May
No. This is not a post that will try and analyze who Fake IPL Player is. My post is about what Fake IPL Player (FIP) has done, what FIP has stirred, and what this means.
For those who don’t yet know, Fake IPL Player is a blog that is describing the scenes inside the Kolkata Knight Riders’ dressing room. The FIP blog has become a huge hit in India especially (92% of the viewership comes from India). It managed to get a traffic rank of around 10000 all over the world (and 261 now in India in terms of viewership). (For reference, google.com is Numero Uno). Around 0.02% of the world internet users have read the FIP blog. All in a matter of a few weeks.
Now, when I first heard of FIP (by word of mouth), I thought : Big Deal. So what if there’s someone who is writing about what’s happening inside the meetings of KKR. At most it would be some technical description of how a meeting is and all that stuff. But one look at the blog and I was taken aback. Yes it also showed what’s happening in meetings, but it was just the way it was written, which was great. And that showed some great learning lessons for a wannabe blogger: First, you need to have something worthwhile to talk about, and second, you should put it across in a way which would be enjoyable to readers. And most importantly, you need to post consistently, irrespective of your other commitments.
The FIP blog now has 4,30,891 sites linking people to this blog (thank you Alexa.com for that information). Now that’s BIG. Especially because it’s been a really short interval of time. And the blog’s got 7000+ people registered it under Google Friend Connect. And I think this is one of the biggest things about what FIP is doing. FIP has opened a completely new way of getting information for many readers in India. It’s what makes readers feel really democratic about things around them. Because things are no longer behind the scenes. There are answers to every question. And isn’t that what a democracy needs?
The FIP blog not only puts people under the scanner, but also listens to the comments that people put in, and replies to them in every new post. The blog puts up polls so FIP can get to know what people really want. Talk about being interactive.
Another great thing about FIP is the consistency in treating what happens in ONE SINGLE CONSISTENT fashion. FIP is not a hate blog where someone is trying to vent out frustrations, or like many other media, trying to make money out of cheap news. It’s a real life blog. FIP has given everyone involved what they truly deserve. FIP shows great respect for Sourav Ganguly, who’s kept himself out of purposely getting into direct controversies in this IPL. While FIP was anti Brendon Mccullum in his first few posts, he takes back his words and shows great respect to him for his attitude as a captain. He has also put people in their places. Shah Rukh Khan is best known for his acting in Bollywood, and not handling a cricket team. Last IPL, he had promised that he would bring in the entertainment part of KKR, and not the business part. But he didn’t stick to that, and he’s got his due credit on FIP. So FIP’s given everyone what they truly deserve based on their actions.
Now why this suddenly becomes important, is because an FIP is what we need – everywhere. FIP is like a whistle blower. FIP is what rewards people who do good, and brings the others down to the street. An FIP also brings out the power of masses. FIP is one of the first times when so many Indians have actually got equal information at the same time in no twisted fashion all across. FIP is what has been able to successfully reach out to the long tail of Indian cricket fans. And when you are able to reach out the long tail of any market segment, you leave no space for your product (in this case, the people he talks about) to have any inconsistencies. So no one would dare do anything stupid, and they think before they act. Hopefully we will see many more FIPs coming out – not in cricket, I mean in more relevant places where they are needed. FIP’s shown BJP singlehandedly that online campaigns can actually work!
FIP is definitely controversial. Whether FIP actually helps is debatable. And I hope to look at FIP from the negative aspect of it in my next post.
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10 Responses to “Everything about Fake IPL Player – Part 1”
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The negative side is also very much there. It means that there is no privacy and anything for a group can be shared across the world. Will wait for your next part.
Yes, it is completely true that a good online marketing plan can do wonders. Though I think FIP might be more of an experiment blown out of proportions by the bandwagon effect of India similar to the milliondollarpage we had a few years ago.
The article gives an impression that FIP is a superman, which FIP clearly isn’t! Will wait for the negative aspects eagerly on this one…
Also, perhaps FIP is venting his own frustrations/ aspirations to take revenge with someone through the blog. Eg. Sreesanth – I feel Sreesanth has a good side to him too – I loved it when Sree whirled his bat in the air in South africa against Nel for instance
Yes – there is a negative side to it. I just don’t want to mix that with the advantages of an FIP.
@Siddhesh – FIP is not taking revenge with Sreesanth. Why would he? How are they connected? Sreesanth surely has an attitude problem, and he is definitely immature. As I said, this puts him in his place. Incidentally, Sreesanth does best when he directs his energy towards cricket rather than other things. When he did that we beat Pakistan in the T20 league match.
The post seems logical, but there is one fundamental that I feel is being missed.
India loves gossip. Period. If it wasn’t the case, the saas-bahu serials (an apt replacement) would have not been so popular. There is ample bitching. Thats why its cool. Saas-bahu is the same.
I remember a line from “Making the Minister Smile” – the sequel to the inscrutable Americans – in which he describes India thus “Each Indian spends half his time peeping into the neighbors window. The person doesn’t notice because he himself is viewing his other neighbor through the latters window”
Nice one Atul. But I must say, I agree with Sunil. More than an insider’s story, people (atleast most of them who post their comments on the FIP blog) seem to be interested in the gossip. And gossips about things that are widely acclaimed and lesser known about run around fast.
Imagine we start a blog on one of the IIMs, wont it attract the same readership??
Haan, it is great that the FIP has constantly maintained his blog. It now some how seems like a realty show to me. I do refresh the site before and after every match of KKR to get some info.
will wait for your second post..
One quick query Atul: What makes you think anything the FIP is coming up with is reliable? Could be he just be pandering to what we were thinking anyway?
And I don’t think he is whistle blowing, Deep Throat was Whistle blowing, the Gaurdian expose on British MP’s rents was whistle blowing, this is just exposing private information. Every team has these meetings, these fights, every professional team in the world, including the Indian National Cricket team. FIP is just exposing stuff we know has to be there, is no news but for the sensationalism, and adding nothing in my opinion to the knowledge of the public.
It is this undercover that British media started getting sensationalized, to the extent where now they have to make ‘exclusive’ news, just to sell.
Sriram, FIP is reliable in his information, because each time he has posted before the match about who’s going to play and who will be dropped. its come true. There are many similar examples you might see if you see his posts.
I agree that there are negatives in what FIP does – it is whistle blowing according to me, because he has shown us the other side of everyone around – Yuvraj Singh laughing at his own team mates, Sreesanth’s supposed immaturity (which sort of regenerated him to start trying to perform better, which he did). Further, if you look at it from the criceter’s perspective, he knows that the team owners cannot take them for a ride, now that their own brand is itself under vigilance by such people.
Whistleblowing is often considered “sensational” to people. Whistle blowing itself is controversial!