What is the budget required to start a new "SOCIAL NETWORKING" site like Linkedin?
Hello everyone,
I am planning to have a social networking portal and have some unique ideas. I want to know from you is:
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1> What is things necessary to consider such as technology, legal etc. to start such portal in India?
2> How much budget I should have at the beginning and for maintenance for at least a year?
3> Other factors if any?
Thanks in Advance.
Answers (7)
FRANK F
—►CEO NorthStar —►Strategic Futurist ex-Banker = "A Future You Can Bank On!" —►Keynote Speaker
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You can start one for free on Ning.com
but maybe its features won't meet your
requirements.
But to start a site like this you will need
a few million dollars, I suspect.
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Dear YK!
Linked is a very extended social platform. If you strongly feel about your social site ideas, it could be very cheaply started to then possibly expand, re-engineer and update as your community grows.
There are many very good web development companies in India. Start with manageable content management system like Joomla (free) connect JomSocial (150$) or Community builder CB (free) and you will have a mini version of the social site.
It would be up to you though to keep it grow...
Cheers.
Links:
Randall G
Web Developer and Project Manager at netsperience
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I would encourage beginning with Drupal rather than Joomla. In my experience Drupal is more secure, more configurable and more easily extensible, faster and creates cleaner more standards-compliant code.
That said, I do not think you will find any platform that mimics all the specific LinkedIn functions out of the box. It will take a considerable amount of customization.
My quote would probably begin around $15K but could be much more depending on specifics.
Or you can post it on guru.com or getafreelancer and find someone to do it for $500 (caveat emptor - you often get exactly what you pay for)
I can, however, recommend Dong Le who is an accomplished Drupal and PHP developer, and can afford to charge avery low fee because of his location.
@Frank - your exhortation to close questions is much longer than your actual answer - I wonder if it is self-serving, to increase your ratio of "best answers" - and all that ascii art makes it look like the kind of Craigslist posts we providers avoid - I actually asked 2 questions I never closed because I did not receive a single satisfactory answer.
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Betsy G
LAMP/RIA Engineer
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I would start with software that is intended for Social Networking, instead of a CMS like Drupal or Joomla. The money you save using free software may be consumed by engineering to customize it. There are many excellent social networking packages.
As Frank mentioned, ning.com is a good solution.
For legal advice, I'd start by checking a few existing sites in India to see what types of features they offer, read the terms of use and privacy pages carefully, and, if you have any concerns, consult with a legal professional.
There is no way to estimate the budget until you describe the requirements and get estimates for the project.
I'd recommend a phased approach, with a basic, core set of features at the beginning, based on a mature (not version 1.0.3) product that has a robust framework and can be extended. That way, as your membership grows, you can add features in response to feedback from them, and it will greatly reduce the initial cost of development.
Since a lot of the value of a social network is the member data, be sure you own it - regardless of the solution you choose.
Finally, it is really important to market the social network to gain members. Look for opportunities to let people know about it.
Good luck.
Ashwin B
Business Development Manager at Viscus Infotech, www.vinfotech.com ashwin@vinfotech.com
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (1), Web Development (1)
Hello YK,
Well going with open social software are good enough until it meet all your requirements. Whereas, if your requirement doesn't meet the open social modules (which is freely available in the market you need to only customize it) then there is no other open to build your concept from scratch.
You need to divide the whole project into 3 phases:
(a) Design Phase: Complete all the design layout and convert it into HTML/CSS. This will give you a basic idea about how your final social networking website will look a like and their functionality.
(b) Basic Development Phase: Here you can start the basic development which is very much necessary for running the website so that you can get the place in market and attract the financier for the further expansion of the website.
(C) Expansion Phase: Once you will get some register member from the basic website and get the good financier then further expand for the fully functional website.
In due regard you will not find any difficulty on Budget side as well as you will also get the time to think your website business plan which can be implemented during the expansion phase.
I hope the above mentioned information will certainly help you. If you need to know the phases wise design and development cost please do contact me and i will provide you the best price.
Also have a look at our social network portfolio at www.vinfotech.com/success-stories/social-networking-websites/index.html.
Cheers,
Ashwin
Abhinav S
Business Development Executive at Ideavate Solutions (abhinav.shrivastava@ideavate.com)
Hello YK,
The first thing that you need to make very clear right from the start is "Technology" and your selection of technology totally depends on the scope of your proposed website.
Though you have mentioned that you need a site like linkedin, but still it is pretty much open ended as linkedin it self is very vast website.
Open source tools such as Dolphin are good enough for websites with small scope but for website like linkedin you need to have development start from the scratch.
Having said all this I would recommend you to have a detailed specifications of your plan as a first step.
Assuming that your proposed website is as big as of linkedin, I guess you must have initial budget of at least around 5 lacs (India currency). Though the total cost for a website like linkedin will be even more than 5 lacs, but it is a good budget to start with.
Also I would like to mention here that one most critical part in website development is selection of right vendor. So be very clever in this part.
Here I would also like to introduce you to our company Ideavate Solutions. We are a Bureau Veritas Certified ISO 9001:2000 web development and software development Company; with more than five years of working experience.
Please visit us at http://www.ideavate.com and also have a look at our portfolio at http://www.ideavate.com/portfolio
Recently Ideavate also has been ranked 12th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India Listing andDeloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia-Pacific Listing for the year 2008.
We will be more than happy to assist you in your this initiative as your technology partner. If interested then please reach me at abhinav.shrivastava@ideavate.com
Feel free to reach me with your queries & concern.
Warm regards,
Abhinav Shrivastava
Business Development Executive | Ideavate Solutions
Tel: 732-654-9056 | www.ideavate.com
An ISO 9001:2000 Certified Company
Email: abhinav.shrivastava@ideavate.com
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