@ Ficci FRAMES: Bebo India Launch, Ad Slowdown Worries, Turner Mobile Strategy

AOL-owned social network Bebo will launch in India in March, Francisco Cordero, general manager for Australia and New Zealand for the popular network announced earlier today. Cordero made a pitch about how sites such as Orkut and Facebook were social networks while Bebo was a social media network.

We spoke to Cordero separately and he said that the company was in talks with a large number of local content producers for Indian content. Snippets: Bebo tries to combine the community aspect of social networking exemplified by MySpace and the entertainment aspect of it, of which YouTube is probably the best example. “We try to build conversations around media content.” He focussed on Bebo Originals–video content commissioned by Bebo and produced for the web, and Social Inbox, a utility that combines Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Mail, Gmail, AOL (NYSE: TWX) Mail and Twitter feeds, and also helps users discover content they are interested in. “You will see a huge amount of content deals in India (with local producers),” he said. Producers and media companies can also put up content on Bebo’s Open Media Platform and get 100% of revenues earned from their content. When asked if Bebo had a specific India strategy, Cordero said: “We will do everything here that Bebo does well globally.”

It seems like India efforts have already started. On the Bebo homepage (and it doesn’t redirect to any India-specific domain, so must be an IP-based customization), we are getting a slideshow of Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan as well as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

There is however, a much bigger media property that already goes by the name Bebo. Bollywood heartthrob Kareena Kapoor.

Slowdown blues:That the session on recession and the entertainment industry was the most packed session today at Frames says something about the general sentiment. Madison Media CEO Punita Arumugam said advertising was down by 20 to 30% in November and December and 30 to 40% in January. That was the first time we heard anybody dropping the 40% figure. Yes, it had an effect on the audience.

Arumugam said digital media was going to be the biggest beneficiary of the slowdown as advertisers are focussing on “accountability more than exposure”. Internet advertising will grow tremendously, she said, adding that there is already a perceptible change in client attitudes towards online advertising. Print is going to suffer the most, followed by outdoor advertising. Television will still grow and so will radio, she said. The focus on online advertising started when an Intel (NSDQ: INTC) executive on the panel said as an advertiser he was increasingly finding it far more efficient to spent money online.

Turner’s Mobile Strategy
: We spoke with Rinko W. K. Chan, VP, Asia Pacific, Wireless and Interactive Content, on the sidelines. Turner will soon launch a multiplayer mobile game based on the successful Powerpuff Girls franchise. The game will be launched in mature mobile gaming markets in the Asia Pacific region by June-July and an India launch will have to wait till year-end. Turner is also developing games for the iPhone and will also launch e-comics on mobile this year. Interestingly, the company is also working on black & white mobile games given that most handsets in a large market like India won’t support high-end games.

As large Telcos are becoming multi-platform players and venture into broadband, IPTV and DTH, apart from telephony, they are becoming hungrier for branded content, Chan said, explaining why Turner was betting big on the mobile entertainment space. A content company with popular media brands will help telcos drive customer acquisition and lower marketing costs. “A content company like ours brings in a whole package of services for a Telco. apart from the brand itself, we bring to the table our expertise in marketing, programming, and home entertainment,” Chan said.

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