LinkedIN launches Sub-Group Feature

LinkedIN launches Sub-Group feature. Please see the email below sent by LinkedIN to me. This feature can be interesting as it will help reduce the noise. Also, give a private space to discuss things out which might not be relevant for the entire group.

Dear Sachin Uppal, There are now over 300,000 groups on LinkedIn where professionals are discussing, sharing news and collaborating with each other. We sincerely appreciate your dedication to the LinkedIn group you manage. Your efforts are essential to the continued success of groups. We’re happy to announce that later this week we are launching a long-requested feature for group managers: the ability to create subgroups. Subgroups are like a break-out session at a conference. They enable you to create more focused areas than in the main group. Also, by creating and inviting members into subgroups, you can now send additional weekly Announcement emails to focused audiences. To create and invite other professionals into a subgroup, visit your groups and go to the group’s “Manage” tab today. Once you’ve created the subgroup, here are four easy ways to get it going quickly: Set the aims for the subgroup by posting a featured discussion in the subgroup Kindle the conversation by posting a news article with a brief comment every day for the first month of the group Provide an ongoing focus for members’ attention by adding 10 RSS feeds related to the focus of the subgroup Drive attention to the subgroup through your comments in the main group and in other groups where you participate Regards, The LinkedIn Groups Team

BOKU.com – Not so Rosy for MOBILE Payments

The rosy picture painted in my precious post about BOKU.com doesn’t seem to be that rosy. Based on reading fine print on BOKU.com’s website and some number crunching and deeper analysis, it might become more expensive to acquire new customers and retain customers if you use BOKU.com unless you get a phenomenal increase in conversions.

Airtel + BOKU can reach a huge user base of mobile customers in India. However, it seems like talktime currency can not be used to make payments. So the overall user reach (especially in smaller regions) reduces tremendously.

Postpaid customers – If postpaid users are going to be charged in their bills then service charge, recovery and fraud management will become an issue.

Broadly there are some more important issues to think of:

1) Customer’s Perspective: In the bill amount the user has to pay ~10% service charge. Which means that if they spent Rs. 100 they actually have spent Rs. 110 which they will realize in their 1st bill.

Merchant’s Perspective

1) Airtel + BOKU is charging some ridiculous amount of 25% – 45% fee to allow such transactions. If we go by industry standards, online payment gateways accepting credit card/debit card/Paymate(mobile), ITZ Cash cards etc… all these guys charge not more than 10%. Which means in the case of BOKU, the merchants will have to compensate nearly 25% to 45% of the cost of payment made by users. Which is ridiculous.

2) Merchant’s Perspective: If BOKU says that these numbers add up and it’s volume game and more conversions will help in driving revenues and break-evens then it means that by adding BOKU your conversions need to go up by atleast 10%(this number varies for various industries) till you break even.

3) After careful consideration and number crunching it looks like your existing customers who are already using credit or debit cards to make online payments should actually NOT move to this Mobile payment option as in the earlier case the merchant is compensating for 10% of the fee, however, with BOKU the compensation increases steeply.

BOKU Vs Merchant VS Telecom Provider
1) Credit period and liquidity – Telecom providers are asking for a credit period of 90 days before they release payments. Which means the merchant’s liquidity will get hit. They are willing to reduce it over a period of time to 30 days or 60 days. However, this is ridiculously high as compared to almost 24 hours time frame provided by Online payment gateways.

2) Money recovery from customers – Recovering money from post paid users for wrong charges on their bills might become an issue as they will have to handle fraud complaints and resolutions.

What BOKU can be helpful in is… converting new users. Making payments for the 1st time when the user is not sure about using their credit cards.

Unless Telecom carrier’s and BOKU’s combined cost doesn’t come down to something similar to other online payment gateways, this looks like a flashy new system to me which will take it’s own sweet n slow route to become what they want to become.

BOKU.com – NO Plastic – Mobile based online payment system!

BOKU.com, mobile payments made easy, NO Plastic Needed.

Today morning I was munching my breakfast after a solid gym routine and while scanning through my feeds, chanced upon an article on Watblog by Maneesh about mobile payments system by a company called BOKU.com where you DON’T need any credit card, debit card, bank account etc to make a payment.

