Video sharing sites start to blip on the Indian Web2.0 radars
India centric video sharing sites are gradually popping up now. I have been exposed to two such sites during the last week. I feel the entry barriers to creating and running a video site are far higher as compared to other Web2.0 applications. They entail very significant operational costs (on account of media storage & bandwidth); they are also far trickier to manage from a technical standpoint. And that probably explains why these sites are making a delayed appearance on the Indian Web2.0 landscape. Here are two video sites that have barely taken off their shrink wrappings-
Infeedia- This site has been launched by a bunch of friends living in US, India and UK. It is positioned as a South Asian video aggregator. In fact Infeedia is not just an aggregator, it is also a filter, for it has a Digg style voting mechanism to surface the popular videos on the home page. Infeedia does not host videos; it allows you to post India centric videos (by copying the JavaScript code) from other popular video sites. Arun (from Infeedia) informs me that they had initially planned to have hosting but gave up that idea. Partly because of bandwidth cost considerations, and partly because of the existence of scores of other video hosting sites. This factor (by itself) probably weakens Infeedia’s inherent appeal. However if the site’s creators think imaginatively, I think, they can negate this apparent disadvantage. They should try to leverage the fact that the site is not just an aggregator, it also filters content on the basis of popularity. Which will become a very useful attribute, as Indian video content on the web grows to disorienting proportions.
The site’s (content) layout and its categorization structure (which is very Indianized) seems quite well thought out; however its visual design needs LOTS of improvement. And I don’t think that designing Web2.0 sites for a native 800X600 display resolution, is a good idea. Even in India, that resolution is fast becoming history. I spent a few minutes browsing the site and found a cool bunch of India centric videos, which had been voted to the top on the home page. And that’s the reason why I think that the filtering ability offers inherent value to users. Its up to Infeedia’s creators to think out of the box and capitalize on this differentiator.
ApnaTube- As the name suggests, this is a YouTube clone to the hilt. The site allows hosting of videos, so that’s a definite advantage over Infeedia. While the visual design of the site is quite pleasing to the eye, it needs improvement in terms of its usability. It seems to have been around for just a few days, but you can already find Google ads on the homepage. That flies in the face of conventional Web2.0 wisdom. The site appears to be having teething problems (it wasn’t accessible, the last two times that I tried), but that’s to be expected for a video site that has just gone live. Probably it’s a little early as yet to assess this site !
ngcoders on Sep 7, 2006
Nice …
Well Apna tube looks more like a adult site ( seeing the the kinda videos on there page ).
Anyhow both sites look cool , and thx to you i know about em.
amit on Sep 8, 2006
Ngcoders,
You’re right in pointing that out. I see this as a very disturbing trend in the Indian web2.0 space. Adult content certainly draws eyeballs and people seem to be using that as a bait and try to pass it off as user generated content.
amit
Infeedia on Sep 8, 2006
Amit,
Thanks a lot for the review. It was very clear, fair and unbiased. Totally what we were expecting.
Hopefully we will stay a clean/office friendly website
Readers- If you have any questions/comments/suggestions please email us at info@infeedia.com We would love to hear from you.
Thanks
Arun
Neeraj on Sep 8, 2006
Came accross another Youtube clone for India - http://meravideo.com/
It is started by one of the Btechs from IIT Gwhuati.
Rajiv Dingra on Sep 8, 2006
Hey amit amazing blog.. you beat us at watblog.. we were working on a similar story.. but its great to see someone one step ahead of us.. keep is coming..
aleem on Sep 12, 2006
I think apnatube has been arnd for sometime now… I believe it has been started by a group of friends from pakistan .. ngcoders was right in pointing out that there is a lot of adult content there
amit on Sep 12, 2006
Aleem,
Thats very interesting to know that Apnatube is from people of pakistani origin.
In fact, I started Webyantra for profiling Indian startups ; I actually would not mind doing the same for innovative Pakistani web2.0 sites as well.
rgds
amit
Devdas on Sep 14, 2006
I don’t understand why Apnatube is being compared to infeedia? Apnatube looks like an entire site coded vs. infeedia that looks like either Mumbo or Joomla customized and other people videos are being displayed vs. people actually hosting their videos on Apnatube.
