Ibibo should learn something from the PayPerPost fiasco and the uproar over Microsoft "bribing" bloggers.
The easiest way for Internet companies in India to drive usage is to
throw monetary or material enticements which is a really bad way as it becomes a self-defeating cycle of sops defeating the very purpose of building a community.
While the 1.5 crore offer is a great way to increase adoption, the major challenge for ibibo team would be to solve the classic chicken-and-egg problem:
* Corrupted individuals will do all sorts of cheap tricks (create 1000s of fake profiles etc..) and in any given time (if not for smart algorithm) – 50/100 blogs will be corrupted ones.
* Eventually the genuine bloggers will ditch the system – After seeing the corrupted blogs making it to the top 100, genuine bloggers obviosly will get pissed off and look for some other tool/platform.
Remember, money can take you to some point – but you need a lot more substance to be successful. Case in point – Four game shows started after the success of KBC and joined the deadpool within few weeks. And the reason? They lacked the basic substance.
While the 1.5 crore offer is a great way to increase adoption, the major challenge for ibibo team would be to solve the classic chicken-and-egg problem:
* Corrupted individuals will do all sorts of cheap tricks (create 1000s of fake profiles etc..) and in any given time (if not for smart algorithm) – 50/100 blogs will be corrupted ones.
* Eventually the genuine bloggers will ditch the system – After seeing the corrupted blogs making it to the top 100, genuine bloggers obviosly will get pissed off and look for some other tool/platform.
Remember, money can take you to some point – but you need a lot more substance to be successful. Case in point – Four game shows started after the success of KBC and joined the deadpool within few weeks. And the reason? They lacked the basic substance.
Dont agree with Javed! Also never compare local environments with what global companies have done. India is a different ball game. Internet companies in India need to evangelize and educate the internet communities. After all internet is all about making lives of indians better! And as a part of education, performance based pay outs are great ideas. If you go to ibibo.com, you will realize that the pay outs are clearly performance oriented. Also, ibibo plans to sustain the same – Which clearly is a huge plus and not just a one off activity…..
Full marks for ibibo.com for coming up with such innovations….
ashish, interesting points. I think the art of 'bribing' consumers has been studied for some time from a game theory perspective and the points you have outlined reflect this. there will be always ways to game the system.
internetguru – this is not rocket science after all…there is no innovation here. community sites dime a dozen are throwing iPod giveaways. the only difference here is that this takes one step further by paying cash.
I dont understand what education you are talking about ?
About blogging ? About community sites ? (orkut has 5M users from India and there are a large no. of Indian users on Blogspot, MSN Spaces)
I have checked out Ibibo and one of the most popular blogs is about a lady enticing men ? Is this education ?
what is differentiated through this contest ? what happens if a competitor does the same ? or is it just a question of someone with the deepest pockets ?
1.5crores = $400K, hope they get a lot of users.
Hotmail managed to get plenty with $50K in total spend.
i m a ibibo user myself , and i have been blogging for the past 3 years now, it s a total shock to me m that people are just using the basic trick of cut -copy-paste , formula ,jus to reach the top, some guys went to an extend of suggesting a RSS2BLOG software. , its not the right way to blog.. blogging is something you share abt ur own personal knowledge and thought, not pasting some copywrighted articles and facts.,.
ibibo is good platform ,but should have been a fair competetion for bloggers like me, .. i dont stand a chance .. now the level of scores have shooted upto more than 6cr.. wow , i really don know how people manage to spend so much time on the comp.. jus COPY PASTING..
WELL lets face the fact, people.. in india,, can be taken for granted..
Naspers owned MIH India’s has launched its 
Ibibo should learn something from the PayPerPost fiasco and the uproar over Microsoft "bribing" bloggers.
The easiest way for Internet companies in India to drive usage is to
throw monetary or material enticements which is a really bad way as it becomes a self-defeating cycle of sops defeating the very purpose of building a community.
I covered the ibibo story sometime back and well, throwing money might work in the short run, but you need more substance for a long stay..More here: http://ashish-sinha.blogspot.com/2006/12/love-blogging-make-some-money-too-15.html
While the 1.5 crore offer is a great way to increase adoption, the major challenge for ibibo team would be to solve the classic chicken-and-egg problem:
* Corrupted individuals will do all sorts of cheap tricks (create 1000s of fake profiles etc..) and in any given time (if not for smart algorithm) – 50/100 blogs will be corrupted ones.
* Eventually the genuine bloggers will ditch the system – After seeing the corrupted blogs making it to the top 100, genuine bloggers obviosly will get pissed off and look for some other tool/platform.
Remember, money can take you to some point – but you need a lot more substance to be successful. Case in point – Four game shows started after the success of KBC and joined the deadpool within few weeks. And the reason? They lacked the basic substance.
While the 1.5 crore offer is a great way to increase adoption, the major challenge for ibibo team would be to solve the classic chicken-and-egg problem:
* Corrupted individuals will do all sorts of cheap tricks (create 1000s of fake profiles etc..) and in any given time (if not for smart algorithm) – 50/100 blogs will be corrupted ones.
* Eventually the genuine bloggers will ditch the system – After seeing the corrupted blogs making it to the top 100, genuine bloggers obviosly will get pissed off and look for some other tool/platform.
Remember, money can take you to some point – but you need a lot more substance to be successful. Case in point – Four game shows started after the success of KBC and joined the deadpool within few weeks. And the reason? They lacked the basic substance.
Dont agree with Javed! Also never compare local environments with what global companies have done. India is a different ball game. Internet companies in India need to evangelize and educate the internet communities. After all internet is all about making lives of indians better! And as a part of education, performance based pay outs are great ideas. If you go to ibibo.com, you will realize that the pay outs are clearly performance oriented. Also, ibibo plans to sustain the same – Which clearly is a huge plus and not just a one off activity…..
Full marks for ibibo.com for coming up with such innovations….
cheap tricks .hmm——— internet guru -:-)
ashish, interesting points. I think the art of 'bribing' consumers has been studied for some time from a game theory perspective and the points you have outlined reflect this. there will be always ways to game the system.
internetguru – this is not rocket science after all…there is no innovation here. community sites dime a dozen are throwing iPod giveaways. the only difference here is that this takes one step further by paying cash.
I dont understand what education you are talking about ?
About blogging ? About community sites ? (orkut has 5M users from India and there are a large no. of Indian users on Blogspot, MSN Spaces)
I have checked out Ibibo and one of the most popular blogs is about a lady enticing men ? Is this education ?
what is differentiated through this contest ? what happens if a competitor does the same ? or is it just a question of someone with the deepest pockets ?
1.5crores = $400K, hope they get a lot of users.
Hotmail managed to get plenty with $50K in total spend.
i m a ibibo user myself , and i have been blogging for the past 3 years now, it s a total shock to me m that people are just using the basic trick of cut -copy-paste , formula ,jus to reach the top, some guys went to an extend of suggesting a RSS2BLOG software. , its not the right way to blog.. blogging is something you share abt ur own personal knowledge and thought, not pasting some copywrighted articles and facts.,.
ibibo is good platform ,but should have been a fair competetion for bloggers like me, .. i dont stand a chance .. now the level of scores have shooted upto more than 6cr.. wow , i really don know how people manage to spend so much time on the comp.. jus COPY PASTING..
WELL lets face the fact, people.. in india,, can be taken for granted..