I gave a talk (rather, was more of a discussion) on Digital Media Business Models at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai yesterday, to students pursuing a combined course in Engineering and Management. Was pleasantly surprised to find most students aware of developments in the digital media space - someone asked me why IPTV hasn’t yet taken off. 

There were around 50 students at the discussion, I thought I’d share some of the observations here:

– They were all (and I mean ALL) on both Facebook and Orkut. All had heard of Ibibo, a few of Minglebox (forgot to ask about BIGAdda).
– Facebook is their preferred social network. All of them use Facebook applications, but change applications often - they get bored with them quickly
– They haven’t noticed any advertisements on Orkut (not even the text ads), but have noticed and even clicked on Facebook advertisements.
– From a business perspective, most of them didn’t think the number of registered users is of any consequence - active users matter more.
– All of them use the Internet to research before purchasing goods, but prefer to buy offline.
– Only one student used the Internet to buy electronics online…and that too from China.
– They’ve all used the Internet for buying tickets, one or two to buy books.
– They appeared to be more keen on Internet business models than Mobile
– Many subscribe to MyToday and SMS GupShup. One student felt that SMS GupShup’s recent fundraising meant that their business model is good. They feel that the fact that MyToday and SMS GupShup have such a large user base means that advertisers will be interested in them, and this model will succeed.
– Less than half of them use Caller Ringback Ringback tones, but they were aware of the cost of the service.
– A few of the students were interested in starting up, and a few who have been working on a business plan.
– Some of the students were wondering about how much of their plans they should disclose to VCs or Angel Investors. I suggested that they study the VCs portfolio first, and be careful about VCs sharing their plans with portfolio companies who may be potential competitors.  

Update: almost forgot - only one of them is on Twitter. 

The most promising sign: a majority of them use mobile Internet. Apart from a couple of students who began a year or two ago, most have been using Mobile Internet for six months, largely because the monthly rental was waived off.

I’m probably hosting another discussion soon at a college in Delhi, so if there’s anything you’d like to know about how students are using the Internet or mobile, do leave a comment, and I’ll ask them.

Also, if any of you are looking to hire freshers, do have your HR Manager drop me a note at nikhil AT medianama DOT com, and I’ll pass on the contact details to the colleges.
P.s.: just in case you’re wondering - this is pro-bono.

MixedBag
Tags: Discussion, Internet, Mobile, NMIMS

1. gaming…please check knowlege and usage stats if any

   Posted by samir | November 14, 2008, 3:45 pm

2. Ask them if they
   - are on LinkedIn
   - write a blog

   Posted by Shashi | November 14, 2008, 5:23 pm

3. Nikhil, it would be interesting to note what do they use the mobile internet for. More specifically, whether they use it for local search. Also, would be interesting to know how many of them already have or are planning to invest in “smaprtphones”

   Posted by Rav | November 15, 2008, 3:37 pm

4. i was one of those who was a part of the discussion. well, everyone is registered on linkedin and few of them right blogs, regarding the usage of mobile internet, mostly used to check cricket scores and checking mail on the move.

   Posted by Aliasgar N | November 16, 2008, 1:02 pm

5. Sir, I was a part of the discussion and have done a four month long question at IOL Netcom Pvt Ltd, a firm specialising in IPTV provisioning in alliance with MTNL, so that question about IPTV from me. Referring to the question about mobile gaming the greatest problem is the device incompatibilty. Most of the devices nowadays are MIDP 2.0, incompliant which limits the scope of these games only to high end handsets and students can’t generally affors high end handsets.

   Posted by mrinal | November 17, 2008, 12:06 pm

6. I would like to know

   1. Whether students are visiting Indian language sites.
   eg:
   http://www.oneindia.in
   http://www.webdunia.com

   2. How their Newspaper /Magazine /Book reading pattern has been changed by Internet.?

   regards
   Harikrishnan

   Posted by hari | November 18, 2008, 3:24 pm

7. Hi Hari,

   I am a student of the above mentioned course. Having done my internship at Rediff.com I am a little aware of the Indian Language Sites, like http://www.guruji.com, http://www.raftaar.com and ofcourse Rediff Indian Language Search.

   Rgds,
   Bisakha

   Posted by Bisakha Praharaj | November 19, 2008, 12:59 am