Reliance ADAG Launches bigadda

Madhavi Gokhlay, Aug 13, 2007 2000 hrs IST

With a punch line that reads: 'Let's catch up', bigadda.com claims to be more than just a networking site...

Today, BigAdda, part of Reliance ADAG, launched bigadda.com, calling it the first Indian Youth Networking Web site.

Refuting charges of being yet another social networking Web site, Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, said, "bigadda.com is the first unified platform where different media sharing activities will converge. Besides, most of the existing social networking Web sites are meant for a global audience. Unlike these, bigadda.com caters to a purely Indian audience. Why should it always be that we look towards the West for a pioneering technology or idea or concept. Why cannot it be the other way round? Our new Web site is testimony to this feeling."

"The product/Web site is like any other product in it's class -- feature driven, but it is the ecosystem that is the differentiator. Our content is local and relevant to the youngsters of today. Importantly, it is meant for Indian sensibilities," added Siddhartha Roy, chief operating officer of BigAdda.

With a punch line that reads: 'Let's catch up', bigadda.com claims to be more than just a networking site -- it intends to help today's youth fulfil a very important need, that of 'self expression'.

Some of the salient features of bigadda.com include: media sharing including creating, uploading, and sharing of videos and photos; addas or communities; blogs and scribbles; forums; bookmarks and tags; and reviews and ratings.

Sawhney explained that bigadda.com aims at evolving a youth community, inclusive and aspirational, and at creating a youth culture that is cool.

In keeping with this objective, the Web site has roped-in five celebrities -- each famous in his/her own right -- who will establish connect with youngsters and lead them.

The chosen five include: photographer Atul Kasbekar, who among other things will spearhead a mobile photo contest, the winners of which will get a chance to work with him; singer and composer, Shankar Mahadevan, who will spur promising musical talent; golfer Irina Brar, who will create a sports adda with special focus on women; filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who will lead the video category; and actor, Dia Mirza, who will steer the movies category and keep-in-touch with her fan base.

What would be the extent of involvement? Dia Mirza, who chose to answer on behalf of all five personalities, said each of them, in his/her field would try and utilize bigadda as a medium to connect with the youth, encourage and motivate them, as also get valuable feedback from them.

Meanwhile, Nikhil Soman, chief technology officer of BigAdda, said, "bigadda.com is all open source, and contrary to public perception, entirely home grown. While Web 2.0 is the key driving technology, we would like to believe our Web site is not only about individual applications but also about sharing and leveraging each other's applications."

USER COMMENTS

Reliance DTH is very best .my fevrets com. All products

by hasan ali, baran, on Aug 09, 2008 05:00 PM, Report abuse Reply

i have no friend can you halp me?

by jignesh, ahamadabad, on Sep 12, 2007 03:52 PM, Report abuse Reply

i have no good friend

by jignesh, ahamadabad, on Sep 12, 2007 03:48 PM, Report abuse Reply

WAKE UP!!give the site its due.why do we only criticise when we ourselved do not create anything worthwhile.Good Work!!Keep it up and the effort is worthwhile for networking locally.Wishh u All the LUCK Guys at Bigadda!!

by Harkirat Uberoi, Mumbai, on Aug 16, 2007 11:57 AM, Report abuse Reply

GGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......abhi bata ta hu bhabhi ko.....online romance chal raha hain!!!

by hhhhhhhhhhmmm, mum, on Sep 08, 2007 11:59 AM, Report abuse

"Why should it always be that we look towards the West for a pioneering technology or idea or concept." ROFL -- isn't that wht u just did :D

by Arjun, Lothlorian, on Sep 01, 2007 04:01 AM, Report abuse Reply

Why the hell can Indians not create anything. All they do is just copy from stuff thats already there. From Bollywood to networking, creativity is DEAD!!!!

by Bawaji, Bombay, on Aug 14, 2007 11:39 AM, Report abuse Reply

Wait for us....we'll get you something better than What all you've seen in social networking and we are from India.

by Rajan Chandi, Irvine, CA, on Aug 22, 2007 09:41 AM, Report abuse

When the world is flat, India is going global and internet doesn't bother about geographical boundaries, I would really want to understand what it means to be social networking website for Indians. Infact, sites like orkut which are big in India were never created for Indians. The only way Bigadda can be truely social networking site for Indians will be when they launch the site in Indian languages. But again in case the same is copied or executed much earlier by other sites, then what. Future will see lot of e-commerce platforms getting integrated into social networking sites. Thinking on those lines may also give it credentials of being a Indian Social Networking Site as C2C commerce for good time will happen within the boundaries of one country. Just aggregating best of Myspace, Orkut, Facebook or Flikr features I doubt will take things far. In fact, Facebook is killer website today as they have opened their platform for integration of newer applications. Are Indian companies thinking on those lines. Will appreciate viewpoint of those working at bigadda.com

by Mukesh Ambani, Mumbai, on Aug 16, 2007 11:43 AM, Report abuse Reply

I dont think it can compete with orkut

by Manu Garekar, Mumbai, on Aug 16, 2007 12:50 AM, Report abuse Reply

awesome...!!!!!!!!!dats 1 of d best thing to happen for Indian youths

by Sumeet, Toshniwal, on Aug 14, 2007 07:34 PM, Report abuse Reply

we expected some thing innovated from big guns of india not the copied stuff.... N such kinda experiments says nothing but lack of visionary traits in so called AMBANI group which was knows for its Bigger then mammoth vision. Mr Ambani do shell out some mullah from your balance sheet to give something fruitfull to the ITES fraternity rather than dumping money in some thingw hich dont worth a try.

by Sachin, Pune, on Aug 14, 2007 03:47 PM, Report abuse Reply

very good

by sudhanshu, Kanpur, on Aug 14, 2007 02:26 PM, Report abuse Reply

good site but market flooded with the networking site , so its hard to survive these sites ,

by vikas singh, noida, on Aug 14, 2007 10:47 AM, Report abuse Reply