I just jumped in the air and got glued to this post and quickly pounced to check out this site BOKU.com. And YES, they are offering direct payments through mobile phones without any card plastic / bank account.

If BOKU.com continues to expand their partnerships with more and more service providers like, there is nothing which stops BOKU to become the World’s most trusted and easiest online payment system.

BOKU.com is funded by Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures. VC’s investments includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, PureDigital, Second Life, Tellme, Twitter, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat.

BOKU.com’s strong management team comes from web, payment and mobile companies like Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Bank of America, GE, Google, mBlox and Paypal.

They claim to have a strong fraud management systems from their strong experience in managing risk in top notch companies like Amazon, PayPal, Google, Bank of America, and FirstUSA and they claim that Mobile phone is a different story as its used by only you… lets hope that’s the case.

This is how the payments work in BOKU.com, citing an example via @watblog a payment test they did in Facebook on Texas Holdem Poker application.

This can be the NEXT big thing to fuel online business growth with over couple of billion handsets across the world. The 3 step easy process just makes it so lucrative for customers to go ahead and make a quick payment.

As a publisher we are up-beat about this service and I personally am very optimiztic that this system will completely revolutionize the online payments in the coming time.

If this is increasingly adopted by more telecom providers, this will basically revolutionize the online payment systems in India as well as worldwide. I had written about one application of such system (to book local train tickets through mobile) on my blog last year. This is super exciting news for many online businesses. However, what would be interesting to note is, how telecom providers cope with managing the Post-Paid customers with bills and recoveries and charge-backs.

Anyways, this is Fantastic, I being in a online games company where we handle daily online payments… this will help us boost our conversions significantly. I think all online publishers will welcome this as a booster for their sales.

Looking forward to a close collaboration with BOKU.com.

M-Seva SMS based Mobile Ticket Booking System for Local Trains

M-Seva Mobile Ticket Booking System For Local trains in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta through Sms

We all travel in local trains every day, especially the Mumbai and Delhi people have seen the lines in local trains. Soon, the local trains will be running in Bangalore too!

Few months back I was traveling in a local train in mumbai and well I was appalled by the ticket booking system. In the age of mobile phones, why do we still have queues and why do we need to swipe and do so many irrelevant things just for buying a ticket?

I was extremely annoyed by the system and I said why can’t I book my tickets on my mobile?

Well to answer my own questions, I started thinking…

It was 11 PM and I started jotting down some points on what can be done for making a mobile based ticket booking system.

Well this is not a Novel Idea, but an extension of existing idea of mobile ticketing, however, the difference is that the no of seats are not limited here which is the case in regular train booking system, Mobile Movie Ticketing or any other mobile ticketing system. As you need internet access and you have to select which seat you want etc.

However, in m-Seva the mobile ticket booking system for local trains, you can just use SMS based service and book your tickets.

- A lot of questions were asked to me, on how will anyone check the validity of a ticket?
- How will I buy a ticket? etc

Well it’s simple:
Type BO AN and send an SMS to xxxx
this means Borivili to Andheri and this SMS goes to a universal gateway which authenticates the service and you get a confirmation message!

TT can just check the confirmation message and date and you get to know if this is correct or not!

Watch the presentation below to see the detailed idea and business opportunity attached with this…

I am urging the mobile VAS providers, Telecom Service Providers to join hands and come up with this service for making travel easier!

Tags: M-Seva;m seva;mobile banking;mobile campaigns;mobile commerce;mobile content delivery network;mobile;Mobile Marketing and M-Commerce;Mobile Message Marketing;mobile messaging;mobile phones in india;Mobile Spending;mobile subscribers;mobile ticketing;Mobile Virtual Network Operators;SMS;VAS;Telecom Spending;Telecom Service Providers;Bharti Airtel;Reliance Communication;VSNL;BSNL;Vodafone;Hutchissan;Aircel;MTNL;Tata Teleservices;Indian Railways;Mumbai Local Trains;Delhi Local Trains;Mobile Ticket Booking System m Seva;

Digital Playgrounds

Online Games have provided the new playgrounds to the world which has no limits, no boundaries and no times to close. The Digital Playgrounds have actually strengthened the social fabric of India and brought the same old days of people sitting together in a choupal back.

