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Google's music streaming service is about to shut down for good. Here are 20 other Google products that bombed, died, or disappeared.

In two weeks from now, you'll have to make the switch from Google's <keyword id="171829" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gtalk">Gtalk</keyword> messenger platform to its Hangout (whether they like it or not). Millions of users have been using the Gtalk for long time and they've become so comfortable with it that moving away has never been considered. So, Google has decided to force users by shutting down Gtalk once and for all. 

	Hangout is the future for Google (so they seem to think) and hence taking down Gtalk is the most logical thing that the search-engine giant can do now. Signs of Gtalk going down became obvious when Google decided to cut support (security and version) for the desktop application bringing its end closer to reality. As highlighted by Google the 'IM service will be wholly replaced by the Hangouts app, which can used only via its Chrome web browser. Gtalk will breathe its last on February 16 and whoosh! Like all good things, Gtalk will become history (just like how <keyword id="34276" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Orkut">Orkut</keyword> has been). Hangout hasn't been openly liked by all users but with phone-tablet-PC integration becoming need of hour (something Microsoft has tried with Windows 10), the transition was bound to happen sooner than later. <keyword id="790242" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</keyword> has now moved to PCs as well and that has made Gtalk all the more redundant (not many would agree to that), so with Hangout Google wants to make instant messaging; interactive and visual appealing experience. 

	Ciao Gtalk, we'll always remember than message alert tone and the simplicity of the chat interface (remember that bubbles?).

Google to close door on Gtalk from February 16 onwards

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images</div></div></div>It looks like Google has been doing some end-of-spring cleaning these last two weeks.
On June 25 it announced that it was shutting down Quickoffice, which the company says it has fully integrated <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-docs-sheets-slides-updates-2014-6" target="_blank">into its new Docs, Sheets, and Slideapps</a>. Today also <a href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/2014/06/tchau-orkut.html" target="_blank">marks the beginning of the end for Orkut</a>, the social networking service launched in 2004 from an employee's "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-engineer-20-time-is-dead-2012-3" target="_blank">20% time</a>" project.
Google <a href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/2014/06/tchau-orkut.html" target="_blank">will officia</a><a href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/2014/06/tchau-orkut.html" target="_blank">lly kill Orkut</a>, which was more popular abroad than in the U.S., by September 30. 
Instead of keeping Orkut kicking, Google will focus its efforts on YouTube, Blogger, and Google+. Current users can keep using the service until September, but no new people can sign-up. People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using <a href="https://support.google.com/orkut/answer/3220186">Google Takeout</a> (available until September 2016).
"It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service," writes Google's engineering director Paulo Golgher. "We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond."

Google Is Shutting Down Two Old Products, Orkut And Quickoffice

When you woke up this morning, it is likely that one of the first things you reached for was your phone, whether to scroll through the news, catch up on your messages or simply check the time. This reminds me of a time when things were very different. In my childhood, a telephone was not something you got easily. You needed to apply for one and wait in the queue till it was assigned to you. Sometimes, for months, or even years. Today, it’s hard to imagine that such a scenario existed, when the world wasn’t, literally, at your fingertips. Our phones now serve multiple purposes, from making and receiving calls, their original ‘calling’ (tongue firmly in cheek!), listening to music, ordering food or groceries, booking your transport, checking emails, taking photos, storing phone numbers, and the list goes on as every day there seems to be more that you can do with your phone. The telephone has evolved from its humble and simple beginnings as a rather clunky part of your furniture to the sleek, modern all-in-one device that you hold in your hand. The ‘World Wide Web (www)’ that we have accepted as an intrinsic part of our lives has also evolved, as technology and connectivity improved. It started becoming more accessible in the early 1990s. The web initially consisted of simple content that was primarily text-based. This worked well, considering that, in those days, you depended on a dial-up connection with extremely limited speeds to access the web. Patience was a virtue that you had to practice. Some of the popular websites that come to mind are Yahoo and AOL, which made news and financial information easily available to us. In the early noughties, there was a move to user-generated content as social media platforms such as Orkut, MySpace and Facebook gained popularity. These platforms provided us with a way to connect and share our news, views and updates with friends and family from across the globe. The upgrade from slow dial-up to high-speed broadband options played a key role too. This brings us to the present, when we have high-speed networks not only for computers but also on our phones. Information and data are available at the click of a button or even with just voice commands or requests. It makes you wonder, what could be next. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Web - Reloaded" comment="subhead" text="The Web - Reloaded">The Web - Reloaded</cmsannotation> We are now at the cusp of the <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/functions/digital-business-services/case-studies/documents/keeping-pace-with-the-times.pdf">next big change</a> – Web3 – which is envisioned to be a decentralised system, built, operated, and owned by its users. Reports from earlier this year say that the global Web3 market is expected to see phenomenal compound annual growth of 67% in the next few years, from 5 trillion dollars this year to almost 40 trillion in 2025. Blockchain technology, smart/intelligent contracts, Decentralised Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and metaverses are hailed as the inevitable disruptions required to move the web forward into the future. Just as the current mobile phones are a far cry from the initial vision of Alexander Graham Bell who was awarded the first telephone patent, Web3 will be very different from the web that was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. As with anything new, there are several mountains that need to be scaled along the way. Web3 developers are working on improving aspects such as: User experience: Users currently enjoy easy access to the web. Graphical user interfaces have been developed and improved to the extent that users can seamlessly interact with the interface to accomplish what they set out to do. The Web3 user experience, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Users are yet to be able to easily access Web3 and intuitively engage with it. Data privacy and security: While Web3 gives users transparency and connectivity, the other side of the coin is to ensure that the privacy and security of data remain uncompromised. Since the control will be decentralised, a proper system of checks and balances will have to be built to keep data secure. Environmental impact: Another aspect that Web3 is struggling to address is the sheer amount of energy it uses as decentralised networks use complex infrastructure with high energy needs. Efforts are being made to make Web3 sustainable and eco-friendly. Compatibility and scalability: The decentralised nature of Web3 brings with it the challenge of compatibility issues between the various blockchains and this becomes a natural stumbling block to the scalability of the technology. Web3 advocates are hard at work to iron out the various complex challenges that currently stand in the way of its widespread adoption. Slowly but surely, solutions are being found to the obstacles. The push towards Web3 is gradually gathering momentum as many countries plan to invest in research and adoption of the <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/business-transformation-services/insights/documents/a-shot-in-the-arm-for-sscs.pdf">technology</a> in the near future. Additionally, research shows that 88% of companies are already exploring new web technologies and expanding how the web works. All things considered, the future of Web3 looks bright. Soon, the vision of Web3 – a decentralised system, built, operated, and owned by its users – could be a reality. Disclaimer: This article is authored by Manoj Nair, AVP &amp; Global Head of Marketing, Corporate Strategy &amp; Risk, Infosys BPM. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India.

Through the looking glass: into the Web3-verse

I've become a social-media ghost over the past few years. I haven't posted on Instagram since December, I've gone from tweeting several times a day to a couple of times a week, and I haven't signed into Facebook or Snapchat in ages. Looking at many of my profiles, you'd think they were abandoned. And I'm not alone: People are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-dead-instagram-tiktok-bereal-replaced-group-chats-messaging-2023-8">spending less and less time on social media</a>.For more than a decade, social media has brought people together on a handful of platforms, most notably Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But in an effort to feed the rapacious desire for growth, these platforms have transformed from places for people to connect to entertainment channels. As the big players <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-companies-ruining-apps-websites-internet-worse-google-facebook-amazon-2023-3">have deteriorated into a chaotic mash</a> of shouting and sponsored content, alienated users are decamping for a hodgepodge of platforms.Like many young people, I've taken refuge in close-knit private circles such as group chats. In these smaller spaces, populated with friends and family, I don't feel the crippling pressure to overshare and harvest my every thought for possible work opportunities. These havens are free from the round-the-clock avalanche of meticulously curated content, ads, and brand campaigns. Instead of the stilted experience of hanging out in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/threads-never-replace-twitter-meta-zuckerberg-musk-advertisers-brands-influencers-2023-7">shopping mall</a>, group chats feel more like an intimate dinner at a friend's house.People are also turning toward a new crop of social-media platforms that have emerged in the past few years to capitalize on the void left by the deterioration of large platforms. Some of the new entrants are trying to recreate the original, clutter-free social experiences big platforms used to offer, while others are experimenting with radical ideas to reboot the concept from scratch.So far, none of the new sites can compete with the sheer size of the old, centralized networks, but they do offer some hope. As people grow tired of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cure-screen-time-social-media-phone-addiction-app-one-sec-2023-3">toxic and addictive platforms</a> that undermine real social connection, this new wave of social-focused upstarts could end up producing a healthier online environment.Whatever you think of social media's future, it's increasingly clear that the big-platform party is over. But instead of spelling the death of social media, it may be the beginning of a better era. Welcome to the Great Social Media Splintering. <h2>Step into the 'pluriverse'</h2>Major platforms such as Facebook have long abandoned their goal to "bring the world closer together" in favor of "profit-motivated and engagement-inducing designs" that keep us hooked and drive growth, Ben Grosser, an artist and faculty associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet &amp; Society, told me. A flood of research has found that this shift in the companies' priorities has shaped everyday users for the worse.One <a href="https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001091" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent study</a> found social media could cause an increase in eating disorders and poor body image in men and women. And researchers have theorized that by lumping people with disparate views together in a faceless melee, the technology that was supposed to bring us together has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-twitter-facebook-political-polarization-mechanism-2022-10">made us more polarized</a>. Broadly speaking, social media's always-on nature is unnatural. We aren't <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/10/fix-facebook-making-it-more-like-google/620456/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supposed to talk so much</a>, and posting in front of thousands of people every day causes our ability to communicate to break down.But for all its flaws, I have depended on big platforms. My job as a freelance journalist hinges on a public audience and my ability to keep tabs on developing news. The fatigue I have felt is therefore partly fueled by another, more-pressing concern: Which social network should I bank on? It isn't that I don't want to post; I just don't know where to do it anymore. In the past year, I've helplessly migrated alongside most of my network from one new platform to another — Discord, Bluesky, Threads. You name it, I've tried it. The pattern is the same: I sign up for the hot, new app, toy with it for a few days, and then quickly abandon it. While widespread platform migrations have taken place successfully over the years — I migrated from Google's Orkut, a popular platform in India and Brazil in the late aughts, to Facebook to Instagram to TikTok — I have never before found myself in no man's land. If none of these platforms are lining up to be the new Facebook, what is the future?Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci, who researches digital public infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said there's a reboot taking place now and that social media's future might be "more private and more fragmented." In a <a href="https://publicinfrastructure.org/2023/03/29/the-three-legged-stool/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">white paper</a> published earlier this year, he and his colleagues envisioned a "pluriverse" consisting of existing platforms and an ecosystem of "very small online platforms" — private communities and niche services that host the kind of intimate or interest-specific conversations poorly served by today's digital public sphere. In a way, the pluriverse is already here. People can be active on half a dozen social-media apps, using each for a unique purpose and audience. On "public" platforms such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-linkedin-got-weird-work-life-blurred-lines-of-oversharing-2023-9">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-killed-twitter-irrelevant-meta-threads-debt-mark-zuckerberg-2023-7">X</a>, formerly Twitter, I carefully curate my presence and use them exclusively as public-broadcasting tools for promotions and outreach. But for socializing, I retreat to various tight-knit, private groups such as iMessage threads and Instagram's Close Friends list, where I can be more spontaneous and personal in what I say. But while this setup is working OK for now, it's a patchwork solution. <h2>Online towns</h2>No matter how fun group chats and breakout social apps such as BeReal are, I've missed the borderless experience that large platforms offer — a place where I can discover viral content, expand my network, and participate in global conversations. Rebecca Rinkevich, the director of the Institute for Rebooting Social Media, doesn't expect giant social platforms to die anytime soon — or ever — since their accessible reach has played a pivotal role in everything from tracking natural crises to activism. But as people's attention splinters across dozens of platforms, she believes "the government and the public will have to work harder to engage in dialogue online," she said.Mike McCue, Flipboard's CEO, believes that the next big, social platform must bring together the benefits of both worlds, he said: "the quality and trust in small, transparent communities with the ability for those quality conversations to reach millions." But instead of one platform that manages to appease everyone, the future of social media is looking more like a network of platforms that offer people a customized experience. The ideal system would not only allow you to migrate to new social apps without losing your network or profile but also link them together so that you could post on one and a friend could comment on it from another.Take Threads, for instance, Meta's attempt to build a Twitter replacement. It runs on the ActivityPub protocol, which means that Threads' more than 100 million users will eventually be able to interact with Mastodon, an open-source social platform that uses the same coding system, without ever signing up for it. Similarly, on Mastodon, people can build their own private, little communities, while still having the option to break out and share their content with the rest of the platform's over 10 million users. Think of it like a town. Maybe your home (account) is in the Threads or Mastodon neighborhood. You spend a lot of time in the privacy of your home talking to close friends in group chats and private lists, but you also stroll about to see what's happening in your neighborhood — a limited group of people you enjoy spending time around online. Sometimes, you venture out to the global town square to hear what people in different communities around the world are talking about. Sometimes you even contribute to the conversation or hang up posters to promote your work.This kind of open, decentralized system would help break down big platforms' walled gardens, whose one-size-fits-all approach has had vastly detrimental effects. Instead of living in Facebook city under Facebook's laws, the decentralized approach offers everyone more control over the social-media experience and allows people to pick the communities and feeds they're most interested and comfortable in. Though none of these platforms have tried to make money yet, there are a variety of business paths: Like Threads, platforms could turn to in-app ads, or like Mastodon, platforms could turn to grants, donations, and sponsorships. Since the business model shapes how the platform works, people would be free to set up shop on the platforms they prefer. I've spent the past few months on Mastodon and Bluesky, a Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized social network, and have found them the best bets so far to replace Twitter. Their clutter-free platforms already match the quality of discourse that was on Twitter, albeit not at the same scale. And that's the only problem with these platforms: They aren't compatible with each other or big enough on their own to replace today's giants. While there are efforts to bridge them and allow users to interact across the platforms, none have proved successful. If these and other decentralized platforms find a way to merge into a larger ecosystem, they will force big platforms to change their tune in order to keep up. And hopefully, that future will yield a more balanced and regulated online lifestyle.<h2>A healthier internet</h2>At its best, Steve Teixeira, the chief product officer at Mozilla, said that social media facilitated connection, regardless of geographic or temporal boundaries, and helps people stay informed, encounter novel ideas, and access vital services. At the moment, though, "it isn't doing any of these things particularly well," he said. The problem is that social media is trying to do too many things at once. Splintered social media would let each of the internet's key functions thrive in its own context — you could stay in touch with family members and keep up with your political representatives without your private memories getting wedged in between political drama. The other problem is that users have very little control over what they experience online. <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/11/strain-media-overload" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies</a> have found that news overload from social media can cause <a href="https://time.com/5125894/is-reading-news-bad-for-you/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stress</a>, anxiety, fatigue, and lack of sleep. By democratizing social media, users can turn those negative health effects around by taking more control over who they're associated with, what they look at in their feeds, and how algorithms are influencing their social experience. And by splintering our time across a variety of platforms — each with a different approach to content moderation — the online communication ecosystem ends up better reflecting the diversity of the people who use it. People who wish to keep their data to themselves can live inside tight-knit circles. Those who don't want a round-the-clock avalanche of polarizing content can change what their feed shows them. Activists looking to spread a message can still reach millions. The list goes on. "Instead of policymakers and users having to plead, poke, and prod platforms to change," Rajendra-Nicolucci said, "decentralization would enable them to take matters into their own hands, allowing many different answers to the question: 'How should platform X work?' to coexist."Tailoring social media to people's needs could revolutionize how we spend time online. Swapping out virality-incentivized algorithms in favor of <a href="https://bridging.systems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ones that resonate with diverse audiences</a>, for example, can reduce bias and polarization. And experts have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772503022000159" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that a collection of networks would "optimize itself solely for public good," rather than fall into the pitfalls of traditional platforms — an unhealthy obsession with metrics and meaningless interactions. It's hard to predict the future, least of all when it comes to online services where new apps can go viral — and then fail — in a <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-bereal-app-how-does-it-work-2022-4">flash</a>, but the breakup of monolithic social-media platforms and the rise of myriad new social experiences has felt like an urgent, long-overdue turn of events. It has propelled millions, including me, to question the status quo — did I need to add a dozen hashtags in hopes of making my sunset picture go viral? — and embrace a healthier relationship with social media. No one knows what the next major social platform will look like. But until it emerges, I expect to continue living a splintered and nomadic online social life.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/shubham-agarwal" rel="">Shubham Agarwal</a> is a freelance technology journalist from Ahmedabad, India whose work has appeared in Wired, The Verge, Fast Company, and more.

