Couple of Questions for Eric Schmidt

During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt spoke to gartner's
Analysts and some of the TOP points that came out and my questions to Eric on the same:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
Question 1 - With the amount of sensorship in China - why do you think "Chinese content will Dominate?" Just the Volume of content or Value of content?

2. Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.

Good for us!

3. Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.

I hope this happens... very optimistic approach from Eric I must say...

4. "We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video.

5. "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."

6. "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"

7. It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Question 2: "Why do you want to rank that information at all?" If I am following someone and I am going to take a decision based on that individual's recommendation, then I have built my ranking algorithm in my mind...so why do I need google to tell me the rank for the same?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxub_yQfig

Jay Hind - The Future of Indian TV is here.

I have been away from writing on my blog for few months now. Work kept me so busy that I didn’t get time or maybe I didn’t jump up in excitement to write about something. Though, after this long break, I found something really interesting. Jay Hind produced by Undercover productions (was not sure if it existed J) in association with Buzzintown.com is the 1^st late night standup comedy show on Internet (youtube channel) in India and this indeed made me jump in excitement and here I am writing about it.

I see the future of Indian TV in this stand-up comedy show. This series is path breaking for Indian TV and the power of Internet in India. If this series becomes a hit and starts making revenues to become profitable, then this will be the 1^st gen TV series online and can give birth to more talented players to come online to provide content and be profitable while running the shows.

I am a firm believer that solid content will find it’s FAN following… and evidently I have seen over 1250 Fans of this show already on Facebook FAN page of Jay Hind growing rapidly by word of mouth in just a month or so.

Jay Hind team has done a wonderful job in creating the same magic of Movers and Shakers as Abhigyan Jha brings in his expertise and creativity to tickle the funny bone with the sarcasm, pun, entertaining and funny conversations, hilarious disclaimers and very well executed gags by Sumeet Raghavan and off-course the Divya aka Savita Bhabhi!

After having not watched TV in a long time, this show re-affirms that it was worth NOT watching the idiot box. The same old boring Saas Bahu $#%) and those cameras panning to every joker’s face gives me total grief. Jay Hind comes as a refreshing change and cuts across the clutter and provides solid entertainment. Interestingly, I am trying to see when I will start seeing ads in the breaks on this show. Presently they are building the momentum for getting the eye balls and with few million people on Internet these eye balls are coming very soon for this show.

Jay hind is leveraging the Social media well for it’s promotion. After the 1^st month of it’s launch in August it has crossed over 1 million views. You can:

Follow Jay Hind on Twitter
Become a Jay Hind Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to Youtube channel of JayhindTV
Check it out on Buzzintown.com

BOKU.com – Not so Rosy for MOBILE Payments

The rosy picture painted in my previous post about BOKU.com doesn’t seem to be that rosy. Based on reading fine print on BOKU.com’s website and some number crunching and deeper analysis, it might become more expensive to acquire new customers and retain customers if you use BOKU.com unless you get a phenomenal increase in conversions.

Airtel + BOKU can reach a huge user base of mobile customers in India. However, it seems like talktime currency can not be used to make payments. So the overall user reach (especially in smaller regions) reduces tremendously.

Postpaid customers – If postpaid users are going to be charged in their bills then service charge, recovery and fraud management will become an issue.

Broadly there are some more important issues to think of:

1) Customer’s Perspective: In the bill amount the user has to pay ~10% service charge. Which means that if they spent Rs. 100 they actually have spent Rs. 110 which they will realize in their 1st bill.

Merchant’s Perspective

1) Airtel + BOKU is charging some ridiculous amount of 25% – 45% fee to allow such transactions. If we go by industry standards, online payment gateways accepting credit card/debit card/Paymate(mobile), ITZ Cash cards etc… all these guys charge not more than 10%. Which means in the case of BOKU, the merchants will have to compensate nearly 25% to 45% of the cost of payment made by users. Which is ridiculous.