The other day, my friend and I were discussing how we missed the joy of being able to just run around and play all day long. When we were kids, we looked forward to the late afternoon – early evening period. This was when we would forget about all our childish problems like homework, cleaning our rooms, fussing over vegetables etc., and rush out to the playground to start the all-important task of choosing teams and deciding on the game we would play.

As we grew up, it became tougher and tougher to avoid the huge amounts of homework we got in school. Plus, we had to go and ‘hang out’ at all the ‘coolest’ places. All through college most of us were half-dead trying to keep up with the never-ending amounts of research and assignments that seemed to just keep piling up. Then came the crazy routine of sending out our resumes to literally thousands of firms, hoping we would get a call from one of the most prestigious companies telling us, “Congratulations. You’ve got the job!”. And before we knew it, we were full-blown adults, with jobs and real-life bank accounts!

We didn’t even have time to catch up with old friends anymore. Most of my friends had gotten jobs in different parts of the country. We went from talking to each other every single day, to calling each other maybe once a month.

So there we were, my friend and I, grumbling about how drastically life had changed for all of us, in the blink of an eye. But at least there was some respite. At least we had the wonderful world of Online Gaming for some recreation. There were no time-constraints or even border-limitations for that matter – these were the new-age playgrounds : Digital Playgrounds! We could play whenever we had the time or inclination to play, with anyone who was online at that moment – whether they were in Bangalore, Kolkata or Mumbai.

And the best part was that I could beat my friend, who was, according to herself, unbeatable in Online Rummy. Every night, after work, I would settle down in my favourite chair in front of my laptop and begin my winning streak. It was my way of unwinding after a long day of work. This was the time when we went from being friends to competitors – for 3 long hours.

My friend and I came to the conclusion that life wasn’t all that bad after all. Sitting in our own apartment, with hot steaming bowls of soup, and an entire night of gaming stretching in front of us, life seemed pretty darn good!

Co Blogger- Duhita Jagtiani

Winners of 1st 64 Player Online Rummy Tournament

Results of 1st 64 Player Online Rummy Tournament

Games24×7.com is super excited to announce the results of the 1st ever 64 Player Online Rummy Tournament conducted on 9th January, 2009. We want to thank all the players for such an enthusiastic response and making it such a big success!

Since we saw such major participation, now we are going to hold 64 player tournaments everyday at 8 PM starting from Wednesday, 14th January, 2009. This is 1st time ever in India that any Online Games portal is holding daily 64 player tournaments and giving out real cash prizes!

For further information Go here.

You can win Daily Real Cash Prizes! And the best part – there is no entry fee!

List of winners of the 9th January, 2009, 64 Player Rummy Trump Tournament:

• 1st Prize: 1000.0 – krimesh
• 2nd Prize: 600.0 – skrocks
• 3rd Prize: 400.0 – royalkichu
• 4th Prize: 400.0 – rummyboy
• 5th Prize: 200.0 – vijaykumar
• 6th Prize: 200.0 – captrt
• 7th Prize: 200.0 – babulal
• 8th Prize: 200.0 – baadshah99
• 9th Prize: 100.0 – yogesh
• 10th Prize: 100.0 – deepika_dell
• 11th Prize: 100.0 – ajaytiwari
• 12th Prize: 100.0 – sundaravathanameee
• 13th Prize: 100.0 – winner1
• 14th Prize: 100.0 – Sajosh
• 15th Prize: 100.0 – Vthampy
• 16th Prize: 100.0 – KashPat

Games24×7.com Announces Multi player Online Tournaments

Games24×7.com Press Release

Experience the thrill unleashed with Multi Player Tournaments on Games24×7.com, India’s 1st Online Tournaments portal. With over 15,000 Online Tournaments and over Rs. 3 Lakh won in cash prizes, Games24×7.com today announced the launch of their multi-player knock-out tournaments platform.