Great news &mdash; social media is falling apart

<ul><li>The Chinese video sharing social network, TikTok, surpassed Facebook with 188 million downloads during the first quarter of 2019. </li><li>It's already a dominant social network in China where Facebook is banned. It is growing in the second-largest market in the world, India. </li><li>TikTok recently opened its doors to advertisers; and brands like Pepsi and Myntra are lining up.</li><li>The niche video-sharing app might be the next big thing after Facebook to finally transform the social networking space after years. </li></ul>Silicon Valley giant Facebook, considers itself a leader in the social networking space. But its monopoly might soon end. Chinese startup TikTok is fast on its heels, gaining more users by the day. TikTok downloads reportedly surpassed Facebook in the first quarter of 2019 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-lifted-by-madras-high-court/articleshow/69029626.cms">despite</a> being banned in India's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-lifted-as-google-and-apple-allow-it-back-in-stores/articleshow/69125104.cms">Google Play store</a> and the App Store for 20 days. During the ban, Indian courts had debated over whether or not the video sharing platform was '<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-for-hosting-porn/articleshow/68720430.cms">encouraging pornography</a>'. Finally, this ban was lifted in April. TikTok scored 188 million downloads as Facebook lagged behind in the second place, with 176 million downloads worldwide, according to <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/sensortower-itunes/Quarterly+Reports/Sensor-Tower-Q1-2019-Data-Digest.pdf?src=landing">Sensor Tower</a>. Interestingly, India accounted for 47% of TikTok's downloads; while contributing less than half of this percentage, at 21%, to Facebook downloads. In Apple's App Store, TikTok beat out Facebook, YouTube and even WhatsApp to be the most downloaded app for the fifth consecutive quarter with over 33 million installs. TikTok's already replaced Facebook as 'the' social media network in China, where Facebook is banned. In India, TikTok's success has been quick since it launched in 2017. Within two years, it has snagged 200 million monthly active users, according to Statista. And, it is rushing to take over Facebook's number, at 300 million. Lasso fails to catch up Facebook tried to take on TikTok's popularity with its own short video sharing app, Lasso. But, so far, its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/tiktok-is-staying-way-ahead-of-facebooks-lasso.html">failed</a> to have the same kind of impact. The key difference between them both is that while Facebook has its fingers in every pie, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=tiktok&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">TikTok</a> is working on making its one pie, the best that it could be. 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="It is crucial for Facebook to retain dominance in India. The country holds high prospects in the sense of having strong GDP growth and being the second-largest population in the world. Facebook is blocked in China, therefore India is its next best bet for acquiring large amounts of new users." auname="Sanders Tran, a data analyst at Sensor Tower"></div>



 Finding its niche There is one thing that could keep TikTok from being all that it can be. Ironically, it is also the same feature that makes it so appealing to first-time internet users — the fact that it's a niche video sharing platform. Shekhar Sharma, Vice-President of GroupM, analysed, "Since it's limited to a niche category of short-form video, it's a distant threat to Facebook for now." For advertisers, Facebook's still the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/2020-candidates-are-still-pouring-money-into-facebook-ads-even-after-democrats-slammed-the-social-media-giant-for-its-role-in-spreading-fake-news-during-the-2016-election/articleshow/69179005.cms">best choice</a> with the largest audience. But, that equation too could change in the near future with TikTok recently opening its doors to advertisers in India. Pepsi, Snapdeal, Myntra and others are reportedly lining up to showcase their brands on the network. The growing popularity of TikTok may not be an immediate threat but it's something that Facebook needs to keep an eye on. Just like Orkut replaced High5, MySpace replaced Orkut and, finally, Facebook replaced MySpace — this may be the next generation's changing of the guard. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-lifted-by-madras-high-court/articleshow/69029626.cms">TikTok ban lifted in India but it has lost at least 2 million users</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-lifted-as-google-and-apple-allow-it-back-in-stores/articleshow/69125104.cms">TikTok makes a triumphant return to Indian app stores a week after the ban was lifted</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-ban-in-india-for-hosting-porn/articleshow/68720430.cms">An Indian court has banned TikTok for 'encouraging pornography'</a>

TikTok, tick tock — time is ticking for Facebook in China and India

The World Wide Web, as we know it, has been evolving at a breakneck speed over the years. Yet, it hit the mainstream just 25 years back, and within that period, it has already undergone multiple transformations. What is <keyword id="692030" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="web-3-0" source="Orion">Web 3.0</keyword>? The early period of the Internet, or Web 1.0, was when we accessed it through our desktop browsers — laptops were a luxury, Wi-Fi just about getting started, and mobile data non-existent — and visited portals like Yahoo and MSN. The internet was in a ‘Read’ mode and we had limited ability to interact with it. <div type="image" title="Dec 2021 infographic for Business insider 1." height="900" width="1200" msid="88826492" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The evolution of web over the years.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> That changed in 2005, the period of <keyword id="68431" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="web-2-0" source="Orion">Web 2.0</keyword> when we could start interacting with the Internet. Suddenly blogging, writing reviews on Yelp and commenting on articles became a way of life. And Web 2.0 saw the rise of an exciting new breed of ‘<keyword id="6355103" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="social" source="Orion">Social</keyword>’ companies like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Insta — I call them Social 1.0 — as well as other platform companies such as Airbnb and Uber. Today, we are in the midst of the evolution of Web 2.0 and many experts believe that it still has a long way to go. So, what’s Web 3.0? Well, depending upon who you ask and the time of the day, you will get answers like Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi, dApps, DAO, NFTs and so on! Fundamentally, it is an obsession around the themes of trust-less computing, decentralisation and, in a very utopian way, deregulation. But was is it really all about? I believe that underlying these technology trends, Web 3.0 is really about assertion for greater control by the two important stakeholders of the Internet — the creators and the consumers — in terms of how they earn $$ on various Social platforms and their data privacy. And not so much about the technological building blocks like NFT and blockchain – that is more of a religious debate within the technology community, while the larger issue is about how can we hand back control to the stakeholders. So, what played out in Social 1.0? The primary currency that you earned in Social 1.0 was your social influence. It was measured in terms of likes, retweets and followers. And there were limited opportunities to monetise on-platform. So, creators focused on building a large social influence and marketing their content or courses to their followers via links to other adjacent platforms like Gumroad. In time, affiliate marketing also caught on and soon the ‘influencers’ started plugging Brands to their followers, earning money for promotion or earning a commission as a percentage of the sales. All this led to a scenario where influencers created “shrill” and “clickbait” content to get more followers, more clicks and more revenue. For us consumers, who were getting a firehose of content, it seemed like a good deal as it was for free. Or was it? We soon realised that we had been paying for the services with our data! Our interests, our social graphs, our preferences weren’t private after all - they were sold to the advertisers with the highest bid. Worse, there was no incentive for the Social 1.0 companies to discourage fake news, trolling, bullying and shaming on their platform — that only meant more visits, more engagement and thereby more opportunity to serve ads to the users! <keyword id="12927406" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-2-0" source="Orion">Social 2.0</keyword> Social 2.0 is a term that I use for companies that are trying to change the status quo, and are putting the interests of the creators and the consumers front and center. Their focus is on having a flexible and transparent business model for creators to earn, with a huge emphasis on data privacy. It is about companies willing to give the control back to the stakeholders, doesn’t matter whether the company is built on top of Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 technologies. The torchbearer of this revolution is Patreon; it was born when its co-founder, Jack Conte, a musician, had an epiphany: Instead of spending his time, effort and $$ on promoting music videos on YouTube (and earning a measly $180 if he was lucky enough to get a million views), what if he simply focused his energies on identifying his 18 super-fans who would be willing to donate $10 each month to support him? This concept of micro-tipping caught on and today there are more than 250,000 creators on this platform! No wonder then that Patreon, in its latest funding round of $155M, was valued at $4Bn. Similarly, Substack is a Social 2.0 company (built on top of Web 1.0 technologies), which enables writers to start email newsletters and earn via subscriptions. Today, some of the top writers earn close to $500K annually, and seasoned journalists have quit their cushy jobs with institutions like NYT and Buzzfeed to focus on writing on Substack. Subscription is King The subscription-led models of Social 2.0 companies like Patreon, Substack, Twitch and others enable creators to focus on building a steady annuity income and start thinking of Social as a serious business with predictable income-flows. Kevin Kelly, a respected editor of Wired, had predicted in 2008 that a creator needs just a thousand true-fans to earn a living. Today, the power of distribution of the Internet and the proliferation of Social 2.0 companies ensure that any creator can find his true fans from across the globe. More importantly, the focus on narrow-casting, instead of trying to build a fan-base of millions, gives the creators more creative freedom — as long as there are 1000 fans who see value in their creations and are willing to support them, they are free to create what they want and don’t have to worry about conforming to popular taste or the constraints of ad-based, dopamine-led monetisation models. This freedom from AI algorithms, which identify and promote the most “engaging” content is liberating. Creators are in more control of the content, how they wish to price it and, in some cases, about who finally owns the customer. For example, platforms like Substack allow the writer to take his mailing list with him, in case he decides to move his business to another platform. Data Privacy The subscription-led model, where the platforms take a % of the earnings, ensures that they don’t need to store user data and monetise it via ads, leading to better data privacy. Further, not having to rely upon dopamine-based ad models means that platforms are not incentivised anymore to promote sensationalism or fake news just to drive up engagement on the platform, leading to a better overall user experience. Unbundling One of the biggest impacts of Social 2.0 is the unbundling of the Big-Tech — instead of users aggregating to a handful of Social 1.0 companies, creators and their fans are flocking to a multitude of platforms that offers their niche or community the best solution. From game-streaming moving to Twitch, writers to Substack and unbundling of Facebook Groups to paid communities on Slack and Discord channels, we will see Social 2.0 companies proliferating in various forms and shapes that it might be difficult for us to even recognise some of them as ‘Social’. Hustle vs Creating Value Thus, we can see that Social 2.0 is going to create a class of creators who, instead of constantly worrying about having to grow their follower-base, create “clickbait” and “shrill” content, can now focus on creating meaningful content, which they and their fans enjoy, and build a sound business around it. Hustling in front of a million fans is going to give way to creating value for a thousand true fans. And that is going to fundamentally alter the landscape of the Creator Economy. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/facebook-microsoft-and-others-look-towards-the-1-trillion-dollar-metaverse-opportunity-but-that-contradicts-the-base-philosophy-behind-web-3-0/articleshow/87959802.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Facebook, Microsoft and others look towards the $1 trillion dollar ‘metaverse’ opportunity — but that contradicts the base philosophy behind Web 3.0</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/bitcoin-ethereum-and-others-have-lost-nearly-40-percent-since-their-record-highs-but-investors-are-still-better-off-than-they-were-a-year-ago/articleshow/88823379.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others are half-way down from their record highs, but investors are still better off than they were a year ago</a>

