crowdsourcing india

Is India ready for crowdsourcing?

crowdsourcingindia — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:30:19 +0000

Did you ponder over the origin of the new Rupee symbol? It was not the output of the great creative volcanoes but the creation of a common man through crowdsourcing. India is a vast country with an extremely diverse culture which is difficult to understand. Hence, brands rely on agencies to develop a plan for the future. Crowdsourcing is a means to create an eco-system of engaging with audiences that are relevant and co-creating the future of business with them. It provides a multitude of ways to gather ideas, opinions and feedback.

Capturing people from different walks of life singing in the spirit of ‘Hum Me Hai Hero’ to writing your Hyundai i10 story and getting selected to star in the TVC alongside Shahrukh Khan, crowdsourcing helps in gaining deeper understanding of the customers. It helps in effectively communicating with the users and also allows them to actively participate in the creativity and strategising aspects for the brand. Reaching the relevant crowds is becoming easier with diverse audiences and technology penetrating to masses. Hence, companies are crowdsourcing logos to products and creative campaigns.

Dinesh Goel, Founder, Innovative Ideators said, “With the pattern and behaviour of future customer changing so rapidly and becoming more and more diverse, even global brands wanting to operate in India, will have to include the local connect. Hence, crowdsourcing has become extremely important for brands wanting to succeed in India.”

According to experts, nine of the top 10 global brands crowdsource and it is estimated that $300 million were invested in 2012 on crowdsourcing initiatives.

Arun Mehra, CEO, Talenthouse India said, “Internationally, crowdsourcing, open innovation and co-creation have been around as part of marketing and innovative strategies, which are only getting bigger and bigger; P&G’s Connect & Develop has over the years claimed that more than 50 per cent of product initiatives involve significant collaboration with outside innovators. Similarly, Pepsi has converted people’s ideas from wishful thinking to reality through the Pepsi Refresh Project.”

“In India, besides crowdsourcing the Rupee symbol by the Indian Government, large scale consumer involvement has not yet been undertaken. Brands have now opened up to consumer generated content on smaller scale through social media and this trend will only gain momentum in the coming years,” he added.

With the advent of digital media, crowdsourcing is one of the fastest and the most effective ways for brands to reach out to relevant audiences. Companies such as Mahindra, HUL, Toyota, Airtel, Ricoh are the few companies that are regularly investing in crowdsourcing initiatives in India. Brands are using crowdsourcing for various purposes from product development and packaging to brand communication and engagement.

According to Mehra, Wikipedia is the largest example of crowdsourcing and Yahoo Answers is also a portal where the crowd contributes. DARPA (US Government) is using crowdsourcing for new Spy Drone designs whereas Netflix has used crowdsourcing consistently even to caption its video library, and scientists are using it to understand earthquake patterns, etc. Design seems to be one of the most popular routes to engage with consumers. Happydent, Kurkure have crowdsourced product design, Vodafone sourced the jersey and cap design for IPL finals, and Opium eye wear crowdsourced a sunglass design.

Goel believes that the best example of using crowdsourcing is Harley Davidson. It has invested on everything from the design and colour of their bikes to their experiential marketing programme to the Harley club for bikers.

Marketing the crowdsourcing way
With an attempt to make the consumer the centre of the entire communication process, Hero Moto-corp invited people to sing the Hero song, shoot their video and upload it, and their video became a part of the film.

Anil Dua, Senior VP, Marketing and Sales, Hero MotoCorp said, “Billion Voices is an engagement programme where individuals were invited to sing along and submit their own videos for the ‘Hum Mein Hai Hero’ anthem. This was the first time when crowdsourcing was used by a mainstream Indian brand to continuously create fresh content for its TV and digital campaign. Thousands of fans from across the country sent in their videos. This initiative helped us get our proposition ‘Hum Mein Hai Hero’ quickly into the hearts and minds of people across the country.”

The new Micromax logo design crowdsourced on Talenthouse resembles a punch capturing the attitude of the youth, adding to the brands esteem. According to Shubhodip Pal, Chief Marketing Officer at Micromax, the logo was globally crowdsourced resonating with the values of the brand. Crowdsourcing helped in coming up with an open-ended logo with a lot of connotations.

