Hi All,

MyWebERA has been associated with AID-NCR, a NGO from Delhi-NCR region for some of their activities during recent time, one of it was
conducting 'UDAAN' a sit-n-draw contest with the NGO kids on 15th August 2009.

AID NCR is making a desktop version of AID Delhi calendars with the theme of Makaan... Sample pictures can be viewed at http://calendar.aidindia.org
. and priced at Rs. 100/-  each copy. The Calendar would be of 8 x 6" in Size with 12 leaves with recycled photo quality paper and printed
with non-toxic eco-friendly ink. The planner page in each leaves would have brief introduction about AID NCR's various projects and
interventions.

MyWebERA is supporting AID in this endeavor and requests each of you to buy the calendar and donate for a better cause. It would be great
if you can provide some leads for bulk order from corporate/ schools/colleges.

Please let me know at sg@mywebera.com if you have any such contacts or if you come across to anyone individual or corporate who are willing to buy the calendar.

Thanks

Surjyadeb Goswami

When the Cartoon Network channel launched in India more than a decade ago, it simply dubbed its shows in regional languages. But it soon realised there was a market for local content and tapped Indian animation firms for shows such as "Krishna Balarama" on a Hindu god and "Tenali Raman", a popular folk hero who was a 16th century court jester. Last year, parent Turner International, in a maiden effort, set up a multi-million dollar unit in India to develop and produce animated films and original live action TV series. "The opportunity in developing local animation content is significant," said Samir Patil, chief executive of ACK Media, which was recently commissioned by Turner to produce two animated films and a TV series based on popular Indian folk tales and mythology from the Amar Chitra Katha comic books. The animation industry in India, including entertainment, visual effects and gaming, is estimated at about $500 million and forecast to double by 2012, according to financial services firm Ernst & Young. The entertainment segment is likely to grow at 18 percent annually. Animation in India, driven by lower costs and software expertise, was largely limited to low-end work such as title credits, special effects and brushing up of scenes created in Hollywood studios. Original work was rare or of poor quality. "None of the studios were innovative enough to produce their own content. The mentality was Hollywood-centric because that is where the money was," said Avi Sidhu, a partner in Virtual Realms Productions, which is making a film on Rajput king Ranjit Singh. But with local content ruling television and the big screen, studios soon began looking at local content for animation, too. The economic meltdown turned the tap off some Hollywood projects and made Indian firms realise they need to diversify their risk, plus there was a growing realisation in India about the value of creating intellectual properties, Patil said. "We have such a long artistic tradition and history of story-telling," said Patil, whose brightly-coloured ACK comics are immensely popular with kids for learning about Indian mythology and the pantheon of gods of the Hindu religion. Recognition Recently, studios have also turned to contemporary themes to target an older audience. Last year, Walt Disney co-produced 'Roadside Romeo', an animated flick about an abandoned dog finding true love, with India's Yashraj Films. "We were stuck in mythology, but with this we knew local characters and storylines can be created and that they do work," said Farrokh Balsara, head of Ernst & Young's entertainment practice, adding that more than two dozen animation films based on local content are in various stages of production in India. Foreign studios including Sony (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Disney, besides UTV Motion Pictures, Adlabs (ADLF.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Big Screen Entertainment have either produced or announced the start of production of animation films with budgets of $2.5-$3.3 million, about half the budget of an average Bollywood film. But animation in India is still hamstrung by a belief that it is for children, and the reluctance to earmark big budgets: a 30-minute animated TV show in the United States has a budget of about $250,000, while in India it is one-eighth of that. "No Indian studio can focus 100 percent on the domestic market because the money's just not there. The money's in Hollywood, however low-end," said Sidhu, who decided to make a short animated film on his own instead of chasing after studios. It paid off: 'Eyes of Silence' has won five international awards, including Best Animation at the Rockport Film Festival. Sidhu is now signing deals with companies in Malaysia and Canada. "So many Indian animation studios make the mistake of hankering after big Hollywood studios. The ideal would be to create your own content and then look for work elsewhere." ©Reuters

India's animation industry seen at $1 bn by 2012

The Indian animation market, estimated at $494 million in 2008, is seen growing at compounded annual growth rate of 22 per cent till 2012

India's animation industry is expected to hit $1 billion by 2012 and the gaming industry would touch $830 million then, aided by increased outsourcing and a growing domestic market, a report released on Wednesday said.