Opinion: Social media is not just for hustlers anymore

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/google">Google</a> is making another go at a social network. </li><li>Named <a href="https://shoelace.nyc/">Shoelace</a>, the app aims to be a hyperlocal social network for people looking to connect with others (in real life) at events and nearby activities. It sounds a little bit like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/square-cfo-sarah-friar-leaves-to-be-ceo-of-nextdoor-2018-10">Nextdoor</a>, the local social network.</li><li>"The whole premise of Shoelace is to tie people together based on their interests - like two laces on a shoe," the team says. </li><li>For now, the Android and iOS versions are <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfP90ef4gzlO1xXIfgIQnYJByL9lR0ypG6vqytDjv6VoNQz_w/viewform">invite-only</a> and available only in New York City. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>After shutting down Google+ <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-shutdown-is-set-for-april-2nd-2019-1">in April</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/google">Google</a> is making another go at a social network. Named <a href="https://shoelace.nyc/">Shoelace</a>, the app aims to be a hyperlocal social network for people looking to connect with others (in real life) at events and nearby activities. On its website, the team says, "the whole premise of Shoelace is to tie people together based on their interests - like two laces on a shoe." These events - fittingly referred to as "loops" within the app - might include things like playing ping pong at a local bar or watching comedy at an open mic night. The idea seems somewhat like <a href="https://www.meetup.com/">Meetup</a> - get people together who share in common interests and maybe walk away with a new friend, or two.In fact, on its site, the Shoelace team says the app is great for people who have recently moved to a new city or for those looking to meet people who live nearby, which also makes it seem a little bit like local social networks like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/square-cfo-sarah-friar-leaves-to-be-ceo-of-nextdoor-2018-10">Nextdoor</a>. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Shoelace is a product of Google's internal startup incubator, known as <a href="https://area120.google.com/">Area 120</a>. For now, the Android and iOS versions are <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfP90ef4gzlO1xXIfgIQnYJByL9lR0ypG6vqytDjv6VoNQz_w/viewform">invite-only</a> within "select communities" and available only in New York City. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider on Thursday: "One of the many projects that we're working on within Area 120 is Shoelace, an app that helps people meet others with similar interests in person through curated activities. Like other projects within Area 120, it's an early experiment so there aren't many details to share right now." Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-biggest-product-flops-2018-11">The 14 biggest product flops in Google history</a>The tech giant hasn't necessarily had the strongest track record when building social networks (Orkut, Google Buzz, and Google+ are all defunct), but with Shoelace, the intentions, at least, seem promising. Getting more people to interact with one another offline has become less common in a sea of other social networks. Get the latest Google stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/GOOG-Quote"> here.</a>

Google's latest attempt at a social network is called Shoelace and it wants to connect more people in real life

