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Tag: Rediff.com

  • Rediff.com Q2 net profit up at $1.5 mn

    Rediff.com Q2 net profit up at $1.5 mn

    MUMBAI: Rediff.com has posted a net a income of $ 1.5 million, or 5.14 cents per ADS, for the second quarter ended 30 September 2006, up from $ 310,000, or 1.19 cents per ADS, a year ago.

    Revenues rose by $6.66 million, an increase of 53 per cent over revenues from the quarter ended 30 September 2005. While India contributed to online revenues that grew by 71 per cent to $4.71 million, as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

    US Publishing revenues for the second quarter increased by 23 per cent to $1.95 million compared to the revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2005, states an official release.

    Operating EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) increased to US $1.14 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2006 as compared to US $0.50 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.

    With revenues from the India Online advertising business growing by 94 per cent for the quarter ended 30 September, compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year, online advertising remains the primary growth driver for the company.

    There has also been a spike in the number of registered users on the site which has grown by 21 per cent to 47.7 million, over the number of registered users a year ago.

  • Online and mobile players go for the goal

    Online and mobile players go for the goal

    MUMBAI: With the biggest event in the global sporting calendar, the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, just four days away, web sites and mobile phone platforms have beefed up their football content to attract viewers and advertisers.

    For websites, it is an opportunity to attract Indian sports buffs and for advertisers it will be a classic opportunity to get their message across. According to estimates by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, for larger portals, the incremental jump in advertising revenues will be anywhere between 8 – 15 per cent.

    Internet use in India has grown exponentially since 2002, when the last World Cup tournament was held. In 2002, the number of internet users were about eight million as compared to today’s 38.5 million. Consumption of sports infotainment online too has grown significantly in the last four years in India.

    Yahoo! India director sales Pearl Uppal is upbeat about the prospects for the event. “We see high potential in online advertising for the soccer World Cup. Yahoo! is hosting the official site of the 2006 Fifa World Cup. Further, we expect an estimated 32 million unique users to consume over four billion pages of the 2006 official Fifa World Cup site. We see high engagement of our users with Yahoo! India Sports.”

    As an official Fifa World Cup partner, Yahoo! is bringing unique World Cup experience both online and on mobile. This will provide advertisers with a proposition and consistent platform with which to tap into audiences’ passion for football and the Fifa World Cup. Yahoo! is offering opportunities to advertisers to immerse the brand within an engaged content experience and to run innovative promotions on their online and mobile platforms.

    Rediff.com India Ltd chief media revenue officer Aravindra Kanwal said, “Traffic will be strong and we should see a 50 – 100 per cent spike (visitors to the web site) for some matches.”

    Rediff.com, besides having match schedules online, also has trivia related to the World Cup, a countdown to the beginning of the activity, full coverage of past tournaments, international and national and also an online football store to enable users to purchase their favourite football memorabilia. There is a Fifa World Cup 2006 Gaming Zone, which allows a user to participate in a game to test their memory and concentration.

    “Web sites are pulling out the stops to attract viewers and advertisers. At Rediff.com, editorial teams are working on different formats and plan to offer advertisers opportunities to integrate mobile and internet mediums with print, TV and radio. HT plans to create more than 100 pages of micro-sites promoted across the site,” said HT Media Ltd head sales and alliances Salil Kumar.

    Sify.com head of consumer channels Ajay Nambiar said, “Corporates are showing a very high degree of interest in the World Cup focused websites, knowing full well that the World Cup has captured the imagination of the youth in particular. Maruti Swift is one of the sponsors on Sify. Several other corporates are talking to us and Sify’s special section will see multiple advertisers and sponsors targetting the football fan.”

    The Sify World Cup special on the web site features videos of venues, teams, players, past tournaments and preparations, apart from news reports and features, off-beat stories, contests, best of blogs, interactives, video-based quizzes, etc. During the cup, live tickers, news reports, features, image galleries, audio commentary and videos will capture the excitement of the Cup.

    The 2006 football World Cup in Germany also represents an opportunity to promote 3G. However, according to a study ‘World Cup 2006: Scoring with mobile content and services’ published by research company Visiongain, it will be established content, such as text-based services that will generate the most significant revenue.