“I think crowdsourcing has worked quite a lot for many brands. There are new and emerging brands in the digital space that do not have the bandwidth to go to expensive boutiques, so using the platform to generate smart ideas helps. The future is bright but it depends on the flexibility of the brand. The established brands will not do it but it is the cheapest way to meet objectives,” Pal said.

To amplify and communicate customer trust in Hyundai, the company brought the concept of crowdsourcing through ‘Write your i10 Story’. “Crowdsourcing concept is appropriate for brands which have been successful in the past and there is positive customer response in the present scenario as well. The campaign received 62,000 entries within a span of four weeks. We will keep evaluating such ideas in the future and engage with customers through such campaigns,” said Nalin Kapoor, Group Head – Marketing, Hyundai Motor India.

Pitfalls
Crowdsourcing in India is still at a very nascent stage. However, brands and companies are beginning to look at it as an emerging process. Educating the relevant crowd is of supreme importance. Goel believes that currently, crowdsourcing initiatives are being funded from the extra budget rather than a mainstream plan; so to say, it’s a tactical exercise rather than a strategic initiative to get ideas, talent and solutions for any function of business. “There are no ready databases and the penetration of digital medium and internet is still low, which makes reaching the last mile a little difficult,” Goel said.

“At every step of crowdsourcing, companies need to invest qualitatively. The articulation of the challenge for which they are seeking ideas and solutions needs to be very good. The reach to relevant crowds needs to be well planned, timed and executed and not judge the ideas on the crowds ability to think, but for the ideas they contribute,” Goel added.

Brands and companies will learn from the global experience and mistakes, and will be careful in keeping the relevance along with execution capabilities of what ideas, reach and talent they garner through crowdsourcing. “Essentially, the Indian corporate DNA of keeping Return on Investment will include Return on Innovation and Cost Benefit in mind before they evangelise crowdsourcing,” Goel said.

Mehra states that creative crowdsourcing is a revolutionary breakthrough the world over and in a short span of time India is taking a lead in the crowdsourcing space. He believes that India is sitting on a goldmine of talent waiting to be discovered. “This makes creative crowdsourcing even more popular among artist who seek to be recognised and brands and mentors who want to connect, engage and work with the best of talent in the country.” Mehra added.

Despite India being at a nascent stage in crowdsourcing, there is immense untapped talent that needs to be leveraged to deliver the best results.

Source: exchange4media.com

#DriveWithMTV Season 2 Decides The Route By Crowdsourcing Places On Twitter

crowdsourcingindia — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:52:24 +0000

The second season of ‘Drive with MTV’ is back after a successful stint in the first one and this time the social road trip is even more social – the trip routes are being crowdsourced through Twitter, bloggers can get exclusive wildcard entries and more. ‘Drive with MTV’ is India’s first social streaming show featuring 4 teams in their Tata Nanos on a road trip across the country in 21 days. The teams share their journey live everyday across social media platforms and make points on every like, comment, share, retweet, etc. The first season saw team Nano North win based on their social media clout and take home brand new Tata Nanos.

For the second season, MTV India launched a first-of-its-kind crowdsourcing initiative for the social road trip yesterday. Twitter users were invited to tweet their favourite travel destination using the hashtag #DriveWithMTV. These suggestions were then shortlisted to form the routes for this season of Drive with MTV. The chosen destinations won goodies and was simultaneously shared on the Facebook page of Drive with MTV. The final 20 locations have been decided after a day long tweeting drive.

For all you road trip junkies out there, the shortlisting process is on till the 20^th of May. 24 of these shortlisted people will be selected to form the final 12 with four teams of 3 people each. You need to register on this page with a fun video entry talking about a memorable trip that you had taken and why you love to travel.

Interestingly, Drive with MTV has also associated with BlogAdda, a bloggers community to offer 3 wildcard entries who will form the shortlisted 24. Bloggers need to share a memorable journey and give their reasons for the love of travel. Once in the shortlist, they have to send video entries as well and fight it out for the final team of 12.

The second season of Drive with MTV promises to be more exciting even before it has started. The teams travel across the length and breadth of the country and share their experiences on social media, along the routes that have been decided through social media!

Boston Marathon bombings: How Twitter and Reddit got it wrong

crowdsourcingindia — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:49:52 +0000

Around 7pm on Thursday night, social media sites like Twitter and Reddit lit up with a sensational rumor: that Sunil Tripathi, a student who had vanished weeks ago, was one of the suspects accused of bombing the Boston Marathon.