2) Merchant’s Perspective: If BOKU says that these numbers add up and it’s volume game and more conversions will help in driving revenues and break-evens then it means that by adding BOKU your conversions need to go up by atleast 10%(this number varies for various industries) till you break even.

3) After careful consideration and number crunching it looks like your existing customers who are already using credit or debit cards to make online payments should actually NOT move to this Mobile payment option as in the earlier case the merchant is compensating for 10% of the fee, however, with BOKU the compensation increases steeply.

BOKU Vs Merchant VS Telecom Provider
1) Credit period and liquidity – Telecom providers are asking for a credit period of 90 days before they release payments. Which means the merchant’s liquidity will get hit. They are willing to reduce it over a period of time to 30 days or 60 days. However, this is ridiculously high as compared to almost 24 hours time frame provided by Online payment gateways.

2) Money recovery from customers – Recovering money from post paid users for wrong charges on their bills might become an issue as they will have to handle fraud complaints and resolutions.

What BOKU can be helpful in is… converting new users. Making payments for the 1st time when the user is not sure about using their credit cards.

Unless Telecom carrier’s and BOKU’s combined cost doesn’t come down to something similar to other online payment gateways, this looks like a flashy new system to me which will take it’s own sweet n slow route to become what they want to become.

BOKU.com – NO Plastic – Mobile based online payment system!

BOKU.com, mobile payments made easy, NO Plastic Needed.

Today morning I was munching my breakfast after a solid gym routine and while scanning through my feeds, chanced upon an article on Watblog by Maneesh about mobile payments system by a company called BOKU.com where you DON’T need any credit card, debit card, bank account etc to make a payment.

I just jumped in the air and got glued to this post and quickly pounced to check out this site BOKU.com. And YES, they are offering direct payments through mobile phones without any card plastic / bank account.

If BOKU.com continues to expand their partnerships with more and more service providers like, there is nothing which stops BOKU to become the World’s most trusted and easiest online payment system.

BOKU.com is funded by Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures. VC’s investments includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, PureDigital, Second Life, Tellme, Twitter, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat.

BOKU.com’s strong management team comes from web, payment and mobile companies like Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Bank of America, GE, Google, mBlox and Paypal.

They claim to have a strong fraud management systems from their strong experience in managing risk in top notch companies like Amazon, PayPal, Google, Bank of America, and FirstUSA and they claim that Mobile phone is a different story as its used by only you… lets hope that’s the case.

This is how the payments work in BOKU.com, citing an example via @watblog a payment test they did in Facebook on Texas Holdem Poker application.

This can be the NEXT big thing to fuel online business growth with over couple of billion handsets across the world. The 3 step easy process just makes it so lucrative for customers to go ahead and make a quick payment.

As a publisher we are up-beat about this service and I personally am very optimiztic that this system will completely revolutionize the online payments in the coming time.

If this is increasingly adopted by more telecom providers, this will basically revolutionize the online payment systems in India as well as worldwide. I had written about one application of such system (to book local train tickets through mobile) on my blog last year. This is super exciting news for many online businesses. However, what would be interesting to note is, how telecom providers cope with managing the Post-Paid customers with bills and recoveries and charge-backs.

Anyways, this is Fantastic, I being in a online games company where we handle daily online payments… this will help us boost our conversions significantly. I think all online publishers will welcome this as a booster for their sales.

Looking forward to a close collaboration with BOKU.com.

#BPL #BFOI Are you the BARCLAYS FAN OF INDIA?

Twitter Trending Topics - #BPL #BFOI


BARCLAYS LAUNCH SEARCH FOR ‘THE FAN OF INDIA’

Win a trip for two to England to see Premier League team of choice for India’s top football fan

Mumbai, May 11, 2009: Football FANS in India get ready to meet your favorite teams. Barclays today launches its search for the Fan of India as it seeks to find the most passionate supporter of the Barclays Premier League in the country.