“The new tournament engine will help us expand our tournament offerings rapidly. Now we will be running 32, 64, 128, 256 multiplayer tournaments and our technology backup allows us to scale it to any number, given the demand. This will reduce disappointment for late enrolments. And now we are all set to offer the most unique winning experience to thousands of players across India.” explained Mr. Vishnu Ram, CTO, Games24×7.com.

Our research also indicates that www.games24×7.com is India’s 1st and only online tournaments portal that gives real cash prizes. The real-cash knock-out tournaments in rummy and chess are a daily attraction and have helped the portal to grow rapidly.

“Today we are proud to be India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal which is earmarked with these important milestones. We are happy to see the good response to our existing “Jhatpat” and “Trump” tournament series. We look forward to expand our online tournament offerings and continue to hold our leadership in online tournaments in India.” concluded Mr. Sachin Uppal, Marketing Director, Games24×7.com.

What is most interesting about games24×7.com is that as a special introductory offer, there is no tournament entry fee. Anyone can just log-in, play tournaments, and if sufficiently skilled at the games, laugh all the way to the bank. Surely it makes sense to say play more and win more at Games24×7.com.

Games24×7.com is India’s 1st online tournament company. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs from IIT and IIM backgrounds, Games24×7.com is set to bring forward the Indian competitive spirit in online games by offering real cash prize tournaments.

Games24×7.com – 3 Lakh in Cash Prizes, 15K LIVE Tournaments, 1 Lakh Seats

Games24×7.com, India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal

has hosted over 15,000 LIVE Tournaments with over 1,00,000 Seats for players and given out over Rs. 3 Lakh in Cash prizes!

Online Games industry is so hot amidst recession and job lay-offs that daily over 1 Lakh online users visit Indian online games portals like Games24×7.com, Zapak.com, Games2win.com, Kreeda.com, Ace2three.com and more. On the online games front, recently India has seen various companies running championships and tournaments, however, only Games24×7.com hasIndia’s 1st and the most unique knock out tournament format where they host LIVE tournaments everyday and give out daily cash prizes.

In the recent past thousands of players across India have joined Games24×7.com and players have started playing their favourite games of online chess and online rummy non-stop. It’s so exciting to play on Games24×7.com because there are limited seats and real cash prizes as give aways. The best part is the knock out tournaments format which gives the feeling of playing next to each other, like people play social community games.

The uniqueness lies of Games24×7.com lies in the knockout tournament format which is identical to the skill-based competitions like Wimbledon, T-20 Cricket and French open tennis tournaments. Winners in one round move to the next round and so on till a final winner emerges. This allows players to match wits at multiple skill levels in fast paced competitions where winners earn actual cash prizes. Games focus less on manual dexterity and more on mental challenge, while at the same time requiring quick reaction and decision making.

I recently came across this article where Zapak Corporate Gaming Championship was held and over 4500 corporates and 50 organizations participated. The final participants included executives from Mindshare, Convergys, Hotel Le Meridian, Hotel Grand Hyatt, ICICI Prudential, NIIT, WNS Global Services, Group M, Aricent Technologies, Indigene Lifesystems, Cambridge Solutions, Mindtree, Hotel Royal Orchid Orchidaceae , Sparsh, Taj Wellingdon and Mindshare, across cities. It was full of fun and excitement and people took a deserving break from the mundance work routine and this also strengthened the social fiber of corporate bonding amongst employees.

The only dampner was was that people won some Holiday packages, Shirts, Flash Drives, Game CDs and Game Packs…un-fortunately no one still knows what to do with those packages and prizes. Also, why should you be given some gift and all if you can get real cash prizes and decide what you want to do with that cash. May be you want to Travel and you got a stupid flash drive, what on earth are you going to do with it? Another thing to look at is, you spent so much of your valuable time and what did it result in, some coupons and vouchers???

India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal, Games24×7.com offers real cash prizes for daily online tournaments in fast paced games like Online Chess Tournaments and Online Rummy Tournaments with monthly Cash prizes over Rs. 1 Lakh! I was super impressed by the way they have been hosting daily tournaments and the tournaments are joined by people all across India. They have done a fantastic job in reviving the social fibre of community games in a multiplayer knock out tournament format.