Several hours later, US network NBC News reported that the authorities were actually seeking two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, with no link to the missing student.

But as the erroneous reports about Tripathi continued to spread online, his family, huddled around their computers in Providence, Rhode Island, felt helpless as Internet users levelled accusation after accusation against their missing relative.

“Someone will tweet, then retweet, and completely unsubstantiated things can proliferate so rapidly and destructively,” Sunil’s sister Sangeeta Tripathi said in an interview yesterday. “Those night hours were horrible.”

The chaos wrought by the social media rumour mill, exacerbated by prominent journalists who re-circulated the misinformation early Friday morning, came at the end of a tumultuous week for both established news organizations and the social media sites that are altering the dynamics of newsgathering.

Some traditional media outlets were pilloried for irresponsible reporting – among them News Corp’sNew York Post, which published on its front page Wednesday a picture of two men holding bags implying that they were the suspects. Post editor Col Allan said in a statement to Salon that it did not identify the men pictured as suspects and that it stood by the cover photo.

Other large media outlets were also criticised for inaccuracies: Time Warner’s CNN and the Associated Press reported that a suspect had been arrested Wednesday before that was denied by officials.

A CNN spokeswoman said the information was based on three credible sources and was changed as soon as sources provided new information. AP spokesman Paul Colford said: “We reported what we knew to be the case or what we were told at the time, and it came undone. We issued the correction which the AP religiously does.”

Social media sites came under fire for encouraging a rush to judgment.

On Reddit, an increasingly influential social media site owned by magazine publisher Conde Nast, users posted pictures taken from the bomb scene and engaged in a large-scale, semi-organized effort to identify the bombers. At one point, users even compiled a spreadsheet of possible suspects, whom they sought to identify.

The Reddit sleuths didn’t succeed, naming Tripathi and other people who ultimately had nothing to do with the events. But by morning on the East Coast, Tripathi’s name had already been circulated in the press in India and Britain.

Marcus Messner, a communications professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the rash of mainstream media errors stemmed at least in part from pressure to compete with fast-flowing social media.

“If you look at Twitter, the news snippets on the events are a lot more advanced than what you’re seeing on websites or even what you’re seeing on the air,” Messner said. “Twitter, especially, has put a lot more pressure on news organization to get it out fast.”

The mix-up around Tripathi shone a spotlight on Reddit, which now has more than 14 million monthly visitors, according to ComScore.

At one point, Luke Russert, a reporter at Comcast Corp’s NBC News – the outlet that was ultimately first to name the Tsarnaev brothers as suspects – tweeted it would “change the game” for journalism if Reddit had in fact correctly identified Tripathi, though he did caution that the information was “still unconfirmed”.

Late last night, after Reddit was debunked, Russert said in an email: “I don’t think it’s an overstatement that earlier this morning new media came into its own to a degree.”

“The point I was making is that Twitter, Reddit, Skype were instrumental in the audience understanding the story,” Russert said.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin said he apologised to the Tripathi family yesterday and pledged a review of policy.

“The crowd-sourced investigation is something that’s really new and extreme in this case,” Martin said.

“All of the people working at Reddit, and the millions of people on Reddit – everyone needs to make sure they’re helping and not hindering a crisis situation. In the aftermath of this, we’re all going to both internally and in the community be asking that question.”

Ben Smith, the editor of Buzzfeed, a leading “social news” website, defended one of his reporters, who, due to his large Twitter following, played a central role in initially spreading the Tripathi rumor.

Smith said that Buzzfeed staffers were simply doing their best to give readers “context” of the information swirling around the Internet.

“I think it’s futile to pretend readers aren’t seeing everything, and that instead we should be providing context,” Smith wrote in an email.

The saga generated reflection within the online community itself, as numerous Reddit users left comments chastising the “witch hunt”. On Friday, Redditors launched a new crowdsourced campaign to help locate Tripathi.

Source : Independent.co.uk

Pixorial Launches Krowds Video for Android

crowdsourcingindia — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:22:01 +0000

New Location-Based Video App Brings Multiple Perspectives of Shared Events to Fastest Growing Mobile Platform

Pixorial®, the video service that lets users transform shared experiences into their own personal stories, today introduced worldwide availability of Krowds™ Video for Android. Available now on Google Play, the free app lets people quickly discover, contribute and join in the shared video experience with full quality videos of any length. Krowds harnesses the power of video crowdsourcing by making it easy, convenient and nearly limitless. The new app completely changes the way consumers experience video by providing access to many different perspectives contributed by others at a shared event.

