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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