Thoughts @ Amit Gupta is a blog by Amit Gupta on india, internet , mobile, marketing and life in general. » Internet & Mobile

Safeguard your SIM card against misuse

Amit Gupta — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:32:32 +0000

There seems to be a perfect synergy in the marketing and sales department of cellular companies. Both departments are supplementing each other in growing the subscriber base (And possibly redcuing ARPU).

The telesales ladies pushes hard to sell complementary ‘Golden’, ‘Platinum’ and matching/similar numbers to your current Mobile number in ever sweet voice. I have recd two such calls since morning. Good I have recieved two call in morning itself and now I can chill (My average incoming telesales call stands at 2). I am sure you want to know how have I managed this. Follow these simple rules to avoid telemarketing calls.

‘Amit Gupta : With the amount of free numbers offered by Idea cellular. It seems I can run a telephone exchange.Tell them I am happy in my job’ via my facebook and twitter update.

On other hand, marketing team is generating demand for new sim card in very innovative way. My latest bill from Vodafone displayed the ‘SMART’ way of safeguarding sim cards in 3 easy steps (This is the most prominent and colorful element on the page).

1) Go to nearest Store
2) Break the card in two
3) Hand it over to store employee

and then what…get a new sim card or connection Can’t believe what is the message Vodafone is trying to deliver with this creative. I found this message very confusing and misplaced.

Google Wave – a new wave of communication

Amit Gupta — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:38:52 +0000

Google announced to launch Google wave later this year. This is bound to create a wave across the Internet world. So what is exactly is a wave. In a simple words Google wave is a real-time communication platform. It’s a hybrid of email, instant messaging, web chat, social networking, micro bloging, file share all build into one interface.

Features of wave :

You can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process (contextual suggestions and spelling correction).

It supports the drop and drag attachments from desktop and thus enable the real-time file sharing to anyone in the conversation.

It’s also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog.

This could very well turn into a project management tool with all concerns sharing the progress realtime.

It’s also an open-source project with a lot of API integrations. So the possibilities of growth and integration with various web products are unimaginable.

There is more information which will flow in but as a user we have to wait for some more time to swim in the wave. But this will surely bring a mega shift in the internet communication and more. So beware Twitter and FB of the world there is a strong wave coming soon….

Image Credits and official page : Google Wave you can also sign up for Google wave update here.

Makaan.com property survey on CNBC

Amit Gupta — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:59:17 +0000

Makaan.com conducted a National survey ‘My Vote. My Makaan’ in leading Metros and Tier II cities of India. The survey was conducted on the portal between 22nd to 30th April 2009 and saw participation from over 3563 property seekers nationally.

The survey results can be found at http://makaan.com/electionsurvey. The survey findings were also covered on CNBC Awaaz.

Abuse of Cost Per Click (CPC) Marketing?

Amit Gupta — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:28:04 +0000

Cost Per Click better known as CPC advertising is one of the most popular ROI (return on Investment) driven model in online world. Google has build in a complete empire revolving around this model.

This model provides a win-win situation to publishers (websites), ad-networks (like Google, Komli etc) and advertisers (sellers). Advertisers pays to the ad-networks only when a visitor (prospective buyer) clicks on the advertisement (thereby presumed he expresses interest in the advertiser’s services) on the publisher’s website. Thereby justifying the advertising cost as paid by the advertisers. On the same hand ad-networks are in position to calculate and display the ROI and compensation for publishers.

Now in a fair game, a visitor will click on the advertisement to know more about the services and contact the buyer subsequently (If he is interested). On every such click publisher get paid certain amount by ad-networks and advertisers are charged for that click.

Wonderful concept, so where is the abuse?

Now few advertisers are abusing the ecosystem by removing/reducing the requirement to click the advertisement in order to know the contact info etc. Thus avoiding the charges payable to ad-network and subsequently the publisher.

This short-term strategy will surely have long lasting impact on the ecosystem of publishers, advertisers and ad-networks. I am sure ad-networks would have all the systems and checks in place to avoid such content going live in the advertisement. Ad networks would spend more energy on building more checks to stop abuse, which would have otherwise gone in more constructive activities. All said and done, I believe there is an equal responsibility to be shared by the advertisers also for not abusing the product.