Games24×7.com – 3 Lakh in Cash Prizes, 15K LIVE Tournaments, 1 Lakh Seats

Games24×7.com, India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal 

has hosted over 15,000 LIVE Tournaments with over 1,00,000 Seats for players and given out over Rs. 3 Lakh in Cash prizes!

Online Games industry is so hot amidst recession and job lay-offs that daily over 1 Lakh online users visit Indian online games portals like Games24×7.com, Zapak.com, Games2win.com, Kreeda.com, Ace2three.com and more. On the online games front, recently India has seen various companies running championships and tournaments, however, only Games24×7.com has India’s 1st and the most unique knock out tournament format where they host LIVE tournaments everyday and give out daily cash prizes.

In the recent past thousands of players across India have joined Games24×7.com and players have started playing their favourite games of online chess and online rummy non-stop. It’s so exciting to play on Games24×7.com because there are limited seats and real cash prizes as give aways. The best part is the knock out tournaments format which gives the feeling of playing next to each other, like people play social community games.

The uniqueness lies of Games24×7.com lies in the knockout tournament format which is identical to the skill-based competitions like Wimbledon, T-20 Cricket and French open tennis tournaments. Winners in one round move to the next round and so on till a final winner emerges. This allows players to match wits at multiple skill levels in fast paced competitions where winners earn actual cash prizes. Games focus less on manual dexterity and more on mental challenge, while at the same time requiring quick reaction and decision making.  

I recently came across this article where Zapak Corporate Gaming Championship was held and over 4500 corporates and 50 organizations participated. The final participants included executives from Mindshare, Convergys, Hotel Le Meridian, Hotel Grand Hyatt, ICICI Prudential, NIIT, WNS Global Services, Group M, Aricent Technologies, Indigene Lifesystems, Cambridge Solutions, Mindtree, Hotel Royal Orchid Orchidaceae , Sparsh, Taj Wellingdon and Mindshare, across cities. It was full of fun and excitement and people took a deserving break from the mundance work routine and this also strengthened the social fiber of corporate bonding amongst employees.

The only dampner was was that people won some Holiday packages, Shirts, Flash Drives, Game CDs and Game Packs…un-fortunately no one still knows what to do with those packages and prizes. Also, why should you be given some gift and all if you can get real cash prizes and decide what you want to do with that cash. May be you want to Travel and you got a stupid flash drive, what on earth are you going to do with it? Another thing to look at is, you spent so much of your valuable time and what did it result in, some coupons and vouchers??? 

India’s 1st Online Tournaments Portal, Games24×7.com offers real cash prizes for daily online tournaments in fast paced games like Online Chess Tournaments and Online Rummy Tournaments with monthly Cash prizes over Rs. 1 Lakh! I was super impressed by the way they have been hosting daily tournaments and the tournaments are joined by people all across India. They have done a fantastic job in reviving the social fibre of community games in a multiplayer knock out tournament format.

ICA and Games24×7.com successfully host 4th Annual Chess Championship 2008 in Bangalore

Mr. Sushruta Reddy, National Arbiter and Secretary, Innovators Chess Academy in association with Games24×7.com hosted the 4th Annual ICA Rapid Chess Championship 2008 and the 3rd Innovators Chess Academy Inter-School Chess Championship on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti in Bangalore.

The ICA Championship 2008 saw a massive response with nearly 350 players participating from the south of India including Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore and neighbouring cities. There was enthusiastic participation from people of all age groups. The open chess tournament saw a very strong response with the veterans and cream of the top talent participating.

Mr. Sushruta Reddy who is the ex. Jt. Secretary of United Karnataka Chess Association and a chess coach and founder of the Innovators Chess Academy has been a very active arbiter and a strong proponent of promoting the skill based game of chess and taking it to the masses. In recent times, people have shown active interest in participating in a completely new online blitz chess tournament model where people can play online tournaments for cash prizes and the game of chess is now spreading to the masses.

www.games24×7.com was the official sponsor for the ICA Championship 2008 where Mr. Reddy himself is an active player. Mr. Bhavin Pandya, co-founder and managing director of Games24×7.com said, “We have an active association with Mr. Sushruta Reddy right from the starting days of Games24×7.com and he has been an active player and a strong contributor to the development of the chess game on our website. We offer online chess and rummy tournaments catering to the needs of the Indian gaming enthusiast. When Mr. Reddy approached us with the opportunity for being part of ICA Championship, we were very enthusiastic and immediately confirmed our support in his noble initiative to expand chess tournaments in the southern part of India. “

Rahul Shandilya won the ICA Open Chess Championship 2008 when he defeated R Nagesh in the final round. Although Rahul tied with K.V.Sripad for the first place with 5.5 points apiece, the former finished ahead due to a higher tie breaker score.