Google ads and what not is needed to support such sites which are very much visible on even Youtube type sites. Plus what’s the big deal about soft porn or Masala videos on the site what you see there is what you see in typical bollywood movies now days and whats on every other major video site.
Vikram on Sep 15, 2006
Google Ads and soft porn/masala videos combination….. good receipe to get the cash register ringing. isnt it Devdas!
Nakul on Sep 15, 2006
Devdas, honestly you look like one of the pissed off founders of Apnatube. The review was really good and a few other bloggers posted it without any change.
Like vikram said, a video storing website with the Google Ads and having porn as a crowd puller is a weak idea to begin with. What will be inherent business model ?? Acquistion ? Ads ? Charing the users? Lets break down
1.) Acquisition : All the big guys have thier own video sites and all the videos other than the non masala ones on apnatube are present in every video site
2.) Ads: the cost of running a video site will be much higher that the money someone makes on google ads especially with one
3.) not gonna work out.
As a user i would rather upload a indian video on youtube rather than apnatube as i dont want to be associated and my embeded with a porn brand.
Sure Apnatube will have tons of traffic, but lets see how it goes. If im going to apnatube it will be only for porn
Devdas on Sep 15, 2006
There is nothing offensive in the review done by Webyantra that should piss off any of Apnatube founders. In fact it is a progressive input that can be useful to the site founders.
Typical desi mentality, I must be one of them to point out the obvious? We are talking about Web2.0, what is Web2.0 in Infeedia? It is a CMS modified that doesn’t even hosts it’s original content while Apnatube at leasts provides the option to do so.
I assume you must be from Infeedia.
First that can hardly be considered porn on their site. That is how now days Bollywood sell their crap on the big screen and you admittedly have said it works. You can find the same Pornography on Youtube why even bother to go to Apnatube? The videos are submitted by a user why should we even assume that the site is porn or it is some how related?
As many have said “go to their front pageâ€, maybe you web techies haven’t noticed that the front page displays most watched videos, the number of adult videos on the site is nothing compared to non-adult videos on the site. It is safe to say that the site is not pornographic but the visitors who visit the site are into pornographic content? So who is being hypocritical here?
1. You can find the same videos on Youtube, Dailymotion, Google video etc.
2. There are other ways you can make money from such sites as long as you attract traffic, lets not be navie here.
3. There is only one way to find out, watch and see.
Your last paragraph I find absurd and totally biased as proven by the fact that the videos on the front are displayed according to most viewed so brand here is out of the question. Is dailymotion, google video, yahoo video, youtube pornographic brands? Just do a search and if anyone is having a hard time I can help you out.
aleem on Sep 16, 2006
Here is something i found on the net,
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=101715
Apparantly there are some youtube clone scripts out there. So i dont see the validity behind the statement that apnatube is coded in from scratch. Infact I would thing its dumb for them to do so unless they have anything different that they are implementing and i havent found it yet on the site. I would think that infeedia does the same but from a purely logical standpoint, Im sure they have done some coding because i dont see any digg style video aggregators there of course, digg itself is came out with one but to my knowledge, it was abt at the same time that infeedia came out …. point me out to em if u see any others..
Devdas on Sep 16, 2006
***nless they have anything different that they are implementing and i havent found it yet on the site***
I have seen many sites use that script and the biggest difference is the quality, plus that script has a few more features then Apnatube. One more big difference is that people rarely get that script to function. But it is possible that it might not be coded from scratch. Plus I didn’t say from scratch
bollyclips.com on Sep 18, 2006
http://www.bollyclips.com
here is the other one…
it’s not sharing site…but it has all the best videos from
youtube.com, google video, metacafe.com, gofish.com and many more coming soon..
Sandra on Sep 20, 2006
Apnatube has rape videos? Whats with that?
aleem on Sep 22, 2006
hmm .. precisely my point … apnatube needs to clean up its act .. otherwise there are dozens of other sites out there with the same kind of content … i guess im gonna wait and see which of these are cleaner and more feature packed in the longer run … As of now infeedia seems to have a set of good videos … lets see if they can maintain that … while working on adding more features
Sandra on Sep 22, 2006
Yes, cleaning up their act would draw more people in.
I’ll check out infeedia!
Rangzor on Sep 30, 2006
I like apnatube better..infeedia is more like indian videos site vs apnatube is more desi videos.
