Or why India really does need another mobile social web site.

Bangalore BarCamp4 Mobile Collective

Outline

The social networking problems today

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks

If no comments or trackbacks,did anyone read anything?

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks3. Little sense of real places

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks3. Little sense of real places4. SN’s are largely for rich, English-

speaking people

Who’s in Kannada? Even Hindi?

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks3. Little sense of real places4. SN’s are largely for rich, English-

speaking people5. Mobile users are largely ignored

The Indian numbers• 2.52 mil broadband • 9.27 mil total Net connections at Rs

200/month

Mobile• 185.13 mil subscribers• GSM Rs 298, CDMA Rs 202 (prepaid Rs

168) • SMSs for prepaid CDMA: 21/month

Source: TRAI, March 2007, June 2007

Indian numbers con’t• .25% has broadband on a PC• 4-7% via shared/work connection• 18% of country has a mobile– 3% on mobile Internet (maybe)– virtually all 18% on SMS

•Hence, SMS

The social networking problems today

1. Too many people see too much2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks3. Little sense of real places4. SN’s are largely for rich, English-

speaking people5. Mobile users are largely ignored6. Nobody’s paying you to use them.

(See next talk)

And thus

SMS Philosophy• Session/Dialog based– Menu system with timeouts

• Full support for status, blogs, scraps, mail, invite

Soon• Notify when sent directly to you

(Not twitter nor group messages)• Moving to local numbers

Recap

1. Too many people see too much

2. The feedback loop on blogs sucks

3. Little sense of real places

4. SN’s are largely for rich, English-speaking people

5. Mobile users are largely ignored

Problems:

+ all the normal stuff

• Photos• Videos• Comments• Blogs• Scraps• Status• About you,

etc.

But wait…

But wait…

Rs. ???

How do people fall into poverty?Health calamity

How do people escape poverty?Income diversification aka other jobs

How do the poor get other jobs?They know someone.MSR India Research

Why we started

4. Driver tells Employer and Employer hires cook.

2. The Driver asks his friend if she knows any cooks.

3. His friend knows a cook and tells the driver.

1. Employer needs a cook and asks her driver

Many jobs are found through word of mouth.

Other job sites help high end workers – even connect to social networks

But wait: Poor people in India don’t use computersAnd most don’t have phones

Our solution:Pay people to help others find jobs.

How we do it:

...languages spoken, gender, religion and eating habits, such as veg or non-veg.

Why maps? Everyone wants to work near their

home

Employer

Payment example 1:Employee

Connector

Mentor

4. Driver tells Employer and Employer hires cook.

2. The Driver asks his friend if she knows any cooks.

3. His friend knows a cook and tells the driver.

1. Employer needs a cook and asks her driver

Previous example

Employer

Payment example 2: 2 hops

Employee

Connector

Connector

MentorFoo NGO

1. Employers pay Rs 7002. Search our list and/or post a job

• When they hire, we pay Rs 100 to:– Up to 2 connecting people between

employer & employee– The mentor– The employer (for telling us who they

hired)

• Beta launches today• Private invite only (except for BarCamp)• Bangalore only

Future:• Does the model work?• Leverage Facebook as a platform?

Widgets?• More cities

Status + Future

Where you come in

Summary

• Informal sector jobs (for now)• Maps• Mentors paid to help others

• Who sees and reads your blog

• Video, photos + great SMS

• Job connectors paid

Hire through your friends and neighborsThe mobile social network for India

Questions