    The study found that the one-month long tournament will generate $6.35 billion in revenue, with text-based services and downloads, such as ring tones and logos, being the most significant.

    Gaming will also contribute to profits earned by World Cup related content. The industry will also look to generate revenue through interactive video messaging, video clips and even blogging services. The key revenue generators will be tried and tested text services, ring tones and logos. The content of the World Cup lends itself well to highlights clips, which operators have been busy purchasing the rights for, as well as mobile gambling.

    Airtel in India, thanks to it being a member of the Bridge Mobile Alliance and Mobile ESPN partnership, has been providing its users with a dedicated news section on the World Cup 2006 from 23 May to 9 July 2006. For example, ESPN Here We Go will provide the latest match insights from ESPN Star Sports presenters and football pundits as they bring match previews, predictions, analysis, previous day highlights and team news from the World Cup.

    SportsCenter will enable fans to keep track of the latest sports in action, around-the-world coverage on top sports stories, with special reports on the World Cup match updates, summaries and results. Other sports content service offerings available for download include Java games, wallpapers of popular football players and player tunes to name a few.

  • Zee TV launches a giant of a portal

    Zee TV launches a giant of a portal

    Zee Telefilms’ subsidiary E-Connect has launched its portal www.zeenext.com on 22 March 2000. The B-2-C and C-2-C portal covers everything from entertainment to business. The horizontal portal is going head to head in competition with most general Indian portals, including rediff.com, indiainfo.com, and satyamonline.com. It features more content than any other portal and is also involved in unique services like ‘Mobilenext’ which is a messaging tool connecting to about 260 mobile networks globally.

    ZeeNext boasts of having over 1,30,000 e-mail subscribers and over 1,000 Mobilenext downloads during the beta phase of the portal. The company is ready with broadband content which will be launched within a month and half. It is currently converting its entire programme library into streaming video.

    ZeeNext President Sunil Jasuja says it will expand its content by acquiring and purchasing content through strategic alliances with other portals and content providers. The company says the site has 128-bit encryption and hence has a high level of protection, which will serve it well in the case of e-commerce transactions. It is in the process of obtaining a security certification from VeriSign.

    On the company’s plans to attract surfers hooked to other popular portals such as rediff.com, satyamonline.com, etc, E-Connect President Sunil Jasuja says, “Zee is a brand which is trusted and which reaches 30 million people worldwide.”

    E-Connect will launch dial-up Internet access services in Mumbai on 26 March costing Rs 499 per month. Net-over-cable TV, which is to be launched soon will be priced at Rs 1,500 per month for unlimited access. The cable modems are currently priced at Rs 10,000. Jasuja is however optimistic about it matching the price of conventional telephone modems. This will increase the penetration of Cable-over-Internet services of E-Connect, which will be enabled through SitiCable.

    The company has invested Rs 250 million in the last three months of operations. E-Connect officials are confident of maintaining the budget of Rs 4 billion as decided earlier by the Zee management.

    The revenue model of E-Connect is a combination of access, advertising, direct e-commerce and e-commerce facilitation. The major chink of revenues would come through the Internet access services. E-commerce revenues would also be significant The company hopes to break-even within three years of its operations.

    The content and access mix of E-Connect will prove to be an advantage over many other Indian portals. It is likely to stand head and shoulders above most other portals in the broadband era thanks to its huge library of television software.

  • Yahoo! set to enter India

    Yahoo! set to enter India

    Yahoo! Inc is all set to set its foot in India. The portal had earlier announced its plans for creating a India-centric portal. It will commence its operations in India within three months. The Santa Clara based company is setting up offices in Bangalore and Mumbai.

    Yahoo!’s Indian model will be on the lines of Rediff.com and Indiainfo.com. The company has advertised in local newspapers to recruit technical and management professionals for its India operations.

    Rediff.com insiders have laid fears of the outgo of its senior, experienced and well-trained professionals and executives to Yahoo India. “The staff outgo to Yahoo! is a bigger threat than the portal itself” said a senior official at Rediff.com.

    Portals like Indiainfo.com, Rediff.com and Satyamonline.com will have to roll up their sleeves as the biggest international player is entering the Indian web space. In a recent report, Yahoo.com was the portal with the largest recall value. With all the resources, goodwill, popularity and the experience, Yahoo! is all set rule the portal market in India.