From Kerala to Kolkata, Mumbai to Mohali and Goa to Guwahati, India has some of the most fervent fans of Barclays Premier League football in the world. The Barclays Premier League is the most popular domestic football tournament anywhere in the world, with over 4.77 billion people watching it in over 200 countries. It also has many of the top players including World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Barclays want to find fans that go to extraordinary lengths to support their favourite Barclays Premier League team or player. Do they practice the Cristiano Ronaldo step-over, create their own club anthem, or maybe perform wild somersaults like Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins?

Fans are required to explain in no more than 100 words why they are the Barclays Fan of India and can include slogans, videos or photographs to support their entry. Entries can be submitted by post, by drop box in selected Malls and Café Coffee locations, e-mail, or uploaded online by visiting www.barclaysfanofindia.com.

All entrants in the Barclays Fans of India competition have the opportunity to win:

· A trip for two to watch their favourite Barclays Premier League team play ‘live’ in England during the 2009/10 season. This will include flights, 4 star hotel accommodation, tickets and transfers.

· 10 runners up will also receive a Barclays Premier League team shirt of their choice

Manchester United’s legendary midfielder Bryan Robson, a judge and ambassador for the Fan of India Contest, said: "I know that representatives from Manchester United have visited India several times in the not too distant past and are always amazed at the level of interest there is in the Barclays Premier League. It really is a hotbed of football. I think the speed and intensity of the league appeals to the Indian population, and I am looking forward to seeing how this is reflected in the entries for the Barclays Fan of India competition."

Liverpool’s Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina said: “Barclays Premier League supporters are the best in the world and will go to great lengths to follow their favourite team. Liverpool have a

huge following on the sub-continent so I'm hoping the Barclays Fan of India will be a Reds supporter and get the chance to come over to England and see me in action!"

The competition will run from May 12, 2009 through to June 2, 2009 with the winner of Barclays Fan of India announced in mid June, 2009.

Fans can log on to http://barclaysfanofindia.com for more information on how to enter.

How long will you wait to get your product after payment?

In today's fast paced world, how long do you think you will wait to get your product after you have made the payment?

I have waited over 17 days already to get my Reliance Broadband Wireless Internet connection and its still not active. While the channel sales partner of Reliance - Vriti Infocom is doing something (which I am not sure what) and Reliance customer support department is also working hard to improve it's image (though their actions don't seem to say anything of that sort).

Placing your trust in a company to buy their product is a decision which everyone takes on a day to day basis. I took this decision and I am repenting. But does this affect the company at all?

Doesn't seem to...

But this makes me wonder does social media in today's time (while helping to build awareness) can build Negative Awareness too about the companies and their policies and the way they handle customers?

Reliance Broadband Netconnect - HORRIBLE | HORRENDOUS

Reliance Broadband Netconnect - New 3.1 MBPS - HORRIBLE CUSTOMER EXPERINCE and SERVICE

I had BAD experience with them till now...and it’s still going on...

Last month I was just browsing in my office and saw this Ad which said Reliance Broadband 3.1 MBPS new USB based connection. 20x high speed etc.

I got excited and clicked on the ad and went to a website where they asked for the contact details and there was an option to BUY NOW or Pay on delivery.

I thought let me buy it right away as I was waiting for some some high speed internet connection and I had tried their previous 2 MBPS one and the speed was OK. So I thought this one would be better...

Now, this is how the story unfolds:

1) March 17 - I attempted online Booking. Result transaction failure.

2) March 18 - I get a mail from reliance for Booking Confirmation.

3) March 25th and 27th two more Emails on Reliance Netconnect promotions

4) Also, I get calls in the middle which I don’t remember on which days asking me that if I confirm that I want to buy reliance netconnect broadband.

5) Then considering it had been over 2 weeks, so I again clicked on one of the ads and this time chose the option on Payment on Delivery. This time again I get a call and the Sales Executive says please go to this URL and make a payment.

6) The sales executive calls me 2-3 times on 29th to make a payment and I made a payment on 29th March and I do not get any confirmation email. Then I call up the same number from where I got the initial calls to make payments. And they confirm that yes they have got the payment. And they also inform that someone will come to my office in 2 days to deliver the product and collect the documents.

