MUMBAI: Rediff.com India Ltd recorded a 53 per cent jump in revenues to $4.2 million for the first fiscal quarter ended 30 June 2005, as compared to $2.7 million over a year ago. This was led by growth in revenues from India Online, which comprised online advertising and fee-based services.
Rediff’s India Online earnings increased by 114 per cent to $2.7 million, compared to $1.3 million during this period. Online advertising and mobile services primarily drove this growth, the company said in a release.
Revenues from US publishing, comprising India Abroad and Rediff USA online, increased by 3 per cent to $1.53 million.
Gross margins increased to 68 per cent, up by 54 per cent. Operating expenses rose 40 per cent to $2.7 million, primarily due to higher advertising and product development costs.
Net income for the quarter was $53,000, compared to a net loss of $506,000 for the corresponding quarter ended June 30, 2004.
Registered users grew to 37.5 million as of June 30, 2005, a 19 per cent increase over the number of registered users a year ago. Rediff.com launched a range of new products and services for its users in India and overseas including a beta version of “Newshound”, which delivers news headlines from approximately 700 news sources and is updated every five minutes. An auctions site for its shopping customers was also launched.
Rediff.com launched for commercial use its VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) Instant Messenger, which can work on low bandwidth connections and allows users to send an SMS to a mobile phone and to create personalised “avatars” while chatting.
“We will continue focusing on product innovation as part of our core strategy. “We believe that our current range of products will allow us to attract consumers from both India and abroad,” said Rediff.com India Ltd chairman and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan.