Simply, it has the mass-appeal which is seen only in things like Cricket, Bollywood or Amitabh Bachchan in India. All age groups, all income groups in all cities and towns in India are forwarding these Jokes, quotes, greetings etc. to their friends and relatives. SMS Forwarding is a way to connect with their friends and also a source of entertainment.

We feel that Youtubes and Flickrs of the world can not be communities (not yet) where majority of Indians will flock online. India doesn’t have high broadband penetration, people don’t have fancy digicams, GPRS users are few and far between (though rising) and even today a lot of Internet surfing is done from cybercafes.

We realized that we needed a community that all Indians can relate to, a community that can provide content with the connectivity and reliability of SMSes, along with a rich and fun experience that Internet on a big screen can provide.

And that is just a bit of the immense thought process and deep market research that has gone behind Vakow! I’m serious.

PS 1: Now that the day zero hysteria is over and people have had their iced teas and teachers and have woken up in the morning to realize that users have continued to grow steadily, it’s time to get to work.

PS 2: Hearty thanks to Ashish S (who called us a Cool SMS Forward engine) and Ashish S (who thinks that we have mass appeal and reflect good thinking) for their awesome blog entries.