“Now that Krowds is available for both iOS and Android, almost anyone with a smartphone will be able to share video based on location and interests without limitations. We’re thrilled that more people worldwide can use the power of Krowds to capture, share and curate personally relevant videos,” said Andrés Espiñeira, Founder and CEO of Pixorial. “We expect the strong positive reaction from our iPhone version will translate to other devices as we continue to roll out more ways for consumers to participate in Krowds.”

The announcement of the Android version of Krowds comes on the heels of Pixorial’s debut launch of Krowds for iOS three weeks ago. Since the launch, the app has already seen significant user adoption and content contribution including:

People around the globe have created Krowds featuring a variety of interests, ranging from the Coachella music festival, to sci-fi and horror convention Starfest Denver, to Boston Red Sox games and even fishing vacations in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the first three weeks of availability, Krowds has seen a tenfold increase in adoption compared to Pixorial’s existing mobile app.
On average, a user creating a Krowd invites six of their friends to join that Krowd.
Users of Krowds are located on nearly every continent, with Krowds being formed in the United States, Mexico, Spain, Saudi Arabia, India, Australia, Colombia, Chile, Peru, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Israel and more.

Join the shared video experience today and start capturing ‘Different Points of You’ right away by downloading Krowds Video for Android from Google Play and for iPhone or iPad, from the Apple App Store.

To learn more, watch video demos, browse FAQs and see an official media kit, please visit http://www.krowds.co

About Pixorial
Pixorial is the only crowd video ecosystem that lets anyone transform shared experiences into personal stories. Launched in 2009, Pixorial frees the world’s video and connects people of all ages via its simple, intuitive video creation and sharing tools. Pixorial offers the only unlimited video platform imposing no restrictions on video quality, source, length or sharing capabilities, making it easy for users to upload, edit, organize and share their videos. With multiple industry awards and 300,000 users worldwide, Pixorial is privately held and based in Englewood, Colorado.

Source : Marketwire.com

Women start-ups to get support from leading technical body

crowdsourcingindia — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:05:46 +0000

Kerala section of Institution of Electronics and Electrical Engineers will set up a mechanism to support all-women start-ups in information technology and related technology domains.

A team is working to get the first such start-up in the social media space going early next month, says Sarada Jayakrishnan, who heads the Women in Engineering (WiE) initiative of IEEE Kerala Section.

SOCIAL MEDIA

This start-up is focused on utilising existing technology trends in social media to address applications of ‘crowdsourcing’ with special relevance to the market and social requirements of India.

Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people.

Recruitment and business model of the new start-up will leverage the power of crowdsourcing to solve real-life problems by co-opting human resources organised through virtual communities.

Women constitute 50 per cent of students in engineering and other technical areas, but their presence and visibility in the realms of start-up enterprises is rather low, said Jayakrishnan.

“One can identify several reasons behind this, but empirically I would say lack of family support, risk aversion and the organisational culture of start-ups,” she added.

The WiE initiative would like to support formation of start-ups by ensuring that we create a women-friendly atmosphere and culture by providing mentoring and thorough technology support.

“Eventually, we would like to incorporate our learning in the process to all future start-ups.”

R. Srinivasan, chair, IEEE Kerala Section, said that women were as innovative, if not more, than men. There was no inherent reason why women’s start-ups could not emerge in the State.

HIDDEN RESOURCE

In fact, women are a hidden resource for start-ups as there are many who are, for various reasons, unable to go in search of jobs to other cities.

Promoting women’s start-ups will go a long way to tap into this resource and also bring women into the mainstream, he said.

IEEE has been taking a focused approach towards enterprise and innovation – both technological and social. Several projects have been taken up worldwide for fostering innovation for social and humanitarian causes. The Kerala Section has formulated a special task force called Promotion of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) as an effective contributor and mentor for innovations.

“We would like to draw upon the experience of local institutions in promoting these enterprises,” Srinivasan added.

Source : Thehindubusinessline.com

In India, platform offers personalized hospital treatment packages based on medical records

crowdsourcingindia — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:59:29 +0000

Medeel.com offers a service that matches those in need of surgery with customized care packages based on their medical records.

