MySpace launched in India — Mumbai at Taj Land’s End — last evening and apart from the very abrasive Raghu Dixit Project, sounds like it was a fun launch party. The Rupert Murdoch-backed social networking website is the oldest in the business and has somewhere between 80-250 million registered users (every newspaper report seems to have a different number!). The India homepage opens up to reveal some people called ‘campus stars’ — am assuming this is from the irritating Channel V show currently on air. And (fatigue, fatigue) there is also an Amitabh Bachchan video up. Hopefully, going forward the content will get better, particularly with the company’s stated focus on localized content.
Anyhow, the launch has got me thinking about our very own social networking me-toos. It is getting to be a rather crowded market and apart from foreign players such as Facebook and Google’s Orkut, there are also desi big-ticket players such as Reliance Communications’ BigAdda. Jostling with these heavyweights are a bunch of startups — Minglebox (backed by Sequoia Capital India), Desimartini (got acquired by HT Media’s Firefly eVentures), Yaari — which, please don’t mind my saying so, looks a bit B-grade — or even Fropper, which happens to be the oldest and is backed by People Interactive. There are more but it will become too many links to link. Crowded, like I said. And all of them are expect to make money from advertising. I’m not seeing much light, at least for start-ups, at the end of the tunnel.
Just remembered, long time since I facebooked.
Hey Snigdha,
I have done testing on MingleBox(when I get time) and I tried this: Keep the Mouse Pointer in between any two sections like Me, Friends, Campus, Movies etc and the mouse pointer keeps on Toggling 
Terrible piece of design (:
One thing which is most scary here is Venture Funding.For example: In your article, take away Sequoia from MingleBox and it is dead (: I still remember BCB2 when Kavita Iyer was there and she spoke about Minglebox, and guess what after nearly so many years(close to 1.5 years AFAIK), MingleBox is still in the Alpha Stage
Yaari, dont think if it is a wesbite
As you have told, it looks B Grade,just like a Mithun Chakrvarthy film 
Same is the case in Business Networking sites, One missing feature in LinkedIn and we have a LinkedIn+ (Like Naymz) on the internet….
Such websites get funded and many times, they even die out; So, they make the big news but except that there is nothing much in them
-Himanshu Sheth
hi himanshu, yes, venture capitalists are partly to blame for the hype around social networking. though, i think there is a reality check with VCs now and that could bad news for VC-funded sites. however, minglebox, if you recall, was almost an in-house, family project
so maybe they wont suffer yet.
Hi Snigdha,
Good to know that a blog as this exists
. I hope I got your name right?
“….with these heavyweights are a bunch of startups…And all of them are expect to make money from advertising. I’m not seeing much light, at least for start-ups, at the end of the tunnel.”
You’re right on spot. Infact, as per the Revenue Stats that I was presented with (a couple of months back), the Country’s largest, and by far the BIGGEST Social Network, hardly touches the $1.5M revenue mark/year.
VC’s pumping in 10 times the amount to acquire ‘em, makes no sense at all. And the ones, trying to make it big, just by COPY PASTING stuff, simply need to Shut Shop.
I got some stuff over at TS…. kind of a spoof surrounding the latest Buzz (in the END)….
hi ts, yes got the name right
thanks for the comment and the link to your blog.