The online medium has become a great tool for market researchers to gauge the pulse of the market. INSIGHT presents before you 'The Online Researcher', a purely online market research competition. Ponder over the problem statement, design and float your survey, analyze the responses and send us your research reports.

Team size: Participants are to form teams of 2 members each.

The event shall be held in two stages. But there is no elimination after the first stage.

Stage 1 (Oct 1 – Oct 12)

1. The problem statement will be floated on Oct 1.

2. Based on the problem, the teams are supposed to design a survey. The teams can make the survey on any survey software.

3. When the teams register for the event, they will be asked to enter their survey links. The teams can make changes to the survey after registration until Oct 12.

4. The survey should ask the respondents for their:

   1) Name

   2) E-mail id

   3) Contact Number

   Some of the survey respondents will be randomly chosen and contacted to verify the authenticity of the survey. The personal information provided won't be disclosed or used for any other purpose. Any unfair practice detected will lead to disqualification.

5. The teams are to send their final surveys to us by 23:59:59, Oct 12. The final survey must be mailed in docx format to onlineresearcher@iimahd.ernet.in. The name of the file should be the same as the team name. Any team editing their surveys after this will be disqualified.

Stage 2 (Oct 12 – Oct 20)

1. On Oct 12, the teams can float their surveys.

2. The teams are supposed to get a minimum of 50 responses for their survey.

3. Based on the responses received, the teams should come up with a market research report.

4. The final submission includes the research report and the survey responses collected. The last day for this submission is 23:59:59, Oct 20. All submissions must be mailed to onlineresearcher@iimahd.ernet.in with the file names as TeamName_report.docx (for the report) and TeamName_responses.xlsx (for the responses).

Social networking sites have created a huge difference to the way the world communicates. That the social networking sites were instrumental in the spread of popular uprisings in many countries recently is a testimony to the power of the medium. With some of the most popular sites like Facebook, LinkedIn etc generating profits and receiving very high valuations, these sites are now considered a great business opportunity.

Across the globe, social networking sites operate under different revenue models. Most of them rely on advertising as their major source of revenue. Marketers have found social media an effective and cheap alternative to grab eyeballs. Not just the smaller players, but the major firms are increasingly accepting social networking sites as an important component of their marketing spending. Another interesting business model which has been hugely successful in China, Japan and Korea is based on the sale of virtual goods and value added services (VAS). Many of these social networking sites have integrated games, gifts and other services and have attained more profitability than the sites following the advertising model. There are other social networking sites like LinkedIn which earns a major chunk of their revenue from the services offered.

India is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for social networking sites. To get an idea of the size of the Indian social networking space, Facebook, the most popular presence in the India social networking media space attained 25 million users recently. Apart from Facebook, the other major players include Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. There are also Indian social networking sites like Bharatstudent, Fropper, Ibibo etc. A look at the Indian social networking space clearly shows that the most popular sites are all established global players. It would not be an overstatement if we say that the Indian counterparts have failed to make an impact comparatively.

The problem statement for the event is:

Given the huge market for social networking in India and the dominance of global players in the Indian social networking sphere, is there a market opportunity for an Indian social networking site?

Some of the factors that the teams can consider are:

• If there is a market opportunity, should the site cater to any particular category of users (as in the case of Bharatstudent.com)? If yes, who should it target?

• What would be the best business model for the site?

• What should be the differentiating factor for the site? (This could include the features offered, appearance etc.)

• Can the social networking site leverage the mobile phone revolution in India?

The above questions are just a guideline and the participants are expected to consider more aspects to effectively answer the problem.