It was exasperation.

This article on Niti Central, an online publication that claims that it is “Bold and right”, has focused an inordinate amount of its attention on my facial expressions during a debate on NDTV’s show “The Social Network”. Instead of focusing on the points I was making on the show, the writer appears to have attempted to discredit my views by focusing on how I was smiling by saying that I was smirking. I find that rather petty, and symptomatic of the discourse that we currently see on Twitter today.

Shifting the focus doesn’t change the fact that those (apparently) representing the left (Congress) and the right (BJP) on the show were constantly attacking each other, and in the process, drowning out the others point of view on the show.

I was smiling because that’s exactly the point I was trying to make, and it was being proven on the show: both parties, the Congress and the BJP, have been constantly attacking each other on Twitter, and reacting to criticism by attacking the person criticizing them. In the process, they’re drowning out all legitimate debate.

*

I support neither party. I’m neutral, and undecided, and equally critical of both sides. The Congress lost me long long ago with its ruinous policies, and the BJP is losing me with its vitriol, and lack of focus on what it plans to do for the economy. I hate it that what should be a debate on who has better ideas to improve things for citizens has turned into a shouting match, with each trying to prove the other is worse.

The trolls are obnoxious. By being vicious, vindictive and crass, they’re losing me as a voter. Things have been tough the last few months, and Twitter was once a place one could turn to, for friends and some banter – that five minute break (multiple times a day) that could brighten up things for you. Now it has people spewing hate and vitriol. I’ve unfollowed a lot of people in the past week – some for tweeting, some just for retweeting.

That was the point I was making on the show – don’t feed the trolls, and unfollow with a vengeance.

The discussion on NDTV was on mobs taking over Social Media, in the context of a satirical page criticising one party being shut down, alleging that he was being harassed. It was about mobs. Instead both sides tried to appropriate the discussion by blaming the other, hijacking the debate on whether the mobs are stifling free speech (which I feel strongly about), and focusing on a micro issue of one satirical page being (allegedly) forced to shut down by mobs, instead of the macro issue of this stupid, relentless and immature blame game.

You can abuse the other person all that you want, but that never really makes you look good. This morning, I was critical of the Congress for having shut down Aditi Restaurant in Mumbai, because it printed a snarky message on its bills, criticising the UPA government. A Congress supporter started attacking me because I agreed with a point an alleged BJP supporter was making. How does that help their cause? It just shifts the debate away from the policy being discussed.

As a neutral, if you support one sides point of view, the other side labels you and attacks you.

I don’t remember where I read this, but this stuck: be a gentleman not because the other person deserves it, but because you are one. There aren’t enough gentlemen around, unfortunately.

*

I smiled because I’m Indian, and there are times when we’re fatalistic. I was amused by the helpless situation I am in: Look at these two parties, or the Niti Central article which tries to divert attention from the issue: do we have any choice? They’re both giving me reasons to not vote for the other. Arvind Kejriwal is doing much the same with the Aam Aadmi Party.

Here’s an idea for the Congress or the BJP: Assume that the other party doesn’t exist. I’m a neutral, undecided voter. Now tell me, the voter, why I should vote for you.

*

Hint: I’m socially liberal, believe in a small government, light-touch regulation (unless cartels need to be broken), open markets, empowerment of small businesses, a low fiscal deficit and low government spending, and transparency and accountability in governance. I’m also almost a freedom-of-expression absolutist (minus defamation), so…oops.

Things to do:

• Set up photo gallery
• Change WP theme
• Integrate twitter account
• Write about last year
• Upload photos from travel last year
• Change the world*

* – optional

Last Friday, my new digital media site – Medianama.com – went live with an interview with S. Sivakumar, the CEO designate for Times Private Treaties, the ads-for-equity investment arm of Bennett & Coleman Co Ltd (BCCL), which owns some of India’s largest media properties – the Times of India, Times Now, The Economic Times, Mumbai Mirror, Times OOH, Zoom TV, Femina, among others.

We raised a few contentious issues, focusing on what exactly Private Treaties brings to the table for startups, about investing in competitive businesses, whether editorial content is a part of the deal, and and whether they offer any strategic support at all. It was a long and consuming interview, and you can probably tell by the audio how involved both the interviewee and the interviewer (me) were.

For Medianama, it was an explosive large start – the kind I wasn’t expecting – and I think we’re now settling into the rhythm of analysing developments in the digital media business. A few things will emerge with time – we’ll try to offer significant perspective on the Digital Media industry, while also covering news, and we’ll offer an increased focus on certain domains that are still emerging. The reasoning behind an emerging segments focus: the deeper we dig, the more knowledge we’re able to share about these domains. In effect, we hope to help decision makers – entrepreneurs, investors, consultants and observers – understand the domain better.

