Why Indian Startups Want to Bring Silicon Valley's Social Media Culture in India? Social media is changing everything about the way we interact with each other and how we spend our time alone at leisure.
By Govinda Giri •
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The much revered Silicon Valley is well known for technology innovation and a place where raw ideas, visions, and dreams become a reality. If we look at it carefully, we can safely state that the Silicon Valley has always been a venerated torch bearer of Information Technology trends and that is primarily why its name is very much familiar in all domains of technology.
Although India is quite far from achieving what this southern part of the San Francisco Bay area has achieved till date, there is still a small yet important segment that India can excel in. The name of that segment is Social Media.
Silicon Valley-based companies and services such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and companies crafting up artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies are truly bringing about paradigm shifts in content distribution trends. Armed with the power of social media, everyone of us today, has the ability to share a well-written and depth researched story with our networks, be it social or professional, on a website or on an online magazine platform for wider distribution. Online magazines, press, video documentaries, original series and social media content are and will get better and thoughtful with each passing day.
Social media is changing everything about the way we interact with each other and how we spend our time alone at leisure. Let us take a cursory look at the past decade. At first, the world jargon was tech savvy and then came the buzzword- social media savvy. With burgeoning smartphone, internet penetration and reducing internet tariff rates, social media boomed in India. About 2/3rd of Indians online are spending time on different social networking sites. Personal emails took a backseat and messaging through social sites became the regular norm. Mediums such as interaction, live chat, status updates, image, audio- as well as video-sharing are few aspects that are playing a major role in the acceptance of social media in India. Even organisations the world over are using social media to gauge customer's responses, brand interaction and brand or product awareness. Therefore, Social media today has evolved into playing several multiple roles over and above its key role - communicating information from one to many, one to one, many to one and many to many.
The digital natives in India are increasingly using social media channels to build virtual communities and peer-groups in order to engage, interact and hold conversations. Technological advancements and innovations are further fuelling the role that social media plays, both for the individual users as well as for brands. Each day 100 million Indians, come online and are active on social media.
The Silicon Valley too has a social media culture embedded within it. The place is often referred to as the epicentre of creativity in the technology world. Tech savvy young people from across the globe come here looking for lucrative jobs in the IT and digital sector. The Silicon Valley is not just a seat for budding start-ups but also one for established companies. The Harvard Business Review states that most of the start-up founders at the Silicon Valley are of 31 years of average age. CEOs and presidents of established firms are usually over 40 years in age.
The social media culture in Silicon Valley comprises of many interesting companies, including the likes of Meerkat, Nextdoor, Periscope, Pinterest, Reddit, and the most popular ones - Twitter and Facebook.Indian Startup companies like us want to bring this social media culture of Silicon Valley to India through innovation and out of the box ideas. We have introduced the unique one-of-its-kind concept of Connect. Share. Earn, which translates into "connect with family, friends and co-workers; share stories that can promote thetransparent society and add to the knowledge of the reader; and earn for all the time you spend on Sagoon.
Many Indian social media start-ups want to pave the path for other social media start-ups to operate from India and eventually create a Silicon Valley-like social media culture in India. There are obvious reasons for this:
- To make India a leading hub for high-tech innovation in the arena of social media
- To contribute significantly to the start-up ecosystem of not just India but the entire South Asia
- To make India a launchpad for all the local talents looking for opportunities to showcase their technical skills
- To tap the growing social media market and make the country's name synonymous with the same
- To contribute to the "Make in India' campaign and the Indian economy
Just like "Silicon Valley' got its name from a large number of silicon chip innovators in the area, we want the world to recognize India as the "innovators in the field of social media'. We alone have a user base of 400,000 from all over the world.