Hi All, MyWebERA has successfully organised painting contest for NGO kids along with AID-Delhi. Please click the following link to see the moments of the event...the paintings will be live online soon ...so keep visiting www.mywebera.com

 http://picasaweb.google.com/surjyadeb/UdaanSitNDrawContestOrganisedByMyWebERAAlongWithAIDDelhiOn15thAugust2009#

 

The Indian animation industry has matured on the technical expertise since last five years. However the industry now needs to focus on creativity and build its own IP content based on indigenous story themes to become more credible in the world market -- say industry experts.

S Muralaidharan, CEO of Accel Animation Technologies, said that the Indian animation industry has matured in technical-expertise and can deliver international quality in both animation production and post production services. However, categorized into 1: Animation services and 2: IP content ownership, the industry is lopsided with its major efforts & investments towards the service business model. IP creation and ownership requires huge capital and strong distribution network -- while the Indian mainstream audience still prefers star-casts over animations; and only metros preferring animation movies leads to low investments in the development of original content, said he.

A substantial animation work for the movie The Chronicles of Narnia was done in India, which proves the technical adeptness of Indian animators, said Muralidharan. But the industry fails to get acclamations for its work in India due to the lack of original content and own creativity. More investment is needed to develop IP content and creativity potential needs to be unlocked -- that requires even reframing our current education system , said he; whose company is currently creating an in-house IP content, South India Fables, a Thirukural based animated serials.

On the similar context, Sukumar Subramanian, CEO of Sanra Technology, an animation media technology company, said, IP content creation and creativity from India in the animation space can mushroom and be successful if-and-only when the Indian animation industry focuses its scripts on the strengths our own culture and heritage -- juxtaposed to Indian main-stream movies that imitates the West.

There is an inquisitive curiosity allover the world to learn about the Indian culture and its lifestyle -- credits to movies such as Slumdog millionaire bagging Oscars and Indian company such as Arcelor Mittal acquiring companies in the West, said Sukumar. To get acclamation (for original IP content & creativity) both in India and world-wide, the Indian animation industry should work on legacy stories and indigenous themes. Our company is currently working on an animation movie, Lord Muruga, a Tamil God, and cited the successful popularity of animation series such as Hanuman, Krishna, said he.

 

Extrapolating on the opportunities in the Indian animation industry, Rajesh Turakhia, MD of Frameboxx, an animation and visual effects training institute, said that the even in the current turmoil of recession, especially in the IT sector, the India animation industry has promising demand in the international animation market. This is because of its optimal price for high quality work, while Korea and Singapore that offers similar animation services have now become expensive for animation outsourcing. Our company bets big on the growth of Indian animation industry, and will grow up to 50 centers within the next 1 year spanning across the country, said Turakhia.

 

According to a Nasscom report, the Indian animation industry will reach $950 million by 2009, while the world animation demand will reach $75 billion in the same year.

Source: CXOtoday.com, dated: 5th May 2009,

http://www.cxotoday.com/India/News/Animation_Industry_in_India_A_Perspective/551-101607-908.html

Hi Friends,

Here is a list of Web 2.0 companies in India and globally, though this is not very recent one, but hope this will help a lot many people,s purpose. I will upload the new list soon.. so enjoy and comment on it.

 

The online gaming industry in India is worth 21 crores, according to a report published by IMRB International on behalf of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, (IAMAI). In India, as in more developed markets, school and college going youths between ages 17 and 25 are the key drivers of this segment. Although miniscule compared with such developed gaming markets as Korea, China, Japan and the US, this is a sure indicator of the commercial and social potential of the segment. Currently, most of the revenues in this segment come from organised cyber cafés (Rs. 12.17 crore) and from subscription based revenues (Rs. 6.6 crore), the contribution of advertising (Rs. 2.24 crore) which is currently low, should go up over the next 2-3 years, in line with developed gaming markets such as US where it accounts for close to 40 percent. Almost 20 percent of this revenue (Rs 4 crore) currently accrues directly to international players not based in India. It is expected that over the next 2-3 years this proportion would go down as more Indian gaming portals come up and establish their presence by providing localised content.

Currently most Indian gaming portals are on a free model and are looking at advertising revenues to sustain the first phase of growth. There are plans to introduce monthly subscriptions or subscriptions to higher levels as users become more comfortable. Most portals acknowledge that advance advertising options such as in-game placements will take some time to enter the lexicon of mainstream advertisers, most of who are just beginning to experiment with online advertising.

