In August 2011, I had done a story on “Why Indian Social Networks Have Re-positioned” as Indians had no better options other than Facebook. But, my quest to keep looking for interesting Indian social networks didn’t stop there and in 2013 we reviewed more than 30 such social networks. These networks may not have the user traction like Facebook but they have tried not to be another Facebook. Listed below are 19 Indian social networks that have been selected on the basis of the idea, design and moreover because they deserve a mention, in no particular order.
1. MusicFellas – social network for indie music
Indie music has its niche following community and many of these bands do not have sufficient budgets to market their albums. MusicFellas is one such venture which is channelizing such talents. The website co-founded by Gaurav, Mayank and Shubranshu was launched in November 2012. Clean and simple UI, discovery of music and featuring of artists are some of the highlights of the network. Here’s the detailed MusicFellas review and interview with co-founder Mayank.
2. Etable – social discovery platform for foodies
Etable makes the daunting tack of discovery of cuisines and cool places to hangout in a city really easy. This is being made possible by making content discovery easy, recommending cuisines and restaurants along with an additional layer of social. Here’s the detailed Etable review.
3. LurnQ – open community for learning and sharing knowledge
LurnQ, which is in its alpha phase, is a platform that increases your knowledge and lets you share your knowledge too. It does all this while being strongly clubbed by the power of social features. Not a complete rip-off of Quora but it wants to unify the learning experience over the Internet. Here’s the detailed LurnQ review and interview co-founder Tarun Mitra.
4. Touchtalent – social network for creative folks
Touchtalent is a global community of artists where they can feature their artworks, share them with the community and appreciate the creations of others. Founded in July 2012 by Ankit Prasad, the network holds creative works from 152 countries under 19 categories that include calligraphy, sculpting, comics, painting, music, literature among other art genres. Here’s the detailed Touchtalent review and interview with Ankit Prasad.
5. Pikboo – Facebook for kids managed by parents
Pikboo is a platform that has been launched with the promise to treasure your kid’s childhood. Founded by Sandeep Amar it is a website for every kid with a layer of social embedded over it. With cool design, security, parent friendly experience the platform promises an exciting road ahead. Here’s the detailed Pikboo review.
6. Imlee – social network for your family and relatives
Imlee, a social network from Pebstone, addresses a very niche segment that is the family network. Launched back in 2012, Aatish Dedhia created the social network for developing the family network in India, providing people a secured & private platform for family interactions. Still in beta, the network has a very clean design and the essential features. Content sharing on the platform is secured and follows the Google Plus sharing settings. Here’s the detailed Imlee review.
7. Hammer – social network to share opinions
Hammer is a concept brewed by two brothers, Amit and Gaurav Khanna. The network provides a medium to connect people in order to get suggestions and opinions and ‘as quickly as possible’. It labels as a global destination where people can meet new people and share instant feedbacks/opinions. The network has recently launched mobile apps but the web application needs to be worked on before it can get more traction. Here’s the detailed Hammer review.
8. Worldoo – social network for kids
According to the Boston Consulting, 134 million children in India are expected to be online by 2017. Worldoo.com is planning for such a scenario by coming up with its ‘Kids only’ social network and learning center. Entertaining and educating the kids on just one platform rather than having the kids go on multiple websites is what the network claims to be doing. Here’s the detailed Worldoo review.
9. Vebbler – personal social network
Vebbler is a private social network is founded by a twenty-three year old serial entrepreneur Sahil Bhagat. The network stands out for its neat and elegant design along with some very interesting features for a social network. Recently the startup launched a messaging app along with a set of custom made stickers or rich emoticons. Here’s the detailed Vebbler review and interview with founder Sahil Bhagat.
10. F9Pix – social network for photographers
F9pix is a social network founded by Sandeep Kamble, which gives photographers a platform to showcase what they do best, follow influential photographers to get tips and tricks from and sell their photographs too. Here’s the detailed F9Pix review.
11. Flixstreet – social platform to discover Indian movies
Flixstreet is a platform founded by a group of movie lovers – Arindam Mukherjee, Subhadeep Mondal, Arnab Bhattacharya and Tithee Mukhopadhyay. The platform hopes to be the social discovery and recommendation engine for Indian movies, where you can discover, share and follow your friends’ recommendations on movies. Users would be provided discounts on movie tickets when they plan to watch it with their friends. Here’s the detailed Flixstreet review and interview with co-founder Arindam.
12. The Decent Planet – social network for decent interactions
The Decent Planet is a social network founded by Piyush Grover and Piyush Pandey that has been conceived with the need to have a decent place for positive, healthy and enlightening interactions for its members. It is an ideal social network for those who dislike trolls, spamming and fake profiles, but still prefer a public social network to a private one. Here’s the detailed review of The Decent Planet and interview with co-founder Piyush Grover.
13. JoGuru – travel social network
JoGuru is a travel social network that is out with a mission to make your vacation itinerary planning easy, quick and social. The network has a simple design and has taken the pains to make it comfortable for a newbie. It is simple and brilliant right now. Here’s the detailed JoGuru review and interview with co-founder Praveen.
14. Rinema – organize, share and explore new movies
Founded by Grishma Udani, while on the lookout for a ‘Goodreads for movies’ kind of service, Rinema was launched last February in beta mode and only went live on September 5, 2013. One can stay updated, organised and share their kind of movies with a set of like-minded folks from across the globe on Rinema. Here’s the detailed Rinema review and interview with founder Grishma Udani.
15. Shaukk – connect and make plans with like-minded folks
Mumbai based startup Shaukk or ‘interest’ is a social network that allows you to connect to people with common interests and find activities to do in your neighbourhood. Right now active only for Mumbai, the concept of an interest based network like Shaukk serving neighbouring areas is really appealing. Here’s the detailed Shaukk review.
16. The Review Monk – discover, review, rate and share movies
‘The Review Monk’, the brainchild of Los Angeles based husband wife duo – Rohith Ravindranath and Ruhi Sinha is a platform for movie buffs. It aggregates film critic reviews for Indian movies and also serves as a platform for discovery, reviews, and sharing for fans of Indian cinema. Here’s the detailed review of The Review Monk and interview with co-founder Rohith Ravindranath.
17. Candidly – share candid messages and moments with your friends
Candidly is an exciting mobile app that shares Snapchat’s feature of removing an image after 10 seconds along with some more exciting features such as doodling, voice chat, among others. Here’s the detailed Candidly review.
18. Lets Ride – social network for joint riding
Let’s Ride takes the joint riding thinking ahead and marries it with the features of social networking. The startup is the brain child of Rajkumar Mundel, an electronics engineer from Pune, who has bootstrapped to start the venture. The web app does its job, the design is simple and glitch-free. Here’s the detailed review of Let’s Ride.
19. Wishberg – network for wishes
Wishberg, is a Mumbai based consumer startup that allows users to build and manage their “One Wishlist for Life”. The startup that recently raised an undisclosed amount of money from India Quotient had rebranded itself at the end of 2012 from Tyche’d (pronounced as “Tai-Kee”) and in August 2013 it pivoted from its original idea of curating wishes to a simple wishing platform. Over the time the startup has grown and added features like custom wishlists, personal event registry, and future timeline.
So which of these Indian social networks excite you? And in case you are an active user of any of them, do share your experiences on the network.
Image credit: www.w3.org