StudMuffle on Oct 6, 2006
Hey Guys….U need to check out http://www.meravideo.com. MeraVideo.com has a new look now. Some major revamp has happened and it has incorporated most of the Web 2.0 features. I will put my money on MeraVideo. A must visit. It has celarly steered away from the soft porn content and I guess that will be a major key to any website’s success.
The content is actually what will distinguish the winner from the rest.
Keep Blogging…….Peace Out !
Devdas on Oct 6, 2006
Nothing original about meravideo either. They have bought a $300 package from alstrasoft and claiming revamp.
Check http://www.crictube.com which looks exactly like them.
What content are you talking about All are stolen content
anurag on Oct 7, 2006
looks like devdas, judging by all his past quotes, has taken it upon himself to point out all the shortcoming in all the efforts done by people. so easy to critisize! let us see him come up with something we can post comments on. If all it takes is purchasing software why doesnt he go ahead and create a site we can all be proud of?
i personally want to congratulate meravideo on revamping its site. It looks super! Donot fear criticism as it is part of the business.
Rodin's Muse on Oct 15, 2006
Just would like to inform you guys that the Alstrasoft code package is a rip from an old version of the youtube code. Dont ask me how they got it, but I came across a code package that was called “You Tube Clone” and the site structure is exactly the same as Alstrasoft… yes… i bought the code too for a streaming project i was working on… regretting every single day since then… anyways… do a bit of a homework on the alstrasoft code you’ll see the idiots didn’t even get rid of the Youtube references from their site. IF you ask them they say “its only youtube templates which are from their site.totally legal…” yeah right… lemme ask you guys this… what do you think is the next step up from just simple video sharing?
anurag on Oct 17, 2006
wondering what the next buddy…why not wait and watch. Why hide facts? sure the Altrasoft code may have been uesd, and unfortunately for you, you couldnt crack it , but they sure did! just log in to the site and see how awesome it looks. India needed a U tube and now that need is met. Am certain only bigger and better things will stem out of this one. Above all dont forget they are the only ones who have kept thier site clean.Mercifully it is clear of all porn! and thats saying a lot.
Devdas on Oct 17, 2006
Hey Anurag,
stop promoting ur rather worthless site…by posing as another user…why dont you just say u r the user…ha ha so Indias youtube is meravideo ?? ha ha ha
dippy on Oct 26, 2006
hey devdas - u seem to have a serious attitude problem. no wonder paro left
my two bits - eventually the code (from scratch or not) will need more work for all the sites
design needs work too in a big way but the validity of the bisiness plan will finally decide who wins n who sinks.
its still early days but the activity on meravideo makes it look like this snail may just win the race
z3nn1 on Nov 9, 2006
Wow interesting, I am student in London. Was asked to write a paper and I touched upon YouTube, my gf pointed me to MeraVideo website as the desi version of YouTube, after searching I found your blog.. amazing to see that YouTube is being “cloned” but it’s interesting to see how slowly it is taking off.
Thankyou for your blog, it’s really insightful. I kinda agree with you on ApnaTube.. it seems like an adult site then a site for friends and families.
-Z
prem on Nov 11, 2006
There will be no comparison with you tube in any case in even any furure dates also.
All they are getting jealous over the success of you tube.
One more CLONE of you tube & my space is coming up as it seems. However it is still under construction.
With some more stores/contents etc.
Lets watch when it will complete and in what manner/direction.
prem on Nov 11, 2006
http://www.wisdomindia.com
farooq on Nov 16, 2006
u dont see difference between Apnatube and youtube?? I see lots f cricket matches that I miss on apnatube than any site. plus to the lady who is concerned about Rape videos. those videos r taken from Hindi film scenes. I think we must be too good in acting to make u think its an actual Rape. Apnatube Rox. thanx to whoever made that site. long live the KING.
Vishal on Nov 24, 2006
newest and coolest entrant in the market - http://www.videodubba.com . absolutely rocks!
Raj on Nov 29, 2006
Take a look at AapkaVideo, another exciting service that allows you to watch, upload and share videos with others. AapkaVideo is a totally free online service that allows you to watch and share videos free with others.
