Indian Startups In News

Web18’s cricket portal CricketNext.com claims to have introduced the ‘fastest online scorecard’ that will offer a light and easy to load page and user friendly interface with no clutter, and allow the user instant access to ball by ball updates. According to Web18, the scorecard is automatically updated with the scores of the ongoing match within a few seconds of it actually happening on ground.

Fantasy cricket game site Dream11.com has signed content partnership with CricketNirvana.com, ZeeCric.com, OneIndia.com and AmarUjala.com. Under the deal, Dream11.com will provide cricket-based gaming content, statistics, high-score leader-boards, community features, news, match schedules and prizes to these cricket specific portals and channels.

RozgarDuniya.com, a joint initiative by Monster.com and ITC e-Choupal, is claimed to have attracted 325 live jobs postings by 38 companies from different verticals such as construction, banking, insurance, retail and security that hired over 100 rural jobseekers through the portal. The initiative was launched in August 2009 with the objective of linking rural youth to job opportunities in Indian corporate sectors.

According to a study by US-based Barracuda Networks, only 21 per cent of Twitter users are actual True Twitter Users, defined as a user that has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people, and has tweeted at least 10 times.

The study also reveals that 49 per cent of Twitter users, and 48 of the top 100 most followed Twitter users, joined between November 2008 and April 2009, when many celebrities such as actors, athletes, musicians and politicians started Twitter accounts and began promoting the service on a daily basis.

Karishma Initiative, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lintas India, has partnered with digital agency Media2win to provide digital marketing services to its clients. Karishma Initiative currently offers media solutions to clients across all mass media like television, print, radio, outdoor, sponsorships, events, on ground activations and business consulting.

Parle Products has appointed Digital Law & Kenneth as its digital marketing agency. With this move, Parle is planning to beef up the online presence of its various brands including Parle G, Monaco, Hide & Seek, Parle Marie, Melody, Monaco Smart Chips, Digestive Marie and Krackjack. According to Parle, the company will use all kinds of digital marketing formats to boost the visibility of its brands.

Institute for Technology and Management (ITM) has appointed Ignitee Digital Solutions as its online agency. The account size is pegged at around Rs 1.5 crore. To begin with, Ignitee will develop ITM’s website, which will give its stakeholders access to updated courses, programmes and events related to the institution online.

The SmartTechie magazine has released a list of ‘Top 25 Most Promising Internet Companies’ in India.

Google has signed a number of sponsors including Royal Challengers IPL team, HSBC India, HP India, Airtel, Coca Cola and Samsung for its dedicated IPL channel YouTube.com/IPL that will live stream all DLF IPL 2010 matches – spanning 60 matches over 45 days.

Tata Motors, in association with digital agency Experience Commerce and media buying and planning agency Maxus, has launched the ‘Grande Drive to Goa’ contest through an Orkut application to promote test drives of its car Sumo Grande MKII. The Orkut app enables users to test drive the car and write reviews.

Idea Cellular has taken its public service campaign, Use Mobile Save Paper, online by launching UseMobileSavePaper.in. The objective behind the campaign was to motivate people to use mobile phones in order to reduce paper consumption. For the campaign’s online version, Idea Cellular partnered with Tribal DDB India to create an engaging online communication that would interact, inform and create awareness about the campaign.

According to a study by Iffort Consulting, MSN India has so far posted maximum number of tweets (about 40,000), while MTV India is the most followed brand on Twitter with more than 62,000 followers.

Tata Teleservices has launched a new product, called Dialog, which would enable customers to access internet on their TV sets. The new product is currently in test phase and is available to users in Kolkata and Chennai.

US-based social networking site Facebook has blocked Star News’ Facebook fan page Saas Bahu aur Saazish and also disabled the vanity URL Facebook.com/SaasBahuAurSaazish. According to Star News, the incident happened immediately after the said Facebook page touched 10,000 fans on March 2, 2010.

Indian Premier League (IPL) and its licensing partner Global Cricket Ventures (GCV) have partnered with July Systems to launch an IPL mobile internet service that will allow people with an internet enabled mobile phone, across handset types or networks, to access live video updates, action replays and video score cards of IPL matches at m.IPLT20.com.