Location - Based Social Networking

The Indian telecom industry can be primarily divided into basic, cellular and internet services. It also has smaller segments such as radio paging services, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), Public Mobile Radio Trunked Services (PMRTS) and Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS). GSM & CDMA are the two most prevalent technologies in India.
At the end of January 2010, the overall tele-density was recorded at 49.5 per cent with a total telephone subscriber base of 581.81 million. Currently, the tele-density is over 54%. The key players in the Indian telecom market are Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Bharti Airtel Limited, Reliance Communication, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices.
 Smart  Phone Usage
It currently stands at 200 minutes/day in India (Informate Mobile Meter).  However, 60% of the time is spent on browsing & entertainment thus roughly only 55 minutes is spent on voice communication.
Evolution of Social Networking in India
It began with the entry of Hi 5 in 2005.  2006 witnessed the rise of Orkut (Google) as the new platform for strangers to connect.  Facebook entered India in 2007 & India experienced a fierce rivalry between Facebook & Orkut. However, in 2008 , Facebook emerged as a winner & the country witnessed the Facebook revolution. The year 2009 saw the birth of several Indian social networking sites such as bigadda.com, ibibo, fropper.com & mobile based social networking sites such as Mig33, My gamma etc
Under location - based social networking , the international players include Foursquare , Gowalla, Bright Kite, Flook etc . Our research proves that all these site have common features such as
•           Find friends
•           Find places & Events
•           Share location tips
•           Share photos
•           Near by strangers

However, Gowalla has added applications such as
•           Gaming roots
•           Collect digital goodies
•           Trips
•           Top 10 user list at venues
•           Badges

And, Foursquare has added applications such as
•           Social utility
•           City guide
•           Awards+ Badges
•           Special deals
•           Applications


Location Based Social Networking sites has the following characteristics-
•           Ease of use & good looks are important
•           Celebrities do influence
•           Checks In/ common features are not enough
•           Built initial trust between users and their service
•           Games & apps help in engaging customer
•           Create more partners than competitors
•           Create not only a social network but a framework
•           Talking to strangers esp. opposite sex is important
•           Every 10% easier interface means 50% larger audience
•           Real -time info is important

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