian data is wildly inaccurate. These are the Indian local sites that Business2.0 has listed as being notable.
Indian Digg clone - www.bestofindya.com
Bestofindya is nowhere near a digg clone - not in traffic or content. They’re hardly getting 5000 page views per day, and many stories are not Indian themed. I dont think that this site can ever get anywhere near the cult status that digg has with its users. Also, the site has been setup using the opensource Pligg script. Not that I am against opensource - just stating a fact that this can be hacked together by a 15 year old with no programming knowledge and experience, and stories can be added by a few people to kick start the UGC and SEO traffic. Anyway, if this is the best that India can give - then we have a long way to go. Either that, or Business2.0 needs to buckle up their research. If you really want to see a popular Indian digg clone - see IndianPad.com - their traffic on Alexa keeps soaring... and they’re probably getting over 250,000+ page views per day (I wouldnt be surprised if they’re even doing 500,000+… now, this is a site Business2.0 should’ve listed instead.
Indian Facebook clone - www.minglebox.com
Minglebox is not a platform in the true sense as Facebook is. Its more like orkut or myspace, and anyone who uses these sites can tell. If the writer was talking about social networking clones like orkut and myspace - I don’t have to say anything about the local clones in India - as most of you already know that there are plenty of them in India… and the competition is heated. Minglebox has the advantage of being backed (albeit controversially) by the local Sequoia guys - and thus has the deep pockets to grow fast. But we all know that there are many others out there in the race…including Bharatstudent, Bigadda, Campus18 etc.
Local Linkedin clone - connexions.rediff.com
This is probably the only correct listing. But, I don’t really see this working as successfull venture for rediff or being an effective networking tool for its members, as business today is done globally - and Linkedin has achieved the winner-takes-all status, completely knocking out other business networking competitors including openbc and ryze. I really dont see the long term value in going through all the trouble to sign up and invite your local acquaintances and associates to a local social networking service, when a global network can do all this for you AND provide networking opportunities at a global scale. On a side note: a good local technology networking site for professionals is techtribe.com - but its mostly for tech professionals and is used a lot for job hunting and finding the right talent for companies… and so, it probably did not meet the criteria.
Local YouTube clone - www.rajshri.com
This one is way off!! Rajshri.com is nowhere a “video sharing site”. Its a site run by Rajshri Media, showing and streaming their self produced videos. There is absolutely no feature allowing users to upload their own videos and share them with the community… or make Channels and Groups and interact with other video creators and viewers. No commenting. No voting. I have no clue where Business2.0 got this one from. There are quite a few existing Indian video sites, so I dont know why this was selected as the best amongst the lot - when it definitely does not qualify to be a Web2.0 model.
I cannot say for certain how (in)accurate the other country clone listings are - but my guess is that about 1/3rd of them are inaccurate and this research and editorial was definitely done in a hurry. Shame.
— Vishal Lamba Filed under: Uncategorized
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I wonder how they compiled their lists! As you pointed out most of the entries in the India section are totally wrong…
Also, great to see you guys linked at Techcrunch. Keep up the good work!
Came here from TechCrunch!
Good work pointing this out for the Indian “clones”.
Aren’t the journalists at these magazines PAID to do their research?
Like I said over at TechCrunch.
And Germany actually had the first social news/online bookmarking service with SiteCharts.com /SiteCharts.de … since 1999!!
(they seem to be currently revamping the site to start a new offering)
Digg is the clone.
[…] relevant to quote and it seems like their source of information is not bullet proof. And from what I can read here, the same goes for the India selection. I don’t know well enough other countries to detect […]
[…] relevant to quote and it seems like their source of information is not bullet proof. And from what I can read here, the same goes for the India selection. I don’t know well enough other countries to detect […]
BestOfIndya is around for less than 3 months and has seen very good success in a very short time.
For your information IndianPad is also based on opensource software
Do some research before writing.
I think the correct Indian LinkedIn clone is brijj.com
Hey! And there are more: Infojobs (listed in Mexico) is not a Linkedin but a Monster.com: Upload you CV and send it directly to the job offers that are published on its site. Nothing to do with the connections or the social network components.
Buscatube is not a Youtube: It just take the videos from Youtube, Metacafe and others, select the best ones and serve them with their own ads. Not even a clon, you can’t upload anything!
Ok, It’s summer and Business 2.0 has the interns writing articles, it seems they hired the worst student!!!
Kartik,
I never said indianpad.com is not based on open source, and I did do my research.
No doubt bestofindya.com (yoursite?), may have been around for only three months - but the kind of traffic, buzz and loyalty indianpad has created and is creating - is way above bestofindya. … and digg / diggnation is all about cult following. These characteristics are noticable in indianpad.com and their traffic keeps rising month to month. bestofindya is nowhere near indianpads following and traffic.
FYI - goto alexa and do a traffic comparison and you will see that they get 60 to 80 times more traffic - which shows why indianpad.com should’ve been listed as the desi digg clone and not bestofindya.
Actually indianpad traffic hovers around 25k pageviews (as mentioned by them) and not as you’ve estimated. Besides there’s no way to accurately estimate traffic thru Alexa. Also note that among all social bookmarking site only indianpad allows hardcore porn - which is the key reason for the high number of visitors on any website on the web (upto 85% of traffic can be attributed in most such websites to adult content). But sure indianpad should have been on the list. What’s strange is despite there being other similar sites - ekjut.com, charchaa.com etc which even have higher traffic than bestofindya it was this site that was chosen.
You can guestimate in Alexa if you know actual data of another site and do a comparison. I think it is pretty accurate to about 10% to 15% plus minus. I agree porn is large volume of traffic… but not sure how much porn links indianpad has.
Totally agree with you, that rajshri is no way near to the youtube clone, since all videos you find on it are made by rajshri productions. Better match to the youtube is Indian video sharing site calledLayFile. It lets you watch Indian videos hosted on layfile, youtube and metacafe.
Hi Vishal,
As riyak mentioned I also think traffic on indianpad is mainly due to porn and movie/music download links and only because of that reason I think it was not chosen.
by the way it is not my site I am using it for about a month.
I have to admit that i was not aware that majority of links on Indianpad are adult oriented? Is this true? I just checked the site again - and didn’t find any porn links or stories… at least not on the homepage and second page.
To see adult content you need to register and set adult content flag on on your profile. You will see whole section dedicated for Adult content..
Oh. ok. So, you’re saying that people are registering to get adult links, and so porn constitutes towards a majority chunk of the traffic on Indianpad? Thats very interesting indeed. Does anyone else support this view?
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I’m not a great fan of bestofindya - but the guy seems to be right about indianpad’s traffic being predominently porn - and that making a difference to their alexa ranking (still doesn’t justify bestofindya though!).
Till a few months ago the adult section was actually open and its only recently they put it as a member-only thing. By that time enough people knew what went on inside. So the adult section today is actually their biggest area (based on the huge number of posts there and votes - several hundred votes for some stories surely indicate the number of people who visit) and the best for such content on the internet! And I I’m not complaining!!!