According to Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, there are three broad issues that could act as impediments to the progress of this segment: the negative perception of gaming, especially online gaming among parents, the poor enabling infrastructure, including connectivity and hardware constraints and the lack of recognition of the importance of this segment in increasing the penetration of Internet by the government.

 

Business Standard

Companies give subscription model the thumbs down. 

 

A shift from the subscription model to direct sale of virtual items in cyberspace has just begun. 

 

Massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) company Level Up, for instance, has set up an online mall, following its decision to earn revenues from the sale of virtual items as against subscription fees for its MMOGs and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) — Ragnarok, Gunz, and the more recent Ozworld. 

 

The business model of selling virtual items is also finding favour with Sify which launched a MMORPG called Rakion 3-4 months ago, and will be beta (test mode) launching Nostale — an entry level MMORPG on the same business model — next month. Its older MMORPG, A3, will continue to follow the subscription model. 

 

“Currently, the sale of virtual items accounts for less than 5 per cent of the total subscription sales. However, by the end of financial year 2007-08, there will be a substantial shift from the subscription model to sale of virtual items,” says Surjyadeb Goswami, Assistant Manager, Communication Research, IDC India. 

 

Subscription revenues will grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 126 per cent from $1.22 million in 2006 to $72 million in 2011, he adds. 

 

Additionally, the number of online gamers will grow, at a CAGR of 63 per cent — from 1.3 million gamers in 2006 to 14 million by 2011. 

 

However, it is too early to say what the revenues from the sale of subscriptions would be, since industry players and experts refuse to put any estimates. 

 

“The change in the business model would ensure more entry-level gamers and subsequently more revenues as playing would now be free,” reasons Venkat Mallik, managing director, Level Up. 

 

For instance, “at Level Up we are already experiencing a 100 per cent increase in the number of gamers playing for free,” he adds. 

 

Besides the change in model, “The MMOG and MMORPG market is also witnessing an explosive growth in the number of titles increasing from three in the beginning of the year to 10 by the year-end,” says Navin H, head, national sales, Sify. 

 

Level Up is planning to launch three more MMORPGs/ MMOGs over the next 3-6 months. Sify is introducing Nostale next month, even the recently set up MMOG company Kreeda Games, which launched Dance Mela a couple of months back, is planning to introduce another MMOG title. 

 

Besides, other online gaming players like Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Zapak.com too plans to launch two MMOGs in the next 3-6 months. Even Mobile2Win is planning to launch City Racer, a MMOG, soon. 

 

Rohit Sharma, chief operating officer, Zapak Digital Entertainment, says, “Currently, advertising is our only source of income but after the launch of MMOGs, revenues from subscriptions will account for 40-50 per cent of our overall earnings.” 

 

For Mobile2Win too, MMOG would provide the company a new platform to attract additional advertising revenues, concurs Rajiv Hiranandani, country manager and co-founder, Mobile2Win. 

Financial Express 

Rupsa Ray

Posted: May 08, 2008 at 2119 hrs IST

 

How about helping Bappi Lahiri in recovering gold jewellery, or playing Bipasha in challenging the worlds’ best to an adrenaline-pumping jet-ski ride across exotic circuits? Or, may be, accompanying Hanuman in his mission to rid the world of evil forces? Well, these are some of the popular ideas grabbing the attention of mobile gaming enthusiasts.

 

And it is not just mobiles that are attracting gamers. Slowly but surely Indians are begin wooed by exciting gaming options across platforms—be it online, consoles or just plain old PCs. Mobile devices, to being with, have a huge reach and opportunity in India. With 261 million cellular subscribers, and growing rapidly, the gaming industry has barely scratched the surface of this vast opportunity. Analysts say that the market share of mobile gaming could reach 68% by 2009. As for the gaming themes, cricket and Bollywood sell best in India. It is true of mobile gaming as well. A game on Indo-Pak series by Jump Games saw 2.5 million downloads. To keep up the sensation, Jump Games and Zapak.com have tied up with cricketer Ishant Sharma to create online and mobile games on him.

 

Besides, new trends are emerging—advergaming, for example. These are games on the mobile platform that revolve around brands. Experts say this would become a popular advertising medium, primarily because the cost for developing an advergame is pretty low, ranging from Rs 3-6 lakh. “Thums Up Everest Challenge, an advergame on Reliance network, saw more than 350,000 downloads a week,” says Salil Bhargava, CEO, Jump Games.