PS : I just found one more and this one is interesting. Skype installed on my system prompt me to call on the number displayed on ad for FREE and again without even clicking on the ad.

Everything I Know About Startups by Dharmesh Shah

Amit Gupta — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:12:45 +0000

This is an absolutely great presentation by Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of HubSpot, that was originally posted at OnStartups.

WordCamp India (India’s first WordPress Camp)

Amit Gupta — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:04:25 +0000

I’ll be attending the India’s first WordPress Camp to be organised on 21st and 22nd February. To know more and register for event visit :

http://wci.eventbrite.com

PS : Event is Co-hosted by Mayank Gupta. An internet freak , wordpress fan and my sweet little cousin. I’m proud of you.

Best of Luck …

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Amit Gupta — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:13:32 +0000

I have just checked out Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 version and Firefox3. I would not be comparing them but there are certain new feature I liked about both of them.

But the most exciting feature to me is Actiities in IE8. I lets to do certain activities on the webpage you are working on. Its like talking to many other application from one page (uff.. internet making me lazzy and more demanding every day). Though the application integrated are few but all are worth mentioning.

See how useful a Live Map application can be for a real estate site. No clicks , No tabs and you get what you want. I have tried looking for Noida and a map was there (That too fairly close).

There are many more activities which can be done on a click like Google search , Blogging with Live Space and define with Encarta. Microsoft keep exploring…..

3G in India

Amit Gupta — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:56:13 +0000

Bharti , Vodafone to bring Apple 3G iPhone to India later this year and with Bharti on verge of launching 3G services (Subject to all statuary clearance) .

Hmmm… so would we get to see a revolution in the way people get to use mobile and mobile internet in India. The success will largely depend on the cost of acquiring the technology (Handset + Service). Indian consumers are very price senstive and to an extend slow adapter in terms of mobile innovations. Still we have very limited usage of GPRS and related applications.

Mobile services were launched in India by Airtel but the credit goes to Reliance to bring mobile phones to commener. Their runaway success can be largely attributed to attractive (read unbeliable low priced handset and call rates) offers they throw open to customers. And with 3G hanset promised to be priced sub 10K , I think there will be many takers.

I am of belief that Internet and Mobile are deadly combination and way for next generation of business. 3G will offer the speedy internet and open avenues to offer range of product and services directly to the mobile device.

Looks like tring tring time.

Makaan Mobile

Amit Gupta — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:33:45 +0000

Know your customers and the environment in which they operate. At Makaan we found out that our customers (property providers) are not very tech-savvy and don’t have regular internet access, infact only little fraction of our total customer universe are internet friendly. But the irony is that thier customers (Property seekers) are more and more depends on new age mediums for the needs.

So the challange was to build a product which will bridge this gap and property seeker & providers can be brought closer. The answer was in mobile phone which is a integral business requirement of people in property business. So through Makaan Mobile benefits internet is brought to people with no access of Internet.

Makaan Mobile application is a First SMS based application which enable property provider to advertise for the property and recieve responses directly to his mobile. The application also manages all the listings and the responses of the advertiser.

To know more about Makaan Mobile visit www.makaan.com/mobile . This application is supported on all GSM networks in India. You can also download the application from the link below :

A Year That Was…

Amit Gupta — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:13:00 +0000

These line are generally written on the turn of the year. You might think that I am possibily two months late. But I am talking about completeing a year with Makaan.com

Now when I look back at this amazing year it gives me a feeling which can’t be expressed in words. But whats so amazing about this year and this job. There has been complete transormation from the kind of work I’ve done in the past. I have lived my dream of creating an online business.

On the day of joining makaan team strength was three including Aditya (Business Head) and (Chetna). Now we have grown over 125 as a team. Aditya has shown immence confidence in me and handed me an additional responsibily of Managing the software team along with my Product Management responsibility.

And we have done our best to proove him right by delivering a best in the category product within the short span. We have worked for 10-12 hours in a day for 4 months in a strech. We launched the site on August 15, 2007, Independence day of India in less than 6 Months of my joining.

And I must say that I have got an amazing team to support Saleem, Deb, Veeru , Amit , Sandy and Nikhil.