Babajob, which connects you with cooks, maids, drivers and other informal workers, was shortlisted as one of the top 5 startups at the Mobile Peer Awards in Barcelona.
That’s quite an accomplishment. Who’d have thought that such a highly unorganized market could be tapped so effectively. Just imagine how big the size of their market is. Kudos to the Babajob team.
Have you used their service ? If so, let me know how was your experience.
Microsoft has picked up a minority stake in mobile marketing firm Affle. Size of the deal was not revealed. Windows Live and MSN will use Affle’s SMS 2.0 service to distribute content on mobiles and will also provide access to a large mobile ad inventory.
Affle has signed already partnerships in place with Airtel, NDTV Convergence etc.
via release
As per an interview with Medianama, Rediff CEO Ajit Balakrishnan mentions that “Vakow is struggling”. Rediff had earlier invested in Vakow and opted not to invest this time.
In case you dont know what Vakow is, its a social site where you can share your SMS forwards. Inspite of the fact they use a SMS long code, it isnt cheap to send out SMS’es – and without any clear revenue model, all those SMS’es cost adds up.
Besides, SMSGupshup and Google SMS channel, closest competitors for Vakow are well funded and so can continue to scale up without any issues.
Do you think all these SMS based services can continue to sustain themselves without any solid revenue model?
Fringu is a new service that allows users to upload their music tracks and create your own mobile ringtones from the track. Once you upload your mp3 or WMA music file (upload is pretty fast by the way), the app processes the track and provides you with two pointers, using which you can slice the original track in whatever way you want. I had a few difficulties in getting this to work correctly, but once you select the section of the track, you can save it and that will become your ringtone.
Visit their mobile site and download your ringtone. You can also browse and download ringtones created by other users as well.
What do Indian consumers look for when buying a mobile phone ? How much importance do they give to various aspects like cost, brand, features etc ?
Here’s the result of a survey conducted across major Indian cities:
Nokia recently made a goofup by showing Kashmir as a part of Pakistan in their mobile navigation systems. So Nokia apologies and issues a statement that all maps are sourced from Navteq yada yada..
Now wait a minute, doesnt Nokia own Navteq ?
I think that this goofup comes to light at a pretty unfortunate time — The Bombay attacks are still fresh on everyone’s minds and when anti Pakistan sentiments are running high, this screwup earns some bad publicity for the company.
Nokia will launch the Nokia Music Store in India in December. They’ve tied up with several international and Indian record labels and the Indian Music Industry. The store will be a one stop shop for music and the launch will also include a retail presence.
As part of the effort, Nokia also launched their “Touch Music” device, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which will be available starting Jan 2009.
Nokia is being aggressive and protecting its turf in India. Meanwhile, Apple really needs to start looking at India seriously and step up their game. So far, iPhone has failed to click in India.
Beep is a new service from NowPosOnline. It is a mobile advertising / marketing service, packaged as a
downloadable app, where the user downloads the “Beep” app and is presented with an ad or a brand logo on their LCD. The displayed ad changes every hour and unlike other mobile marketing agencies, no SMS or bandwidth charges apply since no messages are sent over the network.
In return for downloading the app, the mobile subscriber gets Rs. 100 worth of free talk time from Airtel every month. Currently, the service is available in Andhra Pradesh only, but they’ll be looking to expand coverage to other regions as well.
The strategy of free talk time is another variant of permission based mobile marketing – do you think it will work ?
Would you sign up for the service to avail the free talk time every month ?
HT Media has signed a deal with Velti Plc for providing mobile marketing services to brands and ad agencies. HT’s digital subsidiary, Firefly e-Ventures Ltd. will own a 65% stake in the venture and Amit Garg, head of Firefly will manage the joint venture.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is an incredibly smart move by HT, since this adds another advertising channel for HT Media, which owns HindustanTimes, Livemint, a radio network (Fever 104FM), a job portal and social networking site.
via Livemint
Navigating your way through Mumbai’s bus service can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to Mumbai or new to a specific Mumbai locality. And unfortunately, if you live in Mumbai, there’s no escaping it. The only solution is to ask other folks at the bus station about the bus route and cross your fingers hoping that the information provided is accurate.
M4mum hopes to change that by launching a Java based mobile app for bus information in Mumbai. Enter the ‘From’ and the ‘To’ fields and the app will help you navigate through the myriad bus routes frenzy. No longer do you need to ask around for information or carry a route booklet in your pocket. Since no GPRS – SMS is involved, end users do not incurr any expenses for using the service.
The idea is awesome – it solves a common painpoint for regular commuters and considering that about 4.2 million commute via bus in Mumbai, the potential market size is pretty large too. Now that they’re in beta, I’d suggest getting the word out to fellow Mumbaikars and increase the user adoption.
Check them out here.
