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The ApnaNet experience |
Learnings...
ApnaNet was an excellent learning ground - I got a chance to spend two months, between academics, practically applying my classroom knowledge to a live marketing case - something not everyone gets an opportunity to do. The thrust, the content, the look and feel, and publicising the site was done without outside help. There will always be a bookmark to ApnaNet in my mind's bookmark file.
... from the experience
It all started when an old college friend put spare server space at my disposal. This was a perfect opportunity to practically
apply some of the marketing fundaes taught in JBIMS. I
roped in two other classmates interested in the Net and over numerous
cups of chai in our college canteen, ApnaNet was
conceived and refined.
Then, in 1997, the Internet was catching on in India - VSNL (then our sole ISP) had recently started
offering inexpensive text-only Internet access for students, which
was immediately lapped up by students all over India. Besides students, the Internet
subscriber base in India was rapidly increasing. This translated
into a ready base of people who would be looking for a way to
leave their mark in cyberspace - by creating a homepage. Sites
like Geocities and Tripod were offering free homepages, but since
they catered largely to a US-based audience, we in India weren't
really a part of the community building efforts of these sites.
Besides these sites allowed only personal homepages - business
related pages were forbidden.
click for bigger pic
The main thrust of ApnaNet was to promote the Internet
culture in India by providing free homepages exclusively to Indians
for personal, business, non-profit, or educational use. The name
ApnaNet (Apna: Hindi for "Our")was chosen to portray an Indian community web site
- with sections where people could interact with each other, make
friends, share news and opinions, publicise their college events
and festivals … the works.
ApnaNet was publicised by the three of us taking turns
in chat rooms talking about the site. We also had an online signature
campaign against VSNL's proposed new tariff structure. Within
a week we had over 500 signatures from all over India, and half
as many people signing up for free home pages. Sadly enough we
could not achieve what we started off to achieve when VSNL blocked
ApnaNet hardly 10 days after it was launched, giving it an early burial.