San Francisco’s BetterDoctor platform has already been helping patients find the best health professionals to see them at late notice. Now India-based Medeel.com is offering a service that matches those in need of surgery with customized care packages based on their medical records.

Aimed at those who have been advised to undergo medical procedures by their doctors or GPs, but want to ensure they get the cheapest deal or the best surgeons, Medeel first invites patients to detail their treatment needs and upload their medical records using its secure submission process. Medeel then shares this information with local hospitals that offer the required surgery. After around two or three days, customers receive customized healthcare plans from those hospitals, enabling them to choose the one which is the most suitable for their situation. Users can accept a deal through the Medeel site and are offered contact details to arrange the surgery once the process is completed.

While Medeel could help Indians cut the cost of necessary surgery, it can also be used to find doctors who cater to their specific needs, ensuring they get the treatment that is right for them. Could this work in other parts of the world?

Source : Springwise.com

Sribu grows crowdsourcing platform to 25K designers

crowdsourcingindia — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:38:11 +0000

Jakarta-based online design crowdsourcing platform Sribu, which we introduced to you last September, has since grown to a community of 25,000 designers, delivered 135,000 design portfolios and crossed 1 billion Rupiah in payouts to designers on its platform. The company is announcing that it has achieved monthly break even. It is currently also in the market to raise a fresh round of funding.

“Our goal in the future is to penetrate deeper into regional markets with the positioning as an online graphic design company that offers an Asian flavour,” Sribu founder and CEO Ryan Gondokusumo said in a press release. Sribu was founded in September 2011 by Ryan Gondokusumo and Wenes Kusnadi. It competes with players such as 99Designs, DesignCrowd and Bangalore-based Jade Magnet (which has recently pivoted to a managed crowdsourcing model).

The Indonesian startup offers 20 different product categories of design including logos, websites, t-shirts, posters and packaging. It claims over 500 paying clients that range from startups to mid-sized and multinational companies across South East Asia. The market spending for crowdsourcing design is increasing at a rate of 105 per cent compared to last year, according to the company.

Contests on the site range between $150 and $300. In February 2012, the company raised a seed round of funding (amount undisclosed) from East Ventures.

Source : Startupcentral.in

Maybelline New York India launches India’s 1st crowd-sourced KISS Song

crowdsourcingindia — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:07:55 +0000

“Kiss, Pucker and Pout, I love my Baby Lips, Sexy they Shout!” It was a musical evening at the launch of the unique crowd sourced Baby Lips Kiss Song by Maybelline New York India featuring their latest brand ambassador Alia Bhatt. Also present on the occasion was Mr. Satyaki Ghosh, Director of L’Oréal Consumer Products Division.

With a huge presence across various digital platforms, the world renowned cosmetics brand launched the first leg of this campaign on Facebook where millions of fans were invited to contribute to the Baby Lips song with their kisses. More than 6000 women sent in their kisses Maybelline’s way, to create India’s first ever crowd-sourced kiss song along with a special music video featuring Alia Bhatt. The video to this catchy song showcases women with five different fun personalities that represent the brand’s philosophy along with Alia who brings her bubbly, peppy and edgy spirit to the video.

The Baby Lips KISS video featuring Alia Bhatt will also be aired on Music Channels like MTV, ETC and Mix from first week of May You can also catch the video playing in cinemas during the showcase of YehJawaaniHaiDeewani.

Satyaki Ghosh, Director L’Oréal Consumer Products Division, said, ‘Maybelline is an innovative brand that loves its consumers and assures to give them something new and exciting all the time. With the launch of the Baby Lips Kiss Song, we hope to once again do something different for our consumers and engage them as much as possible with the brand. We are thrilled to have Alia as the ambassador on Maybelline as she represents the young, contemporary cosmopolitan girl who is attuned to fashion at all times and loves to wear make-up.’

Harshil Karia, Online Strategist & Co-founder, FoxyMoron, commented, ‘The Baby Lips song is a perfect example of how brands are adopting crowdsourcing to connect with their fans. Maybelline New York is a well renowned and much loved cosmetics brand by women all over the world. So it only seemed fitting enough, to involve all the Maybelline girls in creating a ‘KISS’ anthem for one of their favorite products – the Baby Lips lip balm. This collaboration between the fans and the brand gives consumers an overwhelming sense of belongingness.’

