Indian Users on Social Network

Social Networking! Yes, yet another blog on Social networking. But since i come from a Desi[antonym of Firang!] background, i would like to share some thoughts about the Indian users and their behaviour on Social networks. As everyone of us know, today maximum number of Indians are on Orkut than any other network. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has an account on Orkut. He/She might not know about an email account but definitely knows about scraps, friends, testimonials on Orkut. Strange isnt it?? I feel all this is coza lack of awareness about cyber world and its pros and cons. These chunnu, munnu [Desi word for Tom and Dick, well i cudnt find one for Harry. sowie for that ;0)] just know that they can make friends much faster than real life and flirt with them and talk any shit.. since their identity is hidden. And these Chunnu, Munnu [i luv pronouncing these words :P] when fall into trouble like black mailing and stuff then they come to know "aate daal ka bhaav" [Desi word for fact ;)]. well i dont want to give u Gyan on internet security, so i l cut that off here... After an overwhelming user response for applications on Facebook, many social networks like Bebo, Hi5 launched their Application platform. Bebo did kick off quite well but for Hi5.. Ohh God! save them, their API's were a complete mess. Sorry Hi5 guys for not adding a lil sugar to it:). Sowie, being a developer i tend to slip more on the technology side. Coming back to these applications, what i found interesting was, people on Facebook are more matured, rather i would say the user base is balanced. People use applications for fun as well as for their business purpose. This is where India is lacking. On Orkut, Indian users, after 4 years of popularity (if i m not wrong, i think Orkut launched in 1999, but picked up in India from 2003-4, though not too sure) of a social network, if the users are still stuck with scrapping and saying each other "Hi and hows u??" then there is something lacking, both on the user side as well as the network side. Recently Orkut launched application, neways this is not a fresh news, its a 3 month old news (14th April, Orkut launched applications). But this i feel was one step which could bring seriousness in the users. But again it has a flip side, till date 70% of the applications on Orkut are fun applications. I remember, during the Opensocial Hackathon, there was a utility application showcased which was Babajobs, which allows users to hire through friends. Well thats a good idea, but guess what?? its lost somewhere in the crowd now.. And if u go thro the application directory, the first five page has hardly 10 utility applications, and this listing is by popularity of applications. So this means, the user base is more interested in doing fun rather than serious stuff on Orkut. But thats really a sad part on India's side. Well, one would call me fool since i m cribbing about ppl using a social network as a fun utility. But this isnt a simple crib, rather this is more of a worry about India's future. Who should be blamed for this?? The application development agencies/firms? No you cant blame them. Oh cmon, every one means business. Sell something which is hot! No one likes rotten cakes, isnt it? They are using the market pretty well and it has given very good opportunites for all the startups in India. I found quite a few interesting applications like emote, Ortist -provides a canvas for artists, PhotoBuzz , Superscrap by Postalz : handwritten scraps on stylish backgrounds. Few interesting utility applications like Babjobs, India Dekha, Type Racer, SMS for free, Books iRead by Ugenie, ebiz cards, etc. well, i feel the Indian users shoud become a lil bit serious and try looking at these applications for business purpose instead of jus sticking to the fun element of it. I dont wanu say that they should stop having fun around it but they should also change their perception and look at it from a business angle. Hope to see this transformation in Indian users soon, otherwise its gonna be difficult.