About Games24×7.com – Games24×7.com is an Indian online games start-up founded by a group of entrepreneurs from IIT and IIM who have seen both eastern and western cultures and wish to bring the spirit of local Indian games to the masses. Games24×7.com is India’s first and only online games company to run daily skill based competitive tournaments with real cash prizes in rummy and chess.

About Innovator’s Chess Academy – Innovator’s Chess Academy (ICA) is one of the premier and most Active Chess Organizations in Bangalore. The Academy has organized nearly 50 Chess Tournaments since early 2005 besides providing Coaching to children in various parts of the City. The Academy also enjoys strong support from the United Karnataka Chess Association (UKCA). ICA founded by Mr. Sushruta Reddy, and supported by Vice Presidents, Mr. Durgesh and Mr. Karthik Shetty has now branched to Muscat and Oman.

List of Winners for ICA Chess Championship 2008

ICA Open Chess Championship
1st Place Rahul Shandilya (5.5 pts)
2nd Place K.V.Sripad (5.5 pts)
3rd Place R.Nagesh (5 pts)
4th Place Prachura P.P (5 pts)
5th Place Vinod V (5.5 pts)

ICA Under 7 Chess Championship (Boys)
1st Place: Vasishta (7 pts)
2nd Place: Avinash Raj (6 pts)
3rd Place: J Ashwin (5.5 pts)
4th Place: Prajwal Shet (5 pts)

ICA Under 7 Chess Championship (Girls)
1st Place: Ojasi Gopikrishna (4 pts)
2nd Place: Sai Bhavana (3 pts)
3rd Place: Tanisha Dighe (2 pts)
4th Place: Smrithi Suresh (2 pts)
5th Place: Pritha Jaipal (2 pts)

ICA Under 9 Chess Championship (Boys)
1st Place: L.S.Prabhanjan (6 pts)
2nd Place: Dushyanth Raju (5 pts)
3rd Place: Sanjeev (5 pts)
4th Place: T.Vikas (5 pts)
5th Place: Sachin Jajoo (5 pts)

ICA Under 9 Chess Championship (Girls)
1st Place: Prannita (6 pts)
2nd Place: Sharanya (5 pts)
3rd Place: Hanan Rouf (5 pts)
4th Place: H.K.Aditi (4.5 pts)
5th Place: Srishti Moorthy (4 pts)

ICA Under 11 Chess Championship (Boys)
1st Place: Arjun Govind (6 pts)
2nd Place: L Manas (5.5 pts)
3rd Place: Vijeth T.A.(5 pts)
4th Place: Chirag Ramesh (5 pts)
5th Place: R Parthasarathy (5 pts)

ICA Under 11 Chess Championship (Girls)
1st Place: T C Meghana (4 pts)
2nd Place: V Srilakshmi (3 pts)
3rd Place: Priyanka Bharadwaj (3 pts)
4th Place: Namratha G.M. (3 pts)
5th Place: Amrita Narayan (2.5 pts)

ICA Under 13 Chess Championship
1st Place: Sudhanshu Nath Mishra (5.5 pts)
2nd Place: Goutham S (5 pts)
3rd Place: Srikanth S (5 pts)
4th Place: V Uttej (5 pts)
5th Place: Sindhu Shekar (4.5 pts), Girls 1st Place

ICA Under 15 Chess Championship
1st Place: Augustine (4 pts)
2nd Place: K.S.Harikrishna (3 pts)
3rd Place: B S Swarnesh Rao (3 pts)
4th Place: Pallavi Bharadwaj (3 pts), Girls 1st Place
5th Place: Amrita Suresh (2.5 pts), Girls 2nd Place