7) I didn’t hear from anyone and I tried calling but couldn’t go through...till 2nd April and nothing happens. I again called and they tell me that the status is showing POD. Then the Sales executive asks me to send all the details in the most broken english as they can...and after sending the proof of payment they started processing.



From: [mailto:@connectindia.in]

Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:51 AM
To: @yahoo.com
Subject: INFORMATION
Dear sir,
sir pleas send me the oll details --
Regards
(Sales Advisor)
Reliance Net Connect Team
Online Deals
Noida8) After this I get a confirmation that in 1 day my card will be delivered and I got the card on 3rd April. The guy asks for couple of documents and pictures and goes away.

9) On 4th april some guy from this company calls me and tells me that one document is missing. Then he gets that document collected on the same day at 4 Pm. He couldn’t submit my documents the same day as it reached him at 9 PM.

10) 6th april he stop taking my calls and the customer support centre says they dont have any of my details...7th April the guy picks my call for 5 secs and disconnects in a moment saying he is in reliance office and docs have been submitted.

11) However, till today nothing has happened, no one seems to be responding, customer service says call the company from where you purchased. The company from where I purchased dont pick up calls and dont respond. No response on email too.

12) I called the local reliance webworld and the guy there tells me contact the same company where you purchased it from ... we cant to do anything... or wait for 3 more days....

It’s been 9 days since I made the payment and the device is till not active for me! Now I am just thinking what will happen next...

I am also thinking, that when reliance is not selling this directly from their reliance web worlds then aren’t they responsible for their channel partners? How stupid is this way of running operations? I am extremely unsatisfied with the way their highly unprofessional sales channel and support has operated till now. Is someone listening?????????

Subscribe - Games24x7.com Youtube Channel - How to Play Rummy and Win Cash

http://www.youtube.com/user/playgames24x7

Jhatpat Tournaments are Coming Soon

ProteinLassi - Healthy Lassi Always!

Protein Lassi - My new recipe to good health!

Today morning when I returned home from my daily gym routine, I noticed that I forgot to bring milk yesterday. It was 9 Am, the nearby shops were still closed. So I was wondering how to satisfy my hungry tummy...

While I was fiddling with stuff in my refrigerator, I saw this container of Curd and the bulb lighted, Lassi, is what I decided to have. However, I thought of getting innovative. I made a concoction, for which the secret formula, is going to patented ;-).

3 Portions Curd + 1 Portion Water + Ice Cubes + Protein Powder = Protein Lassi

Have a chilled glass and enjoy...

Mumbai Local Trains Stopped by Protestors

4th Feb 2009: 10.00 AM - This is a 1st hand account where I have seen and recorded the Mumbai Local Trains breakdown.

Protesters have stopped Mumbai Local Trains today morning and thousands of daily commuters have been stranded and they are walking to nearby stations and there is an utter chaos all around the city. News is coming from various local railway train stations in mumbai. Protestors have blocked Western Line, Borivili, Kandivili, Malad, Goregaon, Andheri, Bandra, Dadar, and many more Railway Stations affected. Watch the Video coverage here.




Apparently people are demanding for more trains to be started because of massive rush in all the local trains and the inconvenience it causes people every day morning.

The local trains are jam packed and there is not even enough space to breathe. People are subjected to so much inconvenience that literally people punch and push you. Not to mention that people who have paid over Rs. 1000 for their passes for First Class compartments they also have to travel like a general class dabba as the number of wagons for 1st class is very limited.

This kind of poor service of the railways has highlighted earlier, however, today morning suddenly commuters have decided to take the situation and government to the task.

Today morning's scene was horrible and so many people have been affected and so much of inconvenience has been caused to the daily commuters. People have got late to their offices, many appointments have been canceled and there is complete chaos and unruly behaviour at stations. Especially women passengers who had to walk down after getting down from trains, all sorts of people are taking cheap advantages.

This also makes me wonder, why always people have to take things in there hand and the government doesn't seem to take it up on there own?

