Considering erstwhile Kolkattans are fairly distributed in every nook of this country, when I study the log-files of this blog, it amazes me to see that apart from this city, the most number of visitors come from Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Occasionally, there’ll be ones or twos from Mumbai and Delhi (the latter rather preferred to be called as NCR or National Capital Region of late), and almost negligible from Chennai.
Now, don’t get me wrong. My blog is not a great phenomenon that must merit frequent visits, or any visit for that matter. I only feel that net-users in the 2 biggest cities rather ‘mean it’ when it comes to spending time on the net for one or other benefit.
In other words, visiting blogs for sheer curiosity is not a preference for them. To a varied extent, this is true for other Indian cities as well. But then the truth is on an aggregate, Indians lag far behind in Internet usage (see my story, India loves Orkut).
This brings me to the recent launch of Burrp!’s Kolkata ‘chapter’. Prior to Kol’, it has burped in Mumbai and Bangalore. Well, burrp! is a kind of social media site that intends to grow on the back of popularity among users. Imagine burrp! as a kind of Yellow Pages that lists places and businesses of interest. Only that it is much, much more than that.
It presents an interactive platform where registered users can freely express their opinion. Didn’t like the ambience in a restaurant, express it here. Liked the service at the newly opened salon, say it here. Burp out anything and everything that you feel will serve larger interest of the community.
Over time, burrp! may well be the first reference point to find out about a business and what others feel about it. It’ll unleash the power of community that will drive the ‘fate’ of many a business.
I feel burrp! is a little ahead of time, because after all as I’ve touched upon above, to squeeze the juice out of it, you need a net-savvy populace. But then perhaps this is the right time.
Because as the Indian net scenario gets slowly crowded with user-driven social media sites (which would surely happen, no doubt there), it would become increasingly costly to launch one and start making money from it.
I wish burrp! the very best. Soft launch notwithstanding, if they can stick around for a while, they’ll surely see a grand future. Who knows burrp!, once it achieves a critical mass, may turn out as another ‘Bazee’ to be lapped up by another ‘ebay’!
Want to check it out? Visit Burrp! Kolkata.
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