This Tech Insider’s daily dose of <keyword id="35609" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="tech-news">tech news</keyword>. This is everything that’s happening in tech that you need to know about today: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-ends-ties-with-huawei-no-more-youtube-gmail-maps-play-store/articleshow/69408135.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">1. Huawei’s next phone won’t have YouTube, Gmail or Google Maps</a> <keyword id="6355629" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword> just ‘suspended’ its business activities with the Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei. This means that Huawei won’t have any access to Android Q until its released to the public and its future phones won’t be able to install the Google Play Store. Why you should care: Without the Google Play Store on Huawei phones, you won’t be able to download YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps — a map you probably use on a daily basis to get you home. Apparently, the Chinese company saw this coming and has been working on its own software. But, as of now, its only available on a few products in China. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-amazon-facebook-tiktok-flipkart-wait-for-election-results-in-india/articleshow/69408831.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">2. Global tech giants are holding their breath to see who forms the next Indian government</a> Companies like <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword>, <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and TikTok are scheduled to meet with government officials after the final results of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/election-2019">Lok Sabha election</a> come out on May 23. They’re coming (hoping) that the new government will be able to clear the doubts surrounding new data localisation and e-commerce regulations. Why you should care: E-commerce companies like Amazon and <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> are hoping to bring <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-indian-government-just-dealt-a-serious-surprise-to-amazon-and-flipkart-heres-what-that-means-for-online-shoppers/articleshow/67272151.cms">deep-discounting</a> back. With a new government, they expect less lobbying and pressure from the offline bodies that form a massive vote bank. And, WhatsApp Pay might finally be able to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/whatsapp-is-trying-to-make-payment-services-available-to-all-its-users-in-india/articleshow/66917241.cms">go beyond</a> its ‘beta’ release once it receives some clarification around the new data regulation policies imposed by the country's central bank. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/amazon-vs-flipkart-house-of-flagships-for-new-smartphones-in-india/articleshow/69408528.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">3. Flipkart’s ‘House of Flagships’ is its latest bid to get the ‘edge’ over Amazon in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/flipkart-is-trying-to-attract-more-customers-suppliers-by-giving-them-flexible-payment-options/articleshow/64852488.cms">Flipkart</a> is looking to gain the ‘edge’ over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/amazon-india-and-amazon-pay-sales-may-increase-as-the-online-retail-giant-expands-physical-presence/articleshow/68590870.cms">Amazon</a> with its new portal the ‘House of Flagships’. There’s also Flipkart Edge membership for users that gets them access to exclusive features on the app. Why you should care: If you’re a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/googles-new-pixel-3a-was-launched-at-an-awkward-time-when-everyone-is-expecting-a-new-flagship-pixel-phone-in-just-a-few-months-but-heres-why-thats-ok/articleshow/69270981.cms">Google</a>, Samsung, Lenovo or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/asus-zenfone-6z-launch-date-price-and-specification/articleshow/69361840.cms">ASUS</a> fan — House of Flagships is where their flagship devices will be on sale. Membership to the Flipkart Edge club might not be on the agenda depending on how often you buy a new smartphone. 4. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/boycott-amazon-trends-on-twitter-as-india-enraged-over-disrespect-of-hindu-gods/articleshow/69357151.cms">Amazon quietly removes items from store</a> Amazon was recently under the gun for having toilet mats with faces of Hindu Gods for sale on their US portal. The company issued a statement saying that it is asking the vendors to take down the products. Over the weekend, 33 products silently disappeared from the e-commerce site. Why you should care: Amazon may not have directly put the items on sale — pushing the responsibility onto third party vendors. But, this isn’t the first time that such an incident has occurred on the e-commerce platform. So, it calls into question the guidelines and regulations that Amazon has in place to counter such behaviour. 5. <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/political-ad-spend-on-facebook-google-tops-rs-53-cr/articleshow/69397065.cms">Political ad spend on Facebook, Google tops ₹530 million</a> Between the months of February to May, <keyword id="7611014" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="political-ad-spend">political ad spend</keyword> across Google and Facebook ballooned to ₹530 million in campaigning for the Lok Sabha election 2019 — most of which was dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Why you should care: It shows how the political environment in India is getting more competitive and more radicalised. It also exhibits how the paradigm is shifting towards online campaigns being just as important as the offline ones — making the filtration of fake and misinformation all the more important. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-downloads-top-facebook-in-china-and-india/articleshow/69334254.cms">6. TikTok isn't just ruling on Google, but in Apple's App Store as well</a> Tiktok recently overtook Facebook to become the most downloaded app of the first quarter of 2019. It has also retained its position in the Apple App Store as the most downloaded app with 33 million downloads — beating out the likes of WhatsApp and YouTube. Why you should care: The pivot from WhatsApp and Facebook to TikTok shows a shift in the way that people are communicating. Just as Hi5 was overhauled by Orkut and MySpace by Facebook, TikTok — or short video format apps like it — might be the next generation of social networking. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/whatsapp-spyware-hack-questioned-by-indian-government/articleshow/69376429.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">7. Firm suspected to be behind the WhatsApp spyware attack is facing charges</a> The Israeli firm, Pagesus, suspected to behind the spyware attacked WhatsApp is now facing a lawsuit by Amnesty International Israel. Why you should care: The spyware attack of WhatsApp was as simple as receiving a phone call on your smartphone. And, till now, it is unknown how many people were affected even though WhatsApp claims that it was a “relatively small amount of devices.” The Facebook-owned messaging app is recommending that all users should update their apps immediately as a precaution. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/amazon-launches-flight-booking-service-in-india/articleshow/69409136.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">8. Now you can book your flight tickets on Amazon</a> The e-commerce giant, Amazon, is now selling flight tickets in India. The company has partnered with Cleartrip to bring one more service under its umbrella that already includes online payments, bill payments, shopping among others. Why you should care: If you’re a frequent Amazon user, this makes for one less app that you’ll have to download. It’s also offering zero cancellation charges on Amazon’s end, but you’ll have to pay the airlines as per their cancellation policy. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebook-building-its-cryptocurrency-in-switzerland-report/articleshow/69409657.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">9. Facebook wants to test its crypto currency in India but is building it in Switzerland</a> Facebook’s cryptocurrency, only heard about in whispers and rumours, seems to finally have appeared on paper. The tech giant reportedly set up a company called Libra Networks in Switzerland that is working on Facebook’s blockchain technology. Why you should care: Facebook is looking to beta test its cryptocurrency in India. According to the company, the new coin is supposed to be stable since it will be pegged against the US dollar or a basket of currencies. Tech Insider India curates the <keyword id="3567895" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="top-tech-news">top tech news</keyword> for the day from all its global editions and partner publications.

Today's top tech news: Huawei roars as Flipkart and Amazon wait on scores

Ever since companies such as eBay and Google were founded, consumers have been experiencing the contribution of Internet in their daily lives. 
 Internet has touched almost all the industries and has transformed the world of scarcity to the world of abundance by organising the unorganised resources, delivering them at the right time and at the right price to consumers in need. Hypergrowth and appreciation in valuation of several <keyword id="476126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="internet-companies">Internet companies</keyword> have made people curious to understand what is so special about these companies. 
 
Like nervous system is the control and communication system of a human body and has two main organs- brain and spinal cord, likewise, , the fastest growing Internet companies also have a nervous system with two main concepts --Multisided Platform and Crowdsourcing. 
 
Multisided Platforms: Platform is an intermediary that facilitates exchange of products and services between two (or more) user groups. User groups form sides of multisided platform and are attracted to the platform due to network effects. A network effect is a phenomenon that makes a platform more valuable when more people use it. 
 
When members in user group on one side get attracted towards members of user group on the other side, the network effect is called cross-sided network effect. For instance, patients (user group on one side) would prefer to go to a hospital (platform) that has more numbers of reputed doctors (user group on other side). When more members join a user group on one side and make that specific side stronger, then the network effect is called same-side network effect. In this case, hospital that has good doctors would be able to attract more good doctors and when more good doctors join a hospital, strength of hospital as a platform increases. 
 
Below is the list of a few traditional platforms that we have been using for decades, much before the age of Internet: 
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Platform</td>
			<td>
				Side 1</td>
			<td>
				Side 2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Vegetable Markets</td>
			<td>
				Vegetable Hawkers</td>
			<td>
				Vegetable Buyers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Consulting Firms</td>
			<td>
				Consultants</td>
			<td>
				Clients</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Hospitals</td>
			<td>
				Doctors</td>
			<td>
				Patients</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Publishers</td>
			<td>
				Writers</td>
			<td>
				Readers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Taxi Stand, Bus Stand, Railway Platforms, Airports</td>
			<td>
				Transportation Mediums</td>
			<td>
				Travellers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Matchmakers, Singles Clubs</td>
			<td>
				Boys</td>
			<td>
				Girls</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Shopping Malls</td>
			<td>
				Retailers</td>
			<td>
				Shoppers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				News Papers</td>
			<td>
				Advertisers</td>
			<td>
				Readers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Conferences</td>
			<td>
				Speakers</td>
			<td>
				Audience</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Stock Exchanges</td>
			<td>
				Companies that need to raise capital</td>
			<td>
				Investors</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Real Estate Brokers</td>
			<td>
				Builders</td>
			<td>
				Buyers</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
 
 
Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing can also be seen as outsourcing to crowd. It is a process of getting ideas and work done through a crowd of people instead of full time resources hired for that particular work. For instance, in the famous quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, contestants used to get few lifelines including audience poll. In this lifeline, participants outsource question to audience (crowd) and get their opinions on answers. Similarly, contests such as case study competitions and programming contests organised by corporates in business schools and engineering schools etc. are also the examples of crowdsourcing as students (external crowd) put in efforts to come up with multiple solutions for a given problem. 
 
When businesses add power of Internet with the concepts of multisided platform and crowdsourcing, they are able to scale up very fast, to aggregate supply from various sources, remove bottlenecks between demand and supply, provide transparency through reviews &amp; ratings and are able to provide niche products that not available locally. Now, let’s have a look at examples of Internet based platforms that are powered by crowdsourcing. 
 
<keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>: Uber is mobile Internet app that connects commuters with taxi drivers. Uber doesn’t own any taxi, crowd of taxi drivers register with Uber and Uber outsources the commuter’s requirement to one of the registered drivers. In this kind of model, both demand and supply side gets benefited by addition of more people in the respective groups. 
 
 
 
<keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>: Facebook is an Internet based social networking site. Crowd of users joins Facebook to network with other users and get to know happenings in the life of people in their network. Users keep on generating content in the form of news, videos, pictures etc. that keeps other users engaged. As Facebook has over 1 billion users, it is a great platform for advertisers and developers to reach out to their targeted audience. 
 
