One of the features that we have assigned priority one is Flash Games, yes! soon you will not only be able to play flash games but you will also be able to add new ones and see how much others enjoy them. Everyone loves spending time on these addictive low graphic games, especially in Farsi we really don’t have a Persian site that provides such games, soon that will change, the beta will only be a selection of 300 games while we prepare the ability for users to also upload games.

Geo-tagging is becoming quite important for videos, soon you will easily be able to mention the Country/City which the video was originated from. Aggregating content is always a good idea, it helps search engines give better result to the user and that is what we want make sure we do: Give you the result you are looking for, Geo-tagging is one step towards this.

OK, I do not want to overwhelm you with information, but there is something I’d like to point out about Kalam

Kalam is always looking for videos from inside Iran, we appreciate users who spend time to take videos and place them on the site and as probably many of you know we do take very good care of our users, We always have an eye open for high potential amateur video makers and help them grow, so if you like making films and would like others to see them while you make a buck, Kalam is here to help you out.

Before I start listing the differences I would like to round up all I am going to say in one sentence:
We see YouTube as a huge ocean, it can be dirty, it can be hard to control, and it can be too huge! … Kalam is not and does not want to be an ocean, we are more like a Swimming Pool; we are clean, we are controlled (I will explain this), and we target the Middle East (for now at least).

Kalam has less users

So how is this good? Its good because we build communities, we promote our users, we create a social networking area for everyone to get to know one another, it is just more friendly, when someone puts up a comment in Kalam there is a high chance of you knowing that person, or after reading a few of his/her comments you will remember them. This is a beautiful thing which YouTube lacks. The chances of you seeing a user put a comment and ever seeing that user again is close to 0.

Kalam is segregated between different languages

This is a wonderful way to keep people with the same cultures, same mind sets, same backgrounds together. Unlike YouTube which uses the universal English language in displaying its videos and targets viewers from all over the world to view, Kalam allows users to come to an environment created exactly for people of the same culture. This has its advantages; let me explain more using an example: Once Iranian new year (Nowrooz) is close, how great would it be for an Iranian to see the background of the website turn into something related, how wonderful would it be to see videos related to Nowrooz, Competitions related to Nowrooz, people commenting and video blogging their childhood stories of Nowrooz … just talking about it gets me excited to see such a community.

Events and Competitions

Kalam will be hosting events and competitions regularly, there is always a chance to win items such as cameras, mobile phones, laptops, and in some cases cash prizes.

Chat

The chat feature allows friends to stay connected, send each other videos they like and really create an environment for people to interact with eachother in real time.

Marketplace

Now this feature I can promise you will not find in any other website, this is a place where some users or companies can count on for making money all the time. Again I am guessing an example would be the best explanation: Imagine a TV Station is looking for a documentary about the Caspian Sea, they request what they need in the marketplace, assign a deadline, and mention how much the user will receive as payment. Users then can apply for the marketplace, the owner will choose one of the users based on looking at their channel and viewing some of their previous work, the ratings the user has gotten in previous work … and the work begins.

——————

I am sure there are so many more differences that can be pointed out but these are really the key differences, I hope this has convinced you to see Kalam as Kalam and not just as another YouTube.

Like always I end with a video from Kalam, this is a video of singer named Hamid Talebzadeh, preferably listen to the music rather than looking at the poorly made clip, enjoy.

What have I learned? I have learned that detail does matter, a small change can be a large factor of success or failure, moving a box from the right side of the screen to the left can manipulate all the numbers, but again this is the beauty of online. Everything you do will reflect instantly; a good example would be Kalam Arabic. Recently we decided to add a box to our highly successful Al Aab Flash Game Website, the box would be a showcase of the top 4 featured Kalam Arabic videos, the results came in, and it was a major success, 35% click-through ratio! The numbers tripled the next day, That month Kalam Arabic had almost 200% growth, and it was done with not a penny spent.

This is a wonderful case study, so next time before you spend thousands of dollars placing your ad on an irrilavent website, don’t expect more than 1-3% click-through. Users are smart, as appealing as your flash banner is, it is only eye candy, getting the user to click is another story, try to be dynamic, try to understand the needs of the users of that SPECIFIC website and feed the ad with what they are looking for, a general advertising banner that is placed on all types of websites will target all and target no one, basically you are spending so spend right, be attractive, be unique, and most importantly MEET DEMANDS.

I end today with another Kalam Video, this time coming from the music category, hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did, just press the play button, close your eyes and relax, I present to you Mohsen Namjoo and Golshifteh Farahani:

I know at the moment it seems to be quite simple, give it a few weeks I promise to fill it up with more posts, images, and some extra sections.

By the way, do check out the new Kalam website I am personally very happy with it, of course like any other portal there are always new features that can make it more complete, but the good thing about this new website is that we can actually work on adding features rather than constantly finding bugs and trying to fix them. Please send me feedback regarding both websites.

I finish the first post with one of the more successful and funny videos of Kalam Farsi made by the highly talented Ardeshir: