AOL People Networks Launches Bebo in India
IT News Online Staff
2009-03-20
AOL People Networks has launched Bebo in India, and marked its entry into the Indian market with the Hindi entertainment TV channel, REAL.
Bebo is a social experience that helps individuals discover what's going on with their world and helps the world discover what's going on with them. Bebo's Lifestream platform affords users a simple way to connect and keep up with everyone and everything they care about irrespective of which medium they use or where the activity takes place, be it on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or another site.
The new Bebo experience in India marks Bebo's continued international expansion and follows launches in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and U.S. Latino. Bebo has already gained a strong following as a social experience in the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Poland.
"Working with premium partners such as REAL allows us to bring a wealth of entertainment to users in India from day one. Our platform allows users to connect with other users, content and brands, both globally and locally. The richness of our experience lies in the user's ability to express him or herself - as evidenced in our new Lifestory feature - and in the ability to connect to people, media and brands through the Lifestream to everyone and everything they care about," said Nicole Vanderbilt, VP International, Bebo.
On Bebo, users can connect with both existing friends and with other users who share common interests and similar tastes. Through the Lifestream and Open Media platform, they can discover and share the media they love wherever it lives. By partnering with Turner and Alva Brothers Entertainment's REAL, the social network is making several channels of premium entertainment content available to Bebo users in India.
Vidyuth Bhandary, Head - Marketing at (REAL Global Broadcasting Pvt. Ltd.) RGBPL, said, "At REAL, Digital media will be an important part of our viewer outreach efforts and we will use this media to complement our on-air programming to provide genuine interactivity to our viewers. A large portion of REAL's demographic is active on social networking sites and therefore we are delighted to partner with Bebo on our flagship show Sarkaar ki Duniya."
"REAL's alliance with Bebo will enhance consumer's content appetite with a new touch point in the dynamic digital domain. Working with Bebo, we are certain that we will be able to offer our viewers access to new creative content and new ways of interacting in their own environment," added Bhandary.
Bebo also plans to incorporate a number of media partners into its groundbreaking Open Media platform including Saavn. As the largest digital distributor in Bollywood, Saavn will allow users of (www.bebo.com/saavn) easy access to a plethora of the latest releases, music tracks and music videos.
"We are so thrilled to be working with Bebo and think the Saavn channel will help unite Bollywood fans around the world online," said Vin Bhat, Chief Executive Officer of Saavn. "As the audience for Bollywood becomes more and more globalized, we think Bebo becomes the perfect platform to bring fans together and serve them up the hottest in South Asian entertainment. We are also hoping the channel captures new audiences for Bollywood and inspires mainstream breakthroughs for the films, music and stars that captivate billions of people around the world annually."
To increase viral opportunities for media owners and publishers, Bebo has created a "Share on Bebo" (www.bebo.com/c/share/help) button for publisher sites, making it simple to implement and creating a two-way conversation between the publisher and Bebo platform. When a user shares his or her favourite media content, a status update will appear in the user's "sayings" and in their "Lifestream", virally spreading the news to his or her entire network and driving traffic back to the media owner or publisher.
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