www.apnacircle.com

Q1. What made you initiate  Apnacircle.com?
This idea struck me in 2006, when Social Networking was becoming a rage in US and I was a witness to this growing industry. Later, I moved to India , I saw this opportunity of huge youth population and the need for a property which allowed our youth to connect and at the same time derive value out of it for their individual growth. Based on my observation, I researched and interestingly found out that the youth were rating their friends and career high. At that point of time there was no such platform that would have catered both the aspects. So, I developed a unique platform, ApnaCircle.com, which was a relevant platform and catered to both the aspects. Now, based on further feedback from our users, we have converted into a complete ‘business and career’ network. So, research and catering to what the consumer want is the key.
 
Q2.   What has been your business plan?
Within a short span of its inception, ApnaCircle merged with Viadeo, the leading professional networking site in Europe and Tianji in China , to form this new leading global entity which is in align with our Glo-cal strategy .Thus, our strategy is Globalisation along with Localisation. By saying glocal- I mean Apnacircle plans to spread across the Globe but at the same time our roots still intact in and for India .

We have proper business plan, a blue print in place. And I believe that Mergers and Acquisitions is the way to look forward. We are already over 30 million strong and second largest in the world after LinkedIn.
 
Q3.      How  is innovation of value in your business?
Innovation is bringing changes for businesses, both profit and nonprofit, like never before. Numerous driving forces to this change include a rapidly expanding market place, increasing competition and diversity among consumers. Through Innovation, value is created and delivered to a community of users in the form of a new solution. Similarly, in the area of networking we believed that business and career networking would create a niche for our users through which they can find successful careers for themselves. 

 
One of the biggest usages of professional networking site like ApnaCircle.com is for organizations in the area of recruitment. The reasons are twofold, on one hand we bring professional networking site as the only place where you have access to the professional bio-data of a potential candidate completely up to date. On the other hand, people who see a job opening would be able to recommend somebody from their network; that will create a reference for the recruiter about the quality of the candidate based on who is referring, which is a complete new concept.”
 
  Q4. Who is your target audience?
The site is for all those professionals who whether are looking for their very first job, switching careers,  re-entering the job market after an extended absence or believe in creating a substantial Brand for themselves by maintaining an Online Professional Profile. ApnaCircle.com bridges the gap and connects employers with employees, professionals with professionals and networks with networks within India as well as across the globe.

Going by the latest trends, it is specially the career networking sites that are emerging to help you in your job hunt. Networking is everything these days. The viral power of career networking sites is helping out professionals across the globe as well as in India . Today, employers are looking at creative and cost effective ways to recruit the best of the talents. And it is the career networking sites like ApnaCircle.com that attract career seekers from Generation Y to executive level.
 
  Q5. How are you unique in your field ?what makes you stand apart from your competitors?
ApnaCircle.com is India ’s first and leading Business and Career networking site.  You have Facebook, Orkut etc where you can network socially as they cater to your social needs. You have LinkedIn which is though a professional network but not like ApnaCircle, which is created keeping in mind the Career needs of Indian youth. It solves the local as well as global needs of professionals who whether are looking for their very first job, switching careers or re-entering the job market after an extended absence. It is not just for CEOs, CFOs or MNC openings; it is for every Indian who wants to locate opportunities within any local region as well.

ApnaCircle.com is one of the pioneers in the Business and career networking space, transforming professionals across the country and across the verticals.  Users can actively network, micro-blog and participate in the Q and A sessions with experts from across the continents. The site is crafted to provide a perfect professional network to you. It will help you widen your circle of contacts and make you more visible to industry professionals and experts.

Besides updating Resumes and Posting on portals networking plays a pivotal role when tapping opportunities. That’s why it is important for candidates to build a strong network of contacts. It is one’s business and career network that can provide support, relevant information and job opening. In today’s digital age, this is one of the most effective ways of marketing yourself as a brand. Networking creates an image of yours and builds a substantial BRAND of yours.
 
Q6 .   Any experience that made you grow as an entrepreneur?
There were no as such hard lessons but a great challenge was to innovate, differentiate and most importantly to solve a problem and fulfill the need for masses in a simple manner. The most important element was to find the right niche- to find the gaps in the market and come up with a unique, relevant and useful concept for the consumers which could fulfill their needs. 

This was tough, but getting more practical with the advancement of technology.   
 
Q7 .     How  has been your journey so far?
The journey so far has been tough, but interesting at the same time. In all these years I have faced ups and downs in my career. But overcoming all this, every entrepreneur has to believe in himself and must have the courage to keep progressing in the path one wants to proceed in. One has to create a team which believes in the same passion and values as you do. So did I.

Also, I made sure that I differentiate myself, by means of innovating, creating and adding value for customers.
 
Q8. Where does ApnaCircle stand today?
Today, ApnaCircle - Viadeo, is the second largest and leading global professional networking site in the world. ApnaCircle- Viadeo holds a global network of over 30 million users. The merger, acquisition and the integration has not only helped its members-both global and local to double their reach and widen their circle but also helped in increasing the growth rate of Apna Circle ’s network to 150 thousand users per month. 
  

Also, we have recently integrated with Twitter. This integration now allows the users of these sites to sync their ApnaCircle and Twitter accounts to ‘Share’ their status updates in real-time.The Twitter integration with ApnaCircle brings refreshing context to the professional profiles. The ability to Tweet directly to your ApnaCircle profile and vice-versa will bring along a good amount of fresh content and new traffic to both the sites.