AapkaVideo is aimed at the average Indian, who just wants to post videos created by himself or his favorite videos on the expanding online video world and share them with friends and family. To upload videos, users have to register a free account with the service and immediately start uploading videos. The experience is seamless and the streaming quality is fast and much better than others.
The interface is pretty simple, clean and easy to work with. You can upload videos with just a few clicks and also share videos by creating a link and emailing them to others. You can also share multiple videos at a time. Users have to click on the links emailed to watch the videos. You can easily browse through the categories available for watching videos and also upload videos to a particular category you want. Note that you cannot upload a video whose size exceeds 100MB..
AapkaVideo allows users to report videos that are offensive, obscene and illegal. Besides removing the video from the site, the account of the user who uploaded the video will be immediately terminated.
Manoj on Dec 6, 2006
Guys,
i came across new indian centric video site called http://www.connectfilms.com
looks very clean and cool. better than any other existing sites. looks like a brand new one. it looks Indian and international.
the most important thing is it introduces indian films and indian videos to international users as oppose to the other sites in the market.
people keep talking about bollywood is going international. believe me i lived and worked in Europe for 6 yrs. people in the west definitely heard of bollywood but no one bothers or interested to see them. i think in that sense connectfilms.com is good site to introduce bollywood to the west.
Ravi on Dec 6, 2006
i saw http://www.connectfilms.com
i agree with Manoj. the site looks cool. they do not have upload section. but they have some really good videos. most importantly they do not have any porn stuff unlike other indian video sites. if i want to c porn. i will go to proper porn site. y go to apnavideo and all that crap. connectfilms looks cool and clean
Deep on Dec 11, 2006
this is cool collection and i gone through all of them. http://www.ApnaTube.com looks very cool with sleek user interface. Recently launched http://www.AapkaVideo.com is also great with its simple look and smooth interface.
Keep up the Good Work
Aishu on Jan 5, 2007
Another site seems to have popped up called http://www.toad.in.
I don’t know why they call it toad, but I uploaded some video and it worked pretty well. it seems to be poising itself as a videosharing hub for India. Their slogan is Your India, Your Video. What I like about it is that it’s brand new so you can get your videos right up there on the front page. If videosharing is going to have a chance in India, I think people need to show there’s a demand for this type of site, so I’ll probably post more clips, after all, it’s their bandwidth. Plus it’s a lot of fun.
Sandeep on Jan 8, 2007
Hey Guys !!
I just went thro this site http://www.aapkavideo.com Its really awesome. We have an option to upload and share the videos by incorporating links on the same.Its a user friendly site which offers a free online registration.Users can search for videos based on the category like Sports,entertainment,News & Blogs Etc.. If users feel that videos are offensive and have explicit content they can mark it offensive and it gets reported immediately.
chunni on Jan 11, 2007
http://www.toad.in seems to have a new approach. It’s an Indian content video sharing hub and they’re paying people to upload Indian content. The site is clean and easy to use. I hope they can keep it up.
Dishum Dishum on Jan 24, 2007
Watch Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother
http://bigbrother.connectfilms.com
http://www.connectfilms.com
santhosh on Feb 4, 2007
hi,
i saw a new website canaratv.com and canaravideo.com which has highest number of videos in india. the site looks entirely different. i think it is indiginiously developed has more than 1000 original videos something good and easy to access
hi on Feb 13, 2007
hi there is one video site has simillar pages just try this out
http://www.canaravideo.com which is very good
Nick on Feb 15, 2007
Another Desi video site that is pretty good is http://www.ApnaVideos.com
ashok on Feb 16, 2007
http://www.toad.in has something like 5000 videos. Most are pretty good.
rajiv on Feb 17, 2007
bollywoodtube.com the best indian video sharing site I found on the internet it is clean from adult content and pop ups.
rajiv on Feb 17, 2007
http://www.bollywoodtube.com best indian video sharing site I found on the internet it is clean from adult content and pop ups.
Alex on Apr 5, 2007
There is script to run youtube like site http://www.vshare.in
Amit on Apr 8, 2007
Layfile is an another Indian website
offering desi videos. Layfile offers free
download and upload video service to all.
http://www.layfile.com
Raj on Apr 9, 2007
http://www.Videomirchi.com another Desi entertainment site.
