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Tag: India.com

  • Bikash Kundu transitions to JioStar as head of agency partnerships

    Bikash Kundu transitions to JioStar as head of agency partnerships

    MUMBAI: Bikash Kundu has moved on to JioStar as the  head of agency partnership, effective January 2025, from Viacom18 Media, following its merger with Star India. 

    Kundu held senior leadership positions at Viacom18 Media, where he spent 17 years. Most recently, he served as the senior vice president & head of revenue (regional entertainment), overseeing revenue operations for 14 regional channels across six languages. He also previously led sales and syndication for Viacom18’s kids cluster.

    With over 23 years of diverse experience in the media and entertainment industry, Kundu has  a wealth of expertise across broadcasting, digital, print, and advertising domains.

    Kundu’s extensive career spans reputed organisations such as Sahara One Media, UTV-Disney, Satyam Infoway, India.com, and Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd. His professional journey has covered various stages of business growth, including startups, steady-state enterprises, hyper-growth phases, and mergers and acquisitions.

    Known for his strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities, and adaptability, Kundu is highly regarded as a leader who builds and mentors high-performance teams. His innovative approach and unwavering commitment to integrity have defined his career trajectory.

    Kundu is a postgraduate in marketing management from the Times School of Marketing and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Delhi University.

  • IndiaDotcom Digital ropes in Nirmal Shah as revenue head

    IndiaDotcom Digital ropes in Nirmal Shah as revenue head

    MUMBAI: Zee Media offshoot IndiaDotcom Digital has roped in Nirmal Shah as its revenue head – digital. IndiaDotcom – (formerly Zee Digital) has around 34 digital properties as part of its portfolio. Shah will be responsible for the revenues of ZeeNews.com, Dnaindia.com, Techlusive, India.com, Bollywoodlife, and Healthsite.com. 

    Shah has around a score of years of experience on his CV. His last posting was as sales head of FanCode where he worked on  selling sponsorships and ad sales across a bouquet of sports.

    Prior to that he was employed at SonyLiv for five years as national sales head. His other stints were at Network18 Mobile, Sify  Technologies, Hindustan Times.com, and CIOL.com.

     

  • ZEEL consolidates digital biz, buys remainder in India Webportal for Rs 1.97 bn

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) will be acquiring the remainder 49 per cent equity stake in India Webportal Pvt Ltd Rs 1.97 billion to consolidate the digital business. India Webportal distributes media content on digital platforms through websites such as Bollywoodlife.com, India.com, and Cricketcountry.com.

    The company will also be acquiring 12.5 per cent stake in Tagos Design Innovations for Rs 160 million, PTI reported.

    ZEEL said in a BSE filing: “In line with the strategy to consolidate digital businesses, the Board of Directors of the company…approved acquisition of balance 49 per cent equity stake in India Webportal, a 51 per cent subsidiary of the company.”

    Zee agreed to buy the 49% holding from existing investors Ashok Kurien (5%) and MMC Investments (44%).

  • India.com inks multi-year partnership with Outbrain

    India.com inks multi-year partnership with Outbrain

    MUMBAI: India.com and Outbrain have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership. 

    The deal will empower the media company and its properties – including Zeenews.com, dnaindia.com, Bollywoodlife.com, Cricketcountry.com, OnCars.in,Prepsure.com, BGR.in, Careerfundas.com, TheHealthSite.com, Travel.india.com and Video.india.com – to fully leverage the Outbrain guided personalisation platform. 

    The platform will empower India.com to manage content recommendations, maximise monetisation of their audience to other content publishers, drive increased audience engagement, and provide key insights and analytics about their core digital users.

    India.com has also confirmed their plans to implement Outbrain’s recently launched product, Native In-Feed. The product, announced last month, allows publishers including India.com for the first time to use the Outbrain platform to serve native, in-stream advertising. Through Native In-Feed, Outbrain partners will now be able to sell their own campaigns and use Outbrain’s UI and tools to seamlessly deliver these campaigns to their audiences.

    India.com COO Sandeep Amar said, “We are really happy to partner with Outbrain, and use their technology and products to makes sure our users and advertisers get benefits from it. We are confident they will deliver the highest quality recommendations and best monetisation options for India.com. We look forward to bringing the Outbrain solutions to our advertising partners in India.”

    Outbrain GM SEA and India Gulshan Verma added, “Over the last few months, we’ve increasingly observed publishers integrating their services into their sales platforms, allowing for more native placements. Previously, most of the Outbrain content was contained in a widget at the bottom of the page but, by working with the publisher’s direct sales teams, we have now started serving content in premium locations like the right rails, homepages, mobile pages, thus providing better customer experience for the reader and monetisation opportunities for publishers in India.”

  • India.com launches in true Bollywood style, the new online destination for everything Indian

    India.com launches in true Bollywood style, the new online destination for everything Indian

    MUMBAI: India.com, a Zee Entertainment initiative, launched in the United States with a big Bollywood fanfare at the 33rd annual India Day Parade in New York City. The parade which is the largest gathering of the Indian community outside India, had more than 150,000 footfalls.

    India.com built a 70ft replica of the Red Fort, aka “Lal Qila”. The Red Fort is the 255-acre complex in New Delhi built in the 17th century by Mogul emperor Shah Jahan, who also built the Taj Mahal. Every 15 August on Independence Day, the Red Fort is the chosen location where the Prime Minister of India hoists the country’s flag and delivers a national speech from its ramparts to a loud and proud crowd.

    Inside the fort, a royal red carpet welcomed the enthusiastic crowd and invited them to sign up for a new @india.com email ID. There were more than 40 Macintosh computers laid out on a glass table. The inside walls of the fort were decorated with images that defined India.com. After registration, people went home with fun India.com freebies.

    India.com is a new online platform for everything Indian in an instant – from breaking news, business, and Bollywood to sports, travel and free classifieds. The website combines these one-of-a-kind features with an e-mail portal that will keep you connected. India.com launched in India back in 2011 and has since gained 28 million unique users making it one of the fastest growing portals.

    Other highlights of the parade included marching bands, over 40 floats, 100 food vendors, and the presence of famous Bollywood actress Vidya Balan and anti-graft crusader, Anna Hazare.

    Zee America GM Sameer Targe said, “The timing of our launch in North America could not have been any better. India Day Parade, which celebrates India’s Independence Day, by any measure, is the biggest, most vibrant south Asian event that happens on the east coast. We had a tremendous response for the site. India.com is customised for the south Asian diaspora and the Indophile segment. It was about time someone catered to the real needs of the Indian-American digital consumer.”