ITV

Category: Social Media

  • Google acquires Indian start-up Impermium

    Google acquires Indian start-up Impermium

    MUMBAI: The grandfather of the World Wide Web, Google, has acquired a three-year-old startup Impermium.

     

    The startup focused on building security products for websites was started by Vish Ramarao and Naveen Jamal with offices in Bengaluru and California. The third co-founder Mark Risher, who sits in California, posted on the website that the company had formally been acquired by Google with a headline ‘Impermium is joining Google’.

     

    The post read: “When we founded Impermium three years ago, our mission was to help rid the web of spam, fraud, and abuse. As sites gain in popularity, criminals and miscreants are never far behind, and Impermium has worked hard to defend some of the largest and fastest-growing sites….By joining Google, our team will merge with some of the best abuse fighters in the world. With our combined talents we’ll be able to further our mission and help make the Internet a safer place. We’re excited about the possibilities.”

     

    Some of Impermium clients include Tumblr, Pinterest, CNN, ESPN, Typepad and Washington Post.

     

    This is second acquisition of the year; the year started with Facebook acquiring Indian startup, Little Eye Labs. The company had officially announced that it had taken over earlier this month. 

  • Raheel Khursheed joins Twitter India

    Raheel Khursheed joins Twitter India

    MUMBAI: Although Twitter India started its operations two years ago, it has always kept a low profile in the country. Subtly it keeps adding people to its organisation that is currently headed by Rishi Jaitley who is the director of the social media here. The recent appointment is former Times Now and CNN-IBN senior correspondent Raheel Khursheed as head of news, politics and government.

     

    According to a MediaNama report he will provide front-line technical support to journalists, politicians and governmental agencies. Twitter sources confirmed that he had joined the company but could not reveal any more details.

     

    Both Jaitley and Khursheed have mentioned his appointment on their Twitter pages. Prior to this Khursheed was with change.org where he was heading the communication strategy around campaigns in India and building its brand.

     

    The article also states that his role would be to work on expanding Twitter’s relation with journalists, government officials and politicians to increase their usage of the popular social media website.

     

    Twitter India has also hired Arvinder Gujral to head its mobile business development for India and south East Asia, Aneesh Madani to handle sports partnerships and Pratiksha Rao as associate partnerships manager.

  • Bangalore is all set to go social

    Bangalore is all set to go social

    MUMBAI: After the successful debut of Social Media Week (SMW) in India held in Mumbai in September 2013, Bangalore is all set to host this mega global festival.SMW Bangalore will be held between the 17th and 21st of February simultaneously with seven other cities – Barcelona, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lagos, Milan New York and Tokyo.

     

    SMW is a worldwide festival exploring the social, cultural and economic impact of social media. In just under five years, Social Media Week has become a platform and a community that has grown to more than 100k members in 26 cities around the world.

     

    R SQUARE Consulting, an integrated marketing services agency will be hosting SMW Bangalore. “After the phenomenal success of Social Media Week in Mumbai, we believe that SMW Bangalore will set a new benchmark.Bangalore’s reputation as a cultural melting pot and as the IT capital of the country makes for an optimal combination.”Rohit Varma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, R SQUARE Consulting said. Thefestival is expected to attract over 5000 professionals,including people from advertising & marketing, brand management, entrepreneurs, start-ups, management students and other communities of relevance and interest. Running community is one such example. “We launched MegaPink in partnership with SMW Mumbai with runners from 40 cities taking part. We are looking forward to a bigger MegaPink that we will launch during SMW Bangalore including more cities and runners just through the social media platform,”Milind Soman, top model and actor said.

     

    Some of the prominent speakers who are expected to be part of the event are Neville Taraporewalla, GM India, Microsoft Advertising & Online,Rishi Dogra, GM Marketing, PepsiCo India, Kiruba Shankar, Blogger, Varun Agarwal, Author and Founder, Alma Mater and Nikhil Dey, President, Public Relations, Genesis Burson-Marsteller.

     

    Social Media Week has partnered with leading media agency GroupM, leading integrated communication consultancy Genesis Burson-Marsteller, India’s first end-to-end brand consultancychlorophyll, Time Out Magazine, Yellow Seed, MxMIndia, Social Samosa, AIESEC and Indigo 91.9 FMto organise the five day event in Bangalore.

  • Comedy Central reaches two million fans on Facebook

    Comedy Central reaches two million fans on Facebook

    MUMBAI: It has been two years since Comedy Central launched in India. The channel dedicated to comedy has surely made its inroads into its audience’s heart. The proof is the two million fans on Facebook in just two years.

     

    In a time wherein social media platforms make or break a brand’s market presence, Comedy Central has used them effectively to engage audiences and maintain a presence in their lives even when the television is off. 

    Growth chart of Comedy Central India Facebook page

    Commenting on the achievement, Viacom18 sr VP and head English entertainment Ferzad Palia said, “Our Facebook page is the epicentre of all our social activity online. We are delighted to reach this milestone especially considering we went from one to two million in a matter of only eight months!  This is symbolic of our fans loyalty. We will continue to strive to provide the best of comedy entertainment both on & off air”

     

    One of the engagements that had outstanding results was Suits Season 2 FB App: Are You a Real Suitor? The objective was to capitalise on the show’s wide appeal and provide a refresher to audiences before the second season. Over 10,000 participants signed up to test their “Suits Quotient” giving the page 60,000 page views and 40,160 unique views. Social media conversations around the show increased by 200 per cent generating over 200,000 impressions and the show hashtag #SuitsS2onCC trended in India.

    “A big thank you to all our fans for helping us reach this mark. It truly feels wonderful to see this FB page reach this milestone. This only goes to prove their loyalty. CC India re-affirms the endeavour to provide its fans with cult entertainment,” added Viacom18 digital media VP and business head Rajneel Kumar.

     

    Comedy Central India since its inception prides itself of having the right mix for the diverse audience it caters to. The channel’s reach has grown five times in the past one year. Smaller cities have shown a steady growth in contribution while the channel maintains number one position in the metros.

  • Google to team up with Audi for in-car entertainment

    Google to team up with Audi for in-car entertainment

    MUMBAI: Recently the tech giant Apple announced its plan to collaborate with car manufacturers to ‘integrate’ its iOS devices into the cars for giving its consumers a chance to delve in to entertainment even while commuting.

     

    Following the same path, now, according to reports, Google and German auto maker Audi AG too are planning to announce their collaboration to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that are based on Google’s Android software.

     

    In fact, to make the technology significant for the future vehicles, the two also plan to collaborate with other automotive and tech companies, including chip maker Nvidia Corp. The idea behind developing this technology is to give drivers and passengers access to music, navigation, apps and services that are similar to those widely available now on Android-powered smartphones.

     

    Apple, so far, has the support of BMW AG, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz division, General Motors and Honda Motor.

  • LinkedIn, Pinterest more popular than Twitter

    LinkedIn, Pinterest more popular than Twitter

    MUMBAI: A new Pew Research Center Internet Project study shows a change in the use of the social media trend. While Facebook is still on the top with 71 percent online adults on the network, up from 67 percent one year ago; the result also shows that 42 per cent adults are now using at least two networks.

    Another interesting revelation made by the study is that Pinterest saw the biggest spike in 2013, jumping from 15 percent of online adults to 21 percent while passing Twitter (18 percent) in the process. LinkedIn is at the second spot after Facebook at 22 percent, while Instagram grew from 13 percent to 17 percent.

    According to industry experts, Twitter is less intuitive than Facebook and thus can turn off users, limiting its growth as a mainstream social media platform.

  • Sony Music gets the fastest 1 million subscribers on Line

    Sony Music gets the fastest 1 million subscribers on Line

    MUMBAI: Sony Music Entertainment’s exclusive tie-up with Line has garnered a massive response by crossing a subscription of 1 million users.

    It has earned the fastest million subscriptions on the application by providing the latest music information in India.

    The official account of Sony Music EWntertainment caters to fans of major genres of music including Bollywood, Indipop, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and International music with a catalogue of over a million songs.

    Commenting on the same, Sony Music Entertainment India marketing director Sanujeet Bhujabal said, “We are extremely thrilled with the response of 1 million users on LINE. We are the only Music Label actively engaging with the Social platform and it has helped us to move a step further and directly engage with consumers With this tie-up, we are very sure that LINE will secure its position as a favourite app for music in the near future.’ 

    Line, the free messenger application, broke the 200-million download mark worldwide. Since the initial launch, the company has expanded the service to roughly 230 countries in 11 languages, including Chinese, Spanish and Indonesian.

  • Social network scams double in 2013

    Social network scams double in 2013

    MUMBAI: According to Bitdefender, a security vendor, social network scams targeting users of sites like Facebook have nearly doubled in 2013 as compared to 2012.

    The company also revealed that it was expected as social media scammers are likely to fool people and double their profits during the holidays.

    “There are two simple steps that will ruin your Christmas: click on a free voucher scam, and complete the `intelligence’ surveys that ask for your credentials and your mom’s maiden name. Not even Santa Claus will help you recover the money and personal details you lose,” Bitdefender chief security strategist Catalin Cosoi told the media.

    Bitdefender advised social media users to think twice before clicking on dubious Christmas messages that ask them to complete endless surveys.

  • Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey joins Disney board of directors

    Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey joins Disney board of directors

    MUMBAI: Walt Disney has named twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as its independent board member. Reports also suggest that the company CEO Bob Iger can see a cut in his pay by 15 per cent.   

    Walt Disney on 23 December, through a statement, also announced the retirement of a former Cisco Systems chief technology officer Judith Estrin, citing tenure policy as a reason, which limits board service to 15 years. Estrin’s term comes to an end on 18 March 2014.

    Dorsey will stand for the election which will be held at Disney’s 18 March annual meeting. Dorsey confirmed the announcement by tweeting a famous quote from Walt Disney and also the sketches of Mickey Mouse.  At 36, Dorsey also is the CEO of the payments startup Square and will be the youngest board member in Disney.

    Iger through a statement said, “Jack Dorsey is a talented entrepreneur who has helped create groundbreaking new businesses in the social media and commerce spaces. His experience and perspective should be extremely valuable to Disney.”

  • Spanish data protection agency slaps Google with a €900,000 fine

    Spanish data protection agency slaps Google with a €900,000 fine

    MUMBAI: Google has been penalised with €900,000 by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) (Spanish: Agencia Espa?ola de Protección de Datos) for breaking its protection laws. The fine was imposed after Google changed its privacy policy and started combining consumer data, which people registered while using Google’s many services.

    Google also failed to explain to the agency about customer browsing and what it does with that information. The agency claims to have found that Google runs roughshod over local users’ data and treats it in a way that can be considered illegal. 

    The AEPD declared in a statement that Google that has been processing personal data in the framework of its new privacy policy is illegal. 

    Google, according to the agency, has violated the right to protection of personal data laid down in Article 18 of Spanish Constitution and regulated in the LOPD [Organic Law of the Protection of Personal Data]. The search browser has broken three parts of the Spanish law and hence will be fined €300,000 for each incident.