Pew survey on bloggers

PRWeek reports

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report this week that found more than half of bloggers had never been published in another medium and 37 per cent publish blogs to relate their ‘life and experiences’.

Among those that focus on current events, 7 per cent of bloggers focus on entertainment, 6 per cent on sports, 5 per cent on news or business, and 4 per cent on technology. More than half of bloggers, according the survey, are under 30 years old.

MSN gears up for online boom

exchange4media reports:

MSN has announced the appointment of new trade marketing executives.

Gina Hertel, Regional Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific, Greater China and Japan, MSN, said, “The online advertising industry continues to flourish, and the growth that MSN is experiencing reflects that. The investment in our trade marketing team demonstrates MSN’s continued commitment to delivering the highest level of service and support to our customers.”

The key appointments include Vineet Gupta, who has joined as Trade Marketing Manager, MSN India. Gupta has an extensive background in TV and radio marketing with companies including STAR TV and Radio City. At MSN India, Gupta will focus on developing MSN’s presence in India, look at ways to leverage the dynamic and creative medium that is online advertising for clients, and build strong relationships within the advertising community.

Another new appointment is that of Celia Fan as Regional Media Analyst, MSN Greater Asia. In this newly created role, Fan will be responsible for the execution of Asia-Pacific research studies that will provide the advertising sales team with essential and up-to-date information on audience, usage data and market segmentation.

Azmar Sukandar has joined MSN Greater Asia as Regional Trade PR Manager, another newly created role. Sukandar will focus on enhancing MSN’s pan-regional trade PR, developing a framework for communicating MSN’s products and innovative offerings to advertisers and trade media across Asia, driving activities based on regional trade marketing initiatives and liaising with industry trade bodies.

More interactive home pages

India’s Internet user-base is growing at a rapid clip. With 35 million users, India is the fourth largest in Net usage – the first three being the US (205 million), China (111 million) and Japan (86 million).

Though no authentic data is available, there seems to be a sea change in the needs of Net users in recent times. The accent is now on interactivity.

Mirroring the change are initiatives of top sites likes rediff.com and Yahoo!

Last month rediff.com overhauled its home page. This month it is the turn of Yahoo! to carry out the ‘most significant’ redesign of the site since its launch in 1994.

“Today’s Internet users are passionate about expressing themselves and contributing to the online conversation that is occurring every day among the estimated 500 million users of Yahoo! branded Web properties around the world,” Cammie Dunaway, Chief Marketing Officer, Yahoo! Inc, has told exchange4media. “We encourage these talented people to join us in celebrating the new Yahoo! home page with their own personal videos.”

In a media interview earlier this month, George Zacharias, Managing Director, Yahoo! India, said, "By using innovative technology, we were able to redefine what a home page could and should be. With an increased focus on search, content and community, we have built a home page that adds value and excitement for our users and advertisers."

Zacharias was earlier President and Chief Operating Officer of Sify.
Sify too is in the news. Raju Vegesna, Chairman, Sify, has taken over as the company’s Managing Director & CEO. R Ramaraj resigned from the posts of MD & CEO on Tuesday.

With these changes at the top, Sify might not lag behind in the revamp race, considering the rapid changes in the Net-user profile.

Explaining the reasons for the changes on the homepage and the inside pages, Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder and CEO, rediff.com, has said, “The Internet is first, and foremost, about helping you connect with the world. The joy of being online is all about the interesting people you encounter and the opportunity to exchange views through the various tools we provide: Blogs (ILand), Social Networking (Connexions), Instant Messaging (Bol), Matchmaking (Matchmaker). We have gathered all these community services together under 'Featured Users' and hope this will make it easier for you to participate in our community.”

Digital communications, PR and blasts

On Monday evening, I received an unusual SMS urging me to observer one-minute silence on July 18 evening.

It is the first time that I am getting an SMS from any Indian Government. It is perhaps the first time any Indian Government is being so proactive….

How times are changing!

It only proves one thing beyond doubt: that the digital media (or call it New Media or digital communications) is spreading faster than anyone can imagine. This is what this blog has been repeatedly saying.

It is a major milestone in reaching out to stakeholders, prompting the all-important question: Is the Government machinery revisiting its public relations efforts?

PC penetration trebles in India

Business Standard reports:

Personal computer penetration in India has almost trebled from 6.3 per 1,000 people in 2000-01 to 18 per 1,000 in 2005-06, according to data provided by the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology…

"PC sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30 per cent for the next five years," Zenith Computers Chairman and Managing Director Raj Saraf said.

From 3.77 million in 2004-05, PC sales in the country grew 32 per cent to cross the 5 million mark in 2005-06. During the current year, all projections point towards sale in excess of six million PCs…

Consider this: While a PC with good software and a Pentium 4 processor costs around Rs 16,000 in India, a similar machine would cost at least $480 (Rs 21,600) in China and $350 (Rs 15,750) in the US…

“People in the villages use computers as an Internet-using device. There is a lack of awareness regarding the use of computer and infrastructure needed for promotion of PC,” MAIT Vice-President Vinnie Mehta said.

Nitin Gupta’s dotcom learnings

Dotcoms continue to hit the headlines. And, of late, for all the good reasons.

Nitin Gupta, Country Manager (South Asia), Mastercard International, was among the five Indian technology boom poster boys who recalled their dotcom days in The Economic Times.

Gupta lists four key learnings from the dotcoms days:

Speed is the killer app: Being first to market is more important than having a perfect product.

Talent is the only scare resource: In the Internet economy, there was no shortage of capital – building a strong management team was the real challenge.

Big companies need to think small: Entrepreneurial spirit and dynamism are coming back into ‘old economy’ companies.

Owners are the best managers: ESOPs create widespread feeling of ownership, and align personal and business goals beautifully.

‘Internet edging out TV’

Digital communications are bringing about radical changes in India, as we discussed earlier.

The Economic Times today reports that the computer mouse is edging out the television remote control.

“TV fast losing its net worth,” reads a headline on Page 1 of The Economic Times. “The rising popularity of Internet, with close to 25 million Indians hooked on, is bringing about a sea change in the way people consume television.

“For home Internet-users, about 40 per cent of all Internet users in India, there is very little difference in time spend on Internet vis-a-vis television. Over two-third home Internet users are spending anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours everyday on the Net, mirroring 71 per cent for television viewers spending the same amount of time.”

An important aspect to note is that more than 50 per cent of the Indian Net users have been experiencing the power of New Media’s interactivity which is its most attractive feature. “Over half, 55 per cent, of the Internet users in India have also participated in some online contest or the other in the last one year, a huge success for the medium in terms of generating marketing stimulus,” reports the business daily.