 

But there are challenges before the gaming industry that go beyond the constraints of partially developed mobile broadband. “The biggest challenge for the mobile gaming and VAS industries in India is the discovery factor. People want games and content, but do not know where to access them,” adds Bhargava.

 

Experts say Indian gaming industry is in a transition phase, moving from casual to serious gaming. Although Indian gamers are not ready to pay big bucks for serious games, casual and entertaining online games seem to have posted a healthy growth. With increasing PC penetration and the opportunity to play games at cyber cafes, this segment is showing much promise.

 

“Racing and sports steal the show when it comes to online gaming, and cricket is the most popular sports in India, followed by Fifa,” says Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment. Zapak is also creating games for Kolkata Knight Riders on its website.

 

Interestingly, Zapak and Onlinereal games.com have different sets of games for women, who prefer activity—oriented gaming, puzzles and games on fashion. However, 30% gamers for Zapak’s online cricketing game are women; 10%-12% gamers are into racing and action.

 

“Online gaming is becoming popular as it is simple and easy to play. On our site, we have different genres of games catering to teenagers, women and 35 years. Also, there are games in different Indian languages to reach out to a wider user-base,” said Maruti Sanker, MD, 7Seas Technologies Ltd, which owns the portal onlinerealgames.

 

Analysts feel the growth for serious gaming is pretty slow in India. MMOGs (massively multi-player online games), which are for hardcore gamers, will take some time to gather pace in India. Zapak is coming up with its first MMOG called crazycard by June and with three more MMOGs this year.

 

“The reason for serious online gaming not taking off in India is the poor PC and broadband penetration. Unless that improves, not much can be expected in this segment. However, we hope that the situation will improve in the coming months,” says Surjyadeb Goswami, assistant manager, communications research, IDC India. “There is a lack of a robust business model for popularising and growing the online gaming market and vendors are confused as to what would work better— a subscription based model or a virtual sales model,” he added.

 

However, industry experts feel that there are a number of reasons for the growth of the Indian online gaming market. Piracy is one—as users are not satisfied with the quality of standalone (offline) pirated versions of games, they would be driven to online games.

 

Growing blogging and gaming communities are also expected to accelerate the growth of online gaming. While there is growing excitement around mobile and online gaming, industry observers say that consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation give the ultimate gaming experience.

 

However, they believe that consoles will remain a niche market here because of steep price tags. Industry estimates indicate that console gaming will account for only 20% of the market by 2009. “Unless taxes and duties on these go down, it’s not possible to cut prices steeply because developing a quality game requires multi-million dollar investments,” says Ashim Das Mathur, a spokesperson for Microsoft Entertainment Devices Division.

 

For the foreseeable future, meanwhile, it seems that PC gaming will continue to hold the attention of stakeholders. PC games development market in India is expected to witness a CAGR of 62.6% and go up to $35 million by 2009. Gaming development companies like Electronic Arts (EA) are trying to get casual gamers into hardcore gaming and non-gamers into gaming.

 

“Today, we have cut down the prices as much as is possible. We are offering different versions of games such as “Need for Speed” at different price tags. We are trying to reduce prices by 30% and taking a number of initiatives such as manufacturing the discs in India to do so,” says Ajay Khanna, general manager, EA. However, the market for pirated games in India is about $40 million, which is affecting the organised gaming market.

 

In the next 3-5 years, gaming is expected to become the biggest entertainment for the youth. Though console-based gaming is the biggest platform globally, analysts say India will follow China in going the digital way, with better broadband networks and a larger subscriber base. “The Indian gaming market is quite different from the rest of Asia,” says an industry official. “Gaming in India is not yet ingrained in the country’s culture like in some of the evolved markets of Korea and Japan, where role-playing and strategy-based games are more popular. In India, gamers prefer action, racing and sports, like their counterparts in the US and Europe.”

Hi Friends,

We are proud to announce that, now there will be exciting gift vouchers from MyWebERA to all the winners who will achieve the crown of becoming the best Creation (painting, animation and games) of the Month* for Three consecutive months.

So, isn't it more exciting now ??

Come and upload more and more of your creations in www.paintersera.com , www.animatorsera.com and www.gamersera.com 

Cheers

Team MyWebERA

 

* Terms and Conditions Apply