 
 
Below is the list of a few Internet companies that are based on concept of multisided platform and crowdsourcing. 
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Company</td>
			<td>
				Platform Utility</td>
			<td>
				Sides</td>
			<td>
				Crowd</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Google</td>
			<td>
				Information Search</td>
			<td>
				· Advertisers 
				· Content Owners 
				· Web Searchers</td>
			<td>
				Websites: Google’s PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page from other websites. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Facebook</td>
			<td>
				Social Networking</td>
			<td>
				· Advertisers 
				· Application Developers 
				· Users who want to connect with friends</td>
			<td>
				Users: Content on Facebook is generated by registered users.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Alibaba, eBay, &amp; Snapdeal</td>
			<td>
				Online Shopping</td>
			<td>
				· Sellers 
				· Buyers</td>
			<td>
				Sellers: Provide products. 
				Customers: Provide sellers’ reviews. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Uber &amp; Ola</td>
			<td>
				Local Transport</td>
			<td>
				· Taxi Drivers 
				· Commuters</td>
			<td>
				Taxi Drivers: Provide Taxis. 
				Customers: Provide drivers’ reviews. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Airbnb</td>
			<td>
				Accommodation</td>
			<td>
				· Accommodation Providers (Hosts) 
				· Travellers (Guests)</td>
			<td>
				Hosts : Provide Accommodation &amp; Reviews 
				Travellers: Provide Reviews. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				OLX &amp; Quikr</td>
			<td>
				Used Goods Exchange</td>
			<td>
				· Used Goods Sellers 
				· Used Goods Buyers</td>
			<td>
				Sellers: Provide products for sale.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Freecharge</td>
			<td>
				Online Recharge</td>
			<td>
				· Telecom &amp; DTH Operators 
				· Retailers (shopping coupon providers) 
				· Users looking for mobile phone, DTH, &amp; Data card recharge</td>
			<td>
				Telecom &amp; DTH operators: Provide recharge options. 
				Retailers: Provide shopping coupons. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Naukri</td>
			<td>
				Job Search</td>
			<td>
				· Recruiters 
				· Job Seekers</td>
			<td>
				Recruiters: Provide job requirements. 
				Job Seekers: Provide Resumes. 
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Zomato</td>
			<td>
				Restaurant Search</td>
			<td>
				· Restaurant Owners 
				· Customers</td>
			<td>
				Restaurant owners: Provide information on menu, location etc. 
				Customers: Provide reviews.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				JustDial</td>
			<td>
				 Local Service/Products Providers Search</td>
			<td>
				· Service Providers 
				· Prospective Customers</td>
			<td>
				Local service &amp; product providers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				YouTube</td>
			<td>
				Video Sharing</td>
			<td>
				· Video Uploaders 
				· Video Watchers 
				· Advertisers</td>
			<td>
				Video Uploaders</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				LinkedIn</td>
			<td>
				Professional Networking</td>
			<td>
				· Advertisers 
				· Recruiters 
				· Professional Networkers 
				· Developers</td>
			<td>
				Users : Create profiles, write articles, share information etc.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Apple App Store</td>
			<td>
				Mobile Apps Distribution</td>
			<td>
				· App Developers 
				· Mobile Device Users</td>
			<td>
				App Developers: Provide Apps for downloading.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Shaadi</td>
			<td>
				Matrimony</td>
			<td>
				· Prospective Grooms 
				· Prospective Brides</td>
			<td>
				Users: Profiles on matrimony site are created by registered users.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Coursera</td>
			<td>
				Education</td>
			<td>
				· Universities 
				· Course Students</td>
			<td>
				Universities: They create content &amp; provide courses.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
 
Note: Based on interpretation and evolution of business model, a few of the above platforms may have more crowd sources &amp; sides. 
 
In these kinds of businesses, best performers or leaders capture huge market share and make it difficult for competitors to grow. But, to remain the market leader, companies have to put in a lot of efforts to gain credibility for their platforms and make users and crowd experience pleasant so that they don’t switch to competitor’s platforms. 
Orkut, the social networking platform owned by Google was very popular, but Facebook gained more credibility and eventually people switched from Orkut to Facebook. By providing proper user experience, Facebook has been able to retain its users and has been giving tough competition to Google+. Similarly, Google was not the first search engine in the market, but by providing better search results, it became the market leader and with time its competitors moved out of market. By maintaining its credibility and popularity, Google has been able to create barriers for new competitors. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Decoding nervous system of fastest growing internet companies

Everyone's familiar with the mind-blowing numbers describing Facebook's huge user population.
We're less used to seeing different social media compared side-by-side, according to how many users or visitors they have.
When all of the planet's social networks are compared in a simple list, some surprising facts emerge.
<ul>
<li>First, global messaging apps like LINE and WhatsApp already have achieved significant scale, and so have social video platforms like YouTube, and China-based Youku.</li>
<li>Meanwhile, social networks that get a lot of attention, like Twitter and Pinterest, are relatively small.</li>
<li>Finally, we also see the eye-opening size of some China- and Russia-centric social media. </li>
</ul>
In a <a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/social-media-census-2013-10?utm_source=House&amp;utm_medium=Edit&amp;utm_term=SOCINTL&amp;utm_content=link&amp;utm_campaign=BIIMobile">new report from BI Intelligence</a>, we compiled a list of the world's largest social networks. Here is the ranking as of Oct. 30, 2013 (Ranked in terms of reported or estimated global Monthly Active Users or MAUs, unless noted):
<ol>
<li>Facebook (1.15 billion MAUs)</li>
<li>YouTube (1 billion MAUs)</li>
<li>Qzone (712 million total users), China</li>
<li>Sina Weibo (500 million total users), China</li>
<li>WhatsApp (350 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Google+ (327 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Tumblr (300 million monthly unique visitors)</li>
<li>LINE (275 million total active users), Japan</li>
<li>Twitter (240 million MAUs)</li>
<li>WeChat (236 million MAUs), China</li>
<li>Tencent Weibo, (220 million MAUs), China</li>
<li>LinkedIn, (184 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Youku, (175 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Instagram, (150 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Tudou, (114 million MAUs), China</li>
<li>RenRen, (54 million MAUs), China</li>
<li>Pinterest, (50 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Badoo, (45 million MAUs), Cyprus</li>
<li>Orkut, (44 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Foursquare, (40 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Vine, (40 million MAUs)</li>
<li>vkontakte, (31 million MAUs), Russia</li>
<li>Myspace, (30 million MAUs)</li>
<li>Snapchat (20 million MAUs in the U.S.*)</li>
</ol>
*Business Insider's Alyson Shontell has recently reported <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-active-users-exceed-30-million-2013-12">Snapchat's global user base at 30 million globally</a>. 
Here's a chart showing the same data: <div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image">BI Intelligence</div></div>
<a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/social-media-census-2013-10?utm_source=House&amp;utm_medium=Edit&amp;utm_term=SOCINTL&amp;utm_content=link&amp;utm_campaign=BIIMobile">Access The Full Report And All Our Social Media Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today&gt;&gt;</a>

