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On November 12, 2008, BigAdda.com (BigAdda), the youth social networking site of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group1 (Reliance ADAG), announced that it had touched the 3 million user mark. Commenting on this achievement, Shivanandan Pare, COO, BigAdda,
said, "We are very pleased to reach yet another milestone of 3
million user base in such a short span of time. We are actively
working towards taking our registered user base to 10 million in
India at the earliest and for this we will continue to launch
innovative
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products that appeal to a wider base of people; both
our existing users and to attract new users. In fact, launching BigAdda
on mobile recently was a step in this direction which has so far
received a great response."2
BigAdda was launched by Reliance ADAG on August 13, 2007, marking the company's foray into the social networking arena. It was founded with the aim of tapping the growing Internet-savvy youth market in India and creating a forum that would provide Indian youth with the freedom of expression through the creation, posting, and sharing of videos, scribbles, blogs, and pictures.
According to Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Entertainment3,
"Positioned as a youth entertainment network, bigadda.com is yet another
extension of our business targeted at the youth. The media consumption
patterns of this group tell us that while they are actively involved in
social networking there is an absence of an Indian platform. Therefore
this is the first organized effort in India to provide a platform for
community formation initiated through user generated content."
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The business model of BigAdda was advertisement driven. The company planned to attract advertisers to post ads on its site. It banked on this initiative considering the potential of the Indian Internet consumer base of over 20 to 30 million adding up to advertisement spends of Rs. 100 million.5 The company's marketing campaign was also focused on youth and had the tagline,
'let's catch up'.
BigAdda had incorporated a plethora of features on its site like videos, music, movies, photos, games, provision to browse, join or create addas6, explore forums and blogs, and search for friends. The site also featured a new Indian youth celebrity icon corner to make the site more interactive and interesting.
The site planned to differentiate itself from other websites in the social networking arena by giving it an Indian feel. Siddhartha Roy, COO, BigAdda, said,
"Till date [August 14, 2007], there has not been one particular destination for Indian and international video content, a void which BigAdda will fill. In just six weeks of the site being in the test phase, BigAdda.com
has over 12,000 videos with over 5,000 television advertisements."7
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1] Reliance ADAG comprises major companies such as Reliance Entertainment , Reliance Capital , Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Health, Reliance Natural Resource Limited, and Reliance Technology Ventures
2] "BigAdda Links 3mn Registered Users,"www.moneycontrol.com, November 11, 2008.
3] Reliance Entertainment is the media and entertainment arm of Reliance ADAG.
4] "Reliance ADAG Unveils Community Building Website Bigadda.com,"www.indiantelevision.com, August 7, 2007.
5] "Reliance ADAG Unveils Community Building Website Bigadda.com,"www.indiantelevision.com, August 7, 2007.
6] The term means hangout in the Hindi language.
7] "Reliance ADAG's Social Networking Site BigAdda.com to go Wireless Soon,"www.exchange4media.com, August 14, 2007. |