Raj on Apr 30, 2007
New video sharing website , with a very good & catchy name “SUCKOOBAI”
visit http://www.suckoobai.com
nikhil on May 4, 2007
Hey here is a good news for all………
http://www.canaravideo.com is a very fast and good website….
there are more than 4,000 video’s……you can upload & share the video’s also…It is really an amazing work from the canaravideo team….three cheers to canaravideo team….wish u all the success in the future….
class on May 18, 2007
try http://www.splashol.com india’s new video sharing web site better user interface faster download of videos and tonnes of features including 100’s of indian videos
It is really amazing visit now http://www.splashol.com
Rajesh Jain on May 21, 2007
Hi,
After reading the blogs I started watching all the videos and I found the same designed video sites, but was totally shocked with the amazing design of http://www.canaravideo.com
Its amazing… Very creative site, they have very good collection of video site.
The best thing what I liked about http://www.canaravideo.com is the videos are very fast. I did nt feel that I am watching the video online. I should appreciate the http://www.canaravideo.com team for their great work and effort. It seems to be the team is working smartly.
well, one day http://www.canaravideo.com will compete internationally…
Great going canaravideo.com team. Keep it up!!
regards
Rajesh Jain
Rithesh Bhandari on May 25, 2007
Hi Rajesh,
I really encourage your statement…
canaravideo is really amazing…having more no of videos and speed is very fast….There is no doubt that canaravideo will render a healthy competion with other Indian tube sites…
Cheers,
Rithesh Bhandari
Rakesh Mallya on May 28, 2007
hi,
there s a fastest video site called http://www.canaravideo.com in India with sophesticated technologies. You will enjoy with number of videos.
enjoy
http://www.canaravideo.com
Arnie on Jun 4, 2007
Prantosh on Jun 9, 2007
From all the Indian video websites I been to,
layfile.com stood out the most. I believe layfile.com
has the largest collection of desi videos from all parts of India. However
meravideo is equally popular, but have lesser videos.
Urban Tadka on Jun 29, 2007
Pretty soon on http://www.suckoobai.com. we will be offering Rs. 100000 (one lakh) for uploading orginal videos.
Register and watch for the official announcement
Alstrasoft on Jul 26, 2007
Avoid using Alstrasoft’s scripts at all costs!
Read what their unsatisfied customers are saying here:
http://internet-marketing-tools.org/alstrasoft/
yirewu on Aug 2, 2007
This is a very cool video sharing site: http://www.clipmoon.com
26thJanuary.com on Aug 7, 2007
http://www.26thJanuary.com is india’s best video sharing website. 1 million indians in single website. keep it up
Monik on Sep 8, 2007
There is one more indian video sharing site which gives 50% revenue to users. This is first indian site which pays to users
Martino Heino on Sep 20, 2007
see it’s very define,your one of a kin. Martino Heino.
shan on Sep 29, 2007
Checkout the largest collection of Indian Movie Clips…
DDT-MODELS on Oct 30, 2007
Thanks for your work! Now let’s see how you’ll interact with all the junk coming from social blogs, social networks, social software and the whole good load from web 2.0
Tough luck on that!
Indian vidoes on Nov 4, 2007
good
Indian social network on Nov 4, 2007
cool indian website
IndianReunited on Nov 5, 2007
very good
sam on Nov 6, 2007
A Good Indian Adult tube just like youtube.
DesiSexTube.com
Indian social network on Nov 12, 2007
good desi site
IndianReunited on Nov 14, 2007
its very good site
Maria on Nov 21, 2007
the next in this series is http://www.nazariya.org
IndianReunited on Nov 26, 2007
this is best website on the net
bestindiansexvideos on Nov 28, 2007
this is best indian adult site
atish on Dec 16, 2007
ok good
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Rachel on Mar 9, 2008
A good site, good short contents of the good work. I have loved your site :,
Amit on May 28, 2008
Looks like there’s a new player in the game: http://www.desiloop.net
When I first saw it… looked very unique comparing to any other Indian Sites mentioned above. Its a combo of MySpace + FaceBook User profiles, videos, photos and music.
Just thought I would mention it here. As I really like the site.
Vasyu on Aug 8, 2008
nfBvls Vasyu testit vasyu.net
vicky on Aug 24, 2008
I loved http://www.indianpad.in indian videos only