Our List Of The World's Largest Social Networks Shows How Video, Messages, And China Are Taking Over The Social Web 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Google Earth" title_caption="Google founder Sergey Brin" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/527680a869bedd731053c737-960/sergey-brin-west-village-apt.jpg"></a><keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> EarthGoogle founder Sergey Brin</div></div>A job at Google. It's career heaven, right? How could a gig at the biggest, most ambitious tech company on the planet possibly be bad?
Well, take a look at this Quora thread, which is being used by <a href="http://www.quora.com/Working-at-Google-1/Whats-the-worst-part-about-working-at-Google?share=1">current and former Google employees to dish the dirt</a> on working for Big G.
We've edited some of the standout comments into this excerpt.
Everyone is awesome, so they can hire the very best people to do even the most mundane jobs.
"The worst part of working at Google, for many people, is that they're overqualified for their job. Google has a very high hiring bar due to the strength of the brand name, the pay &amp; perks, and the very positive work culture. As a result, they have their pick of bright candidates, even for the most low-level roles."
"There are students from top 10 colleges who are providing tech support for Google's ads products, or manually taking down flagged content from YouTube, or writing basic code to A|B test the color of a button on a site."
Google staff are so outstanding that there's an internal joke about it.
"… I used to joke with my colleagues that Larry &amp; Sergey go out on their yachts - tie them together, sit back on the same recliners you'll find on their jumbo jet, each on his own yacht/set of yachts, smoke cigars, and put up pictures of Googlers with little snippets like "was a GM at muti-national telecomm company, got a Harvard MBA and is now answering Orkut tickets." and then they would erupt in laughter and clink their cigars &amp; Scotch together in celebration. This, of course, is highly unlikely given neither of them would ever smoke a cigar or drink Scotch. Remainder is plausible."
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="REUTERS/Robert Galbraith" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5273866e69bedd8630afe9a3-960/rtr2a0k6.jpg"></a>REUTERS/Robert Galbraith</div></div>Google is not a startup any more. It's a big, big corporation.
"Google was not a start-up environment by the time I left. The same office politics. It was easy to get promoted if you worked on the right projects and projected your work in the right way."
Many of the engineers are arrogant.
"Unfortunately, in spite of the common belief, I think the average level of Google engineers is mediocre. With a lot of arrogance, too. Everybody believes he (males dominate) is better than his neighbor. So it is really hard to discuss any issue unless it is your friend you are talking to. Objective discussions are pretty rare, since everybody's territorial, and not interested in opinions of other people unless those people are Important Gods."
Google is so big you can't have any impact on it.
"I worked at Google for 3 years and it was very difficult to leave but there was one major factor that helped me make the decision - the impact I could ever have on the business as an individual was minimal. As noted in many answers below, Google is an incredible machine that prints money thanks to AdWords. Unless you are an amazingly talented engineer who gets to create something new, chances are you're simply a guy/girl with an oil can greasing the cogs of that machine."
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Office Space</div></div>Middle management is mediocre.
"I'd say the relentless daily mediocre thinking of middle management types who are completely focused on metrics to the exclusion of all other factors. They don't want to rock the boat, they don't know how to inspire their workforce, and they rely far too much on the Google name and reputation to do that for them."
Google may understand engineering, but not design.
"There is not enough focus on product and visual design. This has led to many aborted/semi-successful products, like Wave, Google Video, Buzz, Dodgeball, Orkut, Knol, and Friend Connect. There is probably too much focus on pure engineering."
Your office space can be too small.
"... if you have to work in one of the four main campus buildings, you will most likely be extremely cramped. It's not uncommon to see 3-4 employees in a single cube, or several managers sharing an office. With all the open areas for food, games, TV, tech talks, etc, it can be surprisingly hard to find a quiet, private place to think."
Get things in writing.
"If you are in the process of gaining employment with Google, negotiate hard, be demanding, and make sure to get EVERYTHING in writing. Google makes lots of vague promises, and seems to not deliver."
Googlers can get caught up in trivia.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Jacopo Werther " title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5276815cecad04537dbd8258-960/puffer-fish-1.jpg"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Water_baloon_%282196115607%29.jpg">Jacopo Werther </a></div></div>"In Zurich there is a quiet room where people go to relax, or take a nap. There are very nice looking fish tanks there and you can waste as much of your work time there, watching the fish do fishy things. There was a 100+ emails thread about removing the massage chairs from that room because some people allegedly were being kept from sleeping because the massage chairs were too noisy."
The culture is immature.
It's like never-never land - people never grow up. They drink at all hours, socialize constantly, play games, and do little to no work
You can't work remotely.
But the killer to me was the inability to work remotely, which I have been doing successfully for the past 5-6 years.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Paramount" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/527681d5eab8ea860553c737-960/the-temp.jpg"></a>Paramount</div></div>Googlers treat temps with disrespect.
As someone who has worked for a temp job working for Google, the worst part is the smug attitude of those who work for the REAL Google. They seem to think that anyone who isn't working for the actual Google like they are is somehow mentally and morally inferior.

Google Employees Confess The Worst Things About Working At Google

With stand up comedians, politicians, actors and notable personalities voicing out their support for <keyword id="6391709" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Net-neutrality">net neutrality</keyword>, thus ensuring Internet remain free and democratic all across the Web, the issue of net neutrality is yet to rest in peace. 
 An Indian telecom operator’s introduction of <keyword id="15491" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Airtel">Airtel</keyword> Zero last to last week added more fuel to the fire. While eCommerce giant <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> has publicly declared its backing out from Airtel Zero, the market watchers believe the game isn’t over. In an alarming news report by the Economic Times, it is known, the very strength of Internet—it's a vast global network—also makes it uniquely vulnerable to access manipulation. This vulnerability is greater because mobile phones have displaced personal computers as the main Internet access point for consumers. 
Telecom companies can easily create access barriers, keep competition out, give unfair advantage to established Internet businesses and harm both innovation and consumer welfare. Technology entrepreneurs ET spoke to were unanimous in their view that keeping Internet free was crucial for both consumers and business. 
 
Sunal Jain, founder and CEO of @MobiNxt, an app developer told the financial daily, "Without net neutrality, startups will fail...consumers won't be ready to pay for a new, innovative product." Jain's point was that a startup's initial investments were already formidable—in servers, government fees, HR—and an Internet that raised entry barrier by making them pay to, say, telecom companies would be a big blow for India's newest entrepreneurial force. Experts agree. Prasanth Sugathan, Counsel at Software Freedom Law Center, told ET that Digital India, a big government plan, will not take off without net neutrality that promises a level playing field. The ET elaborates, Google search and Google's email service, <keyword id="51500" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Gmail">Gmail</keyword>, wouldn't today be the consumer-friendly, super-efficient global winners had Internet run on the idea that first movers will enjoy special access. Google's search service was preceded by <keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword>'s and products like Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista. Gmail was launched after Microsoft's Hotmail had become dominant. 
 And thanks to net neutrality, even Google lost its Orkut, which was in play long before <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mark-Zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> dreamed up a social network in a university dorm, was beaten by Facebook, which also outsmarted <keyword id="27899" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="MySpace">MySpace</keyword>, even though the latter was backed by <keyword id="57162" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rupert-Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</keyword>. Microsoft had tried an early form of net non-neutrality by proposing a separate space on Internet called Mozaic. Mozilla was the response, a browser that worked on open source. Mozilla, incidentally, was the short and spice up form of the phrase 'Mozaic Killer', according to the Economic Times. 
 
Indiatimes.com (a venture from BCCL, which owns this newspaper) was an early mover in the eCommerce game. But because net is neutral, a startup like Flipkart could emerge as the winner and today, Flipkart has to keep in mind where the next eCommerce winner will come from. 
 
Everyone's favourite Internet fact provider and fact checker, Wikipedia, would have not taken off as free, open sourced content had the long-established and pay-for-use Encyclopedia been able to privilege itself on the net. India's thriving second hand goods online marketplaces, Quikr, OLX, needed a neutral net. Had the quality of their sites been affected by special access given to established, bigger players, consumers wouldn't have wasted time testing these new marketplaces, the financial daily concludes. 
 
(Image: India Times)