It’s not been much of a break for me – Medianama has taken around 3 weeks of work. I worked till 9:30pm on my last day at CS, and finished off with a Yahoo vs T-Series story and the Sify earnings report. I don’t think I wanted a break anyway – I love this domain and love my work…staying away for these three weeks alone was difficult, as you probably gauged by a few posts that I did in the interim.

Medianama will continue to evolve as we go along, and if you have any suggestions, please do share at nikhil AT medianama DOT com.

For now, it’s back to work.

May 31st was my last day with ContentNext Media (and at contentSutra), and I’ve been on something of a sabbatical since. Expect an announcement from me soon. Have done a few posts on this blog – which just goes to show how difficult it is for me to take a break from blogging. contentSutra was an incredible experience for me – something of a roller coaster, and left me completely consumed by the digital media business. Love the space and am committed to being there. All credit to Rafat and Staci for giving an untried rookie so much freedom and responsibility. Rafat gave me the confidence to fight for stories that were deservedly mine, and Staci guided me through many-a-tricky situation. Still remember one of the first few mails from Rafat, where he ended with “Let’s blow this up big.” To some extent, I think we did.

MIH India Global Internet, the holding company for Indian Internet properties like ibibo.com, dwaar.com, onefamily.com, Newscola.com and bixee.com, and ad network AdWinks, has entered into an agreement to divest as much as 50 percent stake (less one share) to China based Tencent Holdings. Tencent, in turn, will invest at least $7.5 Million in MIH India over a period of three years, though it has the option of increasing that investment if needed. There are some conditions (of assuming certain loans) under which Tencent can increase its holding to 50 percent shareholding (minus one share).

Burn Rate: Take a look at the losses that MIH has suffered since launch:

Assuming that MIH started operations around August 2006, they’ve suffered a net loss of $18.947 Million in 23 months – an average loss of $1.114 Million (Rs. 4.76 Crores) per month. Some of that money has been spent on acquiring a 30 percent stake in ACL Wireless for $12.3 Million in July 2007, acquiring Bixee and Pixrat (for websites and a team of developers in Bangalore), developing products, allowing users to call each other for free, payouts to users as prizes, sponsoring TV shows like ibibo MTV Superstar and ibibo FTV Fashion Photographer.

Internal company transaction? This may be considered to be an internal company transaction, since the parent company of MIH India – Naspers, owns a 35.5 percent stake in TenCent. Interestingly, I’d heard murmurs of TenCent being in talks with MIH India around a year ago, but wasn’t able to verify. The deal didn’t appear to mean much then, since both are a part of Naspers portfolio.

More on valuation, Tencent’s agenda, and probable launches –

So almost six months after struggling handset manufacturer Motorola acquired online and mobile music distribution company Soundbuzz, Motorola has launched music distribution service MotoMusic in India. MotoMusic powers the MOTOROKR E8, two versions of which are priced at Rs. 15.455 and Rs. 13,999 respectively. The launch of MotoMusic is significant, since it comes before the launch of Nokia’s content service Ovi.

Value Chain: This is what the value chain looks like, with a handset manufacturer also becoming a content aggregator. This should, ideally, result in increasing efficiencies, and hence offer a greater margin to Motorola:

Pricing, Distribution and content partners:

SatNav Technologies has raised $7 million in a first round of funding from Sequoia Capital India. The amount of stake diluted has not been disclosed, though Mohit Bhatnagar, Operating Partner with Sequoia says that it’s a significant minority stake, and two members have joined the board. SatNav was incubated at Satyam Computers, under the Satyam Entrepreneur Incubation Program. Here’s a brief on the various players in the consumer GIS space (in no particular order):

ARPU and Projections: SatNav claims that it had revenues of around $1 million last fiscal, and 22000 users. That’s an ARPU of $45.5. They’re now targeting 2 lakh users by the end of this fiscal, and assuming an ARPU of $35, they should have revenues of $7 million by then; at least a 7x increase in revenues. Of course, this calculation depends on whether the numbers they’ve mentioned in the press are correct or not.

Burn Rate: FE reports that the funds should see SatNav through the next 12-18 months. That’s a burn rate of between $389,000 – $583,000 per month, or between Rs. 1.6 – 2.5 crores per month. Where will that money go?

For Products, Targets and BCCLs Private Treaty Legacy click