M-Seva SMS based Mobile Ticket Booking System for Local Trains

Digital Playgrounds

Online Games have provided the new playgrounds to the world which has no limits, no boundaries and no times to close. The Digital Playgrounds have actually strengthened the social fabric of India and brought the same old days of people sitting together in a choupal back.

The other day, my friend and I were discussing how we missed the joy of being able to just run around and play all day long. When we were kids, we looked forward to the late afternoon – early evening period. This was when we would forget about all our childish problems like homework, cleaning our rooms, fussing over vegetables etc., and rush out to the playground to start the all-important task of choosing teams and deciding on the game we would play.

As we grew up, it became tougher and tougher to avoid the huge amounts of homework we got in school. Plus, we had to go and ‘hang out’ at all the ‘coolest’ places. All through college most of us were half-dead trying to keep up with the never-ending amounts of research and assignments that seemed to just keep piling up. Then came the crazy routine of sending out our resumes to literally thousands of firms, hoping we would get a call from one of the most prestigious companies telling us, “Congratulations. You’ve got the job!”. And before we knew it, we were full-blown adults, with jobs and real-life bank accounts!


We didn’t even have time to catch up with old friends anymore. Most of my friends had gotten jobs in different parts of the country. We went from talking to each other every single day, to calling each other maybe once a month.


So there we were, my friend and I, grumbling about how drastically life had changed for all of us, in the blink of an eye. But at least there was some respite. At least we had the wonderful world of Online Gaming for some recreation. There were no time-constraints or even border-limitations for that matter – these were the new-age playgrounds : Digital Playgrounds! We could play whenever we had the time or inclination to play, with anyone who was online at that moment – whether they were in Bangalore, Kolkata or Mumbai.


And the best part was that I could beat my friend, who was, according to herself, unbeatable in Online Rummy. Every night, after work, I would settle down in my favourite chair in front of my laptop and begin my winning streak. It was my way of unwinding after a long day of work. This was the time when we went from being friends to competitors – for 3 long hours.


My friend and I came to the conclusion that life wasn’t all that bad after all. Sitting in our own apartment, with hot steaming bowls of soup, and an entire night of gaming stretching in front of us, life seemed pretty darn good!


Co Blogger- Duhita Jagtiani

Games24x7.com Announces Multi player Online Tournaments

Games24x7.com Press Release

Experience the thrill unleashed with Multi Player Tournaments on Games24x7.com, India's 1st Online Tournaments portal. With over 15,000 Online Tournaments and over Rs. 3 Lakh won in cash prizes, Games24x7.com today announced the launch of their multi-player knock-out tournaments platform.

“The new tournament engine will help us expand our tournament offerings rapidly. Now we will be running 32, 64, 128, 256 multiplayer tournaments and our technology backup allows us to scale it to any number, given the demand. This will reduce disappointment for late enrolments. And now we are all set to offer the most unique winning experience to thousands of players across India.” explained Mr. Vishnu Ram, CTO, Games24x7.com.

Our research also indicates that www.games24x7.com is India’s 1st and only online tournaments portal that gives real cash prizes. The real-cash knock-out tournaments in rummy and chess are a daily attraction and have helped the portal to grow rapidly.

“Today we are proud to be India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal which is earmarked with these important milestones. We are happy to see the good response to our existing “Jhatpat” and “Trump” tournament series. We look forward to expand our online tournament offerings and continue to hold our leadership in online tournaments in India.” concluded Mr. Sachin Uppal, Marketing Director, Games24x7.com.

What is most interesting about games24x7.com is that as a special introductory offer, there is no tournament entry fee. Anyone can just log-in, play tournaments, and if sufficiently skilled at the games, laugh all the way to the bank. Surely it makes sense to say play more and win more at Games24x7.com.

Games24x7.com is India’s 1st online tournament company. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs from IIT and IIM backgrounds, Games24x7.com is set to bring forward the Indian competitive spirit in online games by offering real cash prize tournaments.