Net Neutrality isn’t that simple, critics fear manipulation

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Abigail Dalton</div></div></div>One in 10 Americans have used an online dating site or app, according to a <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/21/online-dating-relationships/" target="_blank">2013 report from Pew Research</a>. And among singles looking for partners, that number is even higher, with 38% having used dating sites or apps.
What may have been associated with a certain stigma in years past is now becoming increasingly mainstream. In turn, more people are trying to launch their own online dating solutions.
You've got the old-timers -Match.com, OKCupid, eHarmony, Zoosk, JDate, and ChristianMingle. And then you've got the new and trendy apps, like Tinder and Hinge.
But the list doesn't even come close to ending there. You've got an endless amount of apps popping up every day: Coffee Meets Bagel, Hook, Pinch, Instamour, Wyldfire, Whim, Floret... the list goes on.
Each app or website claims to be the best solution for finding a soulmate, and each claims to be unique. But how did this niche suddenly take off? Why are there so many online dating sites and apps?
<h3>Boy meets girl</h3>
According to Dawoon Kang, cofounder of dating app <a href="https://coffeemeetsbagel.com/" target="_blank">Coffee Meets Bagel</a>, the explosion of dating apps stems from a growing number of adult singles. That, by definition, creates a bigger population of potential users. 
And then there's the fact that everything in our lives is shifting to digital. We shop, socialize, and do just about everything else online, so why wouldn't we want to make romantic connections online as well? Digitizing meeting people streamlines the process and makes it easier and less-time consuming to weed out potential matches that you already know aren't going to work out.
But while online dating may be much more convenient than conventional courtship, it can often be frustrating for users, which in turn leads to more willingness to try new platforms and apps - or try a bunch at a time. So if Tinder isn't doing it for someone, they can try out Coffee Meets Bagel, or Hinge, or any of the newer apps out there. 
All of the dating apps out there are trying to some varying pain points of online dating. If an app can make the process at all exciting, fun, or engaging, it'll probably hook a bunch of singles.
"I'm 31 and most of my friends are still single," Kang told Business Insider. "The percentage of Americans remaining single is getting greater, which means more need for a product like this. And because it's so important and critical to our lives, that's why there's so much demand. The reason why I think there are more dating apps coming out is that the ones that are out there are so frustratingly underwhelming. A lot of people see a need to come up with more ideas."
In general, mobile apps are a pretty big improvement over websites when it comes to online dating.
Mark Brooks, the iDating consultant behind <a href="http://www.courtlandbrooks.com/">Courtland Brooks</a>, thinks that dating apps more closely translate the real-life experience of meeting someone.
"The mobile platform is simply a superior platform for internet dating," he told Business Insider. "Mobile daters will go on many times during the day but just for a few minutes, they're chatting and then they go back to work, and then jump back on.
"Internet dating has never really meshed with true user behavior," he said. "The true user behavior is when someone starts chatting someone else up, they'll be in a continuous conversation and reel them in for a date. the problem with online dating is the incentive structures are quite broken. Mobile gets us closer."
And so startups are rushing to build on this reality, trying to become the go-to place for finding a match in an organic and enjoyable manner.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/videocrab/2099211453/sizes/o/in/photolist-4cv1qV-4j2SJs-4jSWib-4m6Nvr-4onBBU-4orJ23-4pcqpA-4qStMb-4tCtnn-4uNsp8-4vH4A8-4ByisX-4Cubq4-4LbVco-4RCPVe-4TS9FJ-4Xaoq1-4YfpW1-4YjHr5-54Hgok-5846wx-59741s-5aFUnd-5csBhp-5i4hYw-5jUi2b-5m5sgs-5p7qdE-5smo3f-5xx9XP-5zvA3S-5BkE4Z-5CnaeF-5JPr5q-5T4vsa-61WZd3-6asWuz-6cetJC-6d7rEi-6h8iap-6hBZ7Y-6hCMRr-6pxq1r-6pxqov-6pxqrZ-6pxqBa-6pBy6m-6pBy7E-6pByaw-6pBybE-6pBycS/">Flickr/videocrab</a></div></div></div>Can I get your number?</h3>
One of the necessary hurdles for all of these apps is getting enough users to make it worth it for others to join. Who wants slim pickings when you can go to another platform with millions of users?
Most available apps don't actually disclose their user numbers, and try to avoid that question when attracting new downloads. They aim for organic growth, for users to invite their friends and their friends' friends and so on.
Some apps try to create an exclusive feel to generate interest. A new dating app called <a href="http://www.wyldfireapp.com/#intro" target="_blank">Wyldfire</a>, for instance, is limiting its users to add hype and excitement.
Wyldfire, like Tinder, is also trying to attract college students, a prime audience for dating apps.
According to <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/tinder-valuation/">Wired</a>, Tinder has 10 million active users, compared to the newer apps just launching that probably number more in the thousands. Coffee Meets Bagel told us they have "hundreds of thousands" of users, but most of the newer apps are just crossing a few thousand users.
But perhaps singles prefer the exclusivity as opposed to the massive numbers?
Lisa Hoehn, head of <a href="http://profilepolish.com/">Profile Polish</a>, says more users leads to a bigger pool to pick from, but that's not necessarily in everyone's best interest.
Most singles say they're looking for a match that shares certain interests with them, so a niche platform may be a great option. If, for instance, you're only looking to date a farmer, <a href="http://www.farmersonly.com/" target="_blank">farmersonly.com</a> is probably the best site for you. If you're looking for a vegetarian on the other hand, <a href="http://www.veggiedate.org/" target="_blank">veggiedate.com</a> is probably for you.
And while some of these newer apps like Wyldfire may not be as niche as those two sites, it may be a bit self-selecting in terms of the people that are drawn to the smaller apps, and you may just find the perfect match, despite a slightly smaller pool.
<h3>So... who's paying?</h3>
Just like with any app or startup, these dating platforms all need to figure out a way to stay afloat while still providing a valuable service to users. And while they may focus simply on acquiring new users at first, eventually the investments run out and a revenue model must trickle in.
In the old days, many of these dating platforms simply charged a monthly fee; a handful of sites maintain that model to this day. But for now, the newer dating apps are mainly steering away from those setups.
Some apps - like Coffee Meets Bagel - opt for a "freemium" model, charging for special features like revealing who's viewed your profile or chatting with an expired match. According to Kang, 3-8% of Coffee Meets Bagel users pay for these premium features.
Other apps are looking into creating added value by letting users narrow down the matches they are served by filters, such as religion and ethnicity.
Brooks thinks in-app spending is the way to go for these guys. Virtual currencies reel people in and can make the experience addicting, just like in popular games. Whether it be paying for the ability to open a chat, or the ability to see more matches, apps will have to find some way to create added value that is worth a user's financial investment.
And then there's always ads.
Wyldfire spices up the generic ad by using serving them up as rewards when users accomplish something like getting another user's contact information or getting a certain percentage of likes. They will receive an ad for something like $20 off their next Uber as a congratulations for hitting that milestone.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetapathy/503764258/sizes/o/">Flickr/sweetapathy</a></div></div></div>Is love in your future?</h3>
Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of dating app <a href="http://hinge.co/" target="_blank">Hinge</a>, foresees a consolidation similar to the way Facebook took over the social network space.
In its early days, Hinge competed with platforms like MySpace, Orkut, and Hi-5, but it eventually became the dominant sire.
"There certainly isn't a need for so many dating apps and platforms," he told Business Insider. "Networks are strengthened as more people join them, and it creates a virtuous cycle that eventually only allows two or three players at most to participate in the market.
"With the huge shifts in context that have occurred with mobile, social, and big data over the last 10 years, the existing online dating paradigm was ripe to be disrupted. In the future I think you'll see Tinder, Hinge and perhaps one or two others as the dominant participants in this space."
Another factor that may contribute to the consolidation is larger corporations acquiring the smaller startups when they run out of money. We saw this happen with IAC, which already owns Match.com and OKCupid, <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/digital-love-consolidated-iac-buys-howaboutwe-dating-site/?_php=true&amp;_type=blogs&amp;_r=0">when it recently acquired How About We</a>.
This is especially likely for the newer apps that tend to start from initial funding without a concrete revenue model. Once they run out of money, they're likely to look for buyouts from larger companies.
Profile Polish's Hoehn doesn't see the space getting any less crowded in the near future - mainly because the population of online daters is increasing and progressively diverse.
"I don't think the big online giants are going anywhere," Hoehn told Business Insider. "I think that's because the middle age population is online dating now and they'll be less open to different apps, but people who are under 30 are really going to start to embrace being able to do their online dating on the move on their phones and to really just treat it more like a game than something that's serious.
"I think it's a space where there's room for everyone," she said. "Everyone has their own idea for an online dating platform, and anyone who has the tech power behind it is just like I'm going to do it. Which is awesome, but it definitely makes for a crowded space."
Brooks, on the other hand, really sees Match Group holding out as the powerhouse. Match Group is currently under IAC, but Brooks anticipates a future separation that would leave Match Group as the ultimate online dating umbrella.
While Match Group powers on, Brooks expects a lot of these newer dating apps to slowly drop out.
"Starting a dating app is rather like starting a restaurant," Brooks said. "It looks very easy to do. It's a very sexy business. People like to set people up on dates but it's a lot more difficult because of the critical mass problem. 
"What I typically find happens is that I get entrepreneurs who say I've got this budget and I spent this building the app. I've got 10% left and now I want to grow it," he said. "Well it's the other way around. It does require cold hard cash to grow. Although there may be many startups, there will be few survivors. Very few have that unique way of driving eyeballs. Tinder did well, there will probably a hundred more Tinders, but there will be three or four that will be successful."

You Searched For "Orkut" and got 14 results

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