Finally, the website owned by the ADA group says that there is no potential for it in the youth networking business which is dominated by Facebook and other global players, and that its future lies in e-commerce rather than 'free' social networking services
As reported by Moneylife on 1st July BigAdda.com, the blog and youth networking site owned by the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group, has said that it will discontinue its social media services and focus on its e-commerce initiatives. (Read, "BigAdda to scale down social-networking services".)
In a statement today, Rohit Sharma, chief executive, Reliance Entertainment's digital business, said, "This is a conscious decision to transition BigAdda.com to e-commerce business. We believed that local social media platforms would do exceptionally well. However, local social media networks show no potential anymore with the dominance of Facebook and other global players. We believe that the growth drivers of the digital space are e-commerce, gaming and video on demand (VOD)."
He, however, clarified that the blog written by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan (BigB, as he is popularly known in film circles) would continue on BigAdda.com. "Fans can continue to read the superstar's blog daily on www.bigb.bigadda.com as BigB's blog has an identity of its own and will continue to connect Big B with millions of fans across the globe," Mr Sharma said.
BigAdda's e-commerce has been in operation since the last three months on a pilot phase and has seen the fastest ramp-up of orders compared to any e-commerce player in India, recently. BigAdda has crossed Rs2 crore in gross value of transactions per month for June, and is poised to be one of the leading e-commerce players in the country, with its combination of readers' offers and the e-tailing business model, the company said.
The total e-commerce market in India is estimated to be between Rs3,000 crore and Rs3,500 crore with contributions from teleshopping around Rs1,500 crore, readers' offers (including teleshopping) Rs1,000 crore and online Rs700 crore. Mr Sharma said, "The alternate retailing market, or readers offer, and teleshopping is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%, while the online segment is growing at 50% CAGR. With increasing spending power and aspirations of youth in small towns and the acceptance of credit and debit cards as a mode of online payment, e-commerce will grow exponentially in India."
The ADA group launched BigAdda in 2007 with much fanfare, with the stated aim of achieving a user base of 10 million by 2010. Currently, the site caters to around 5.5 million youth, out of which 3.5 million registered users are from small towns. Although, BigAdda was launched with an aim to evolve a youth community, it failed to stick to this platform. Even today, it is better known as a blog space for celebrities, than for commonplace socialising. Over the past few months, BigAdda also tried to concentrate on gaming, instead of social networking services.
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Nice Post, I read your Post, Its really interesting and very Knowledgeable. You describe it in a very simple manner. I totally agree with you that This is a conscious decision to transition BigAdda.com to e-commerce business. We believed that local social media platforms would do exceptionally well.Thanks for sharing this article with us.
Keep it up dear........
Friendster too closed down its social networking platform and moved to gaming.
These sites were in no position to compete with Facebook or Google Plus.
It is much easier to make money on the internet by "selling" things or services than providing content.
Content sites survive only if they have high quality content or have high quality SEO support to bring tons of traffic.
On the other hand mediocre e-commerece sites survive even if they achieve a handful of sales every day.