Source : Mediavataar.com

Linkin Park partners with Talenthouse to crowdsource designs from India

crowdsourcingindia — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:37:00 +0000

The latest in a line of international artists looking to explore creativity from Indian fan

With the release of their new single ‘Castle of Glass’, Grammy award winning alternative rock band, Linkin Park has tied up with Talenthouse to inspire artwork based on the music and lyrics of the new single. Talenthouse India, a Reliance Entertainment division, has extended this invitation to the band’s legions of fans in India. The lucky grand prize winner will have their winning design produced into an official Linkin Park t-shirt.

This initiative reflects a growing trend among international artists,
who are eager to invite contributions from their fans in India. When guitar legend, Eric Clapton, recently invited a guitar symphony to his enduringly popular hit ‘Cocaine’, he personally liked the entries of Indians, Harish Chandra and Akshay Chowdhry were two talented Indians among the finalists.

In addition to the design of the official t-shirt,the winning design will be awarded a cash prize of $ 1,000. Apart from being made available for sale in the band’s merchandise store, the t-shirt will also be sold while the band is on their much-awaited tour. The ardent fan will also take home a framed copy of their winning t-shirt design, autographed by the band. With submissions open for over a month, the winning entry will be publicized across all official Linkin Park channels and properties.

Mr. Arun Mehra, CEO, Talenthouse India said,“This is a wonderful chance for devoted fans in India to showcase their talent on the global front. Creative crowdsourcing is the way forward for brands that target the youth. Brands need to be a part of the consumer’s mind space rather than just plugged from the outside. Linkin Park is obviously thinking along the same lines and our latest association with them is sure to organically reach the right audience in the country. That is the beauty of the digital space.”

Source: Indian News and Times

Jade Magnet pivots to managed crowdsourcing from open platform

crowdsourcingindia — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:34:43 +0000

Bangalore-based Jade Magnet Online Pvt Ltd, which enables businesses to ‘crowdsource’ design projects, has pivoted to a managed outsourcing model from an open platform.

The new model does not allow general participation and only experts with relevant skill sets are now eligible for this platform, said Sitashwa Srivastava, co-founder and CEO of Jade Magnet. In the earlier model, anyone could post a project and anyone could participate & contest.

“In the open model, projects used to be uploaded on a platform and creative professionals submitted their designs for the client to choose from. However, the output was not always consistent and might not work to the advantage of the brands at times. Also, the open space was getting commoditised with multiple design contest platforms coming up,” said Srivastava.

“In contrast, the managed crowdsourcing model works better for businesses looking for consistent and integrated delivery of creative and marketing campaigns. In this model, we select the best providers (from creative and technology areas) based on project-specific needs. We also curate virtual teams with professionals spread geographically. That way, we are able to serve bigger brands for deeper and impactful marketing and creative requirements,” he added.

The new approach will enable Jade to work with large brands like Clarks (one of the oldest footwear brands in the world) and SingPost (Singapore Post), as well as emerging brands like ngpay, according to Srivastava.

In the open model, Jade used to charge 20 per cent of a client’s budget while service providers were paid the rest. But in the new model, it takes almost 30-40 per cent. Also, in the open model, the ticket size per customer was around $500, but now it is around $2,000. However, the platform is still free for service providers as it was before.

Srivastava also said that the new approach helps the firm lock in revenues for a longer period of time, instead of just doing one-off projects for SMEs.

Founded in 2009 by Srivastava and Manik Kinra (CMO), Jade Magnet is a technology platform that focuses on crowd-sourced solutions. The platform connects to businesses and creative professionals from all over the world. Creative providers build designs and collaterals that help businesses get closer to their customers.

The firm serves global giants like Bosch and is targeting $2 million in revenues from its overall operations in FY14. With around 19 people on board, it is now looking to ramp up the team by hiring more people for sales and marketing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Jade Magnet had raised $200,000 in angel funding in October 2009 from Muki Regunathan, founder of the Bangalore-based digital agency Pepper Square. In 2011, it raised a second angel round of $100,000 from Eric Papcun, a US-based technology professional.

Design crowdsourcing is not a niche space and quite a few design contest sites are operating in India, including 99designs and Australia-headquartered DesignCrowd (which has recently forayed into the country). However, no firms are currently operating in the managed crowdsourcing space, which may provide some competitive advantage to Jade, post its pivot.

Source: Techcircle.in