Ideacts Innovations has announced that the company had received $5 Million in funding from Sequoia Capital; There’s a mention of the funding having taken place in November 2007, but they’ve only just announced it. The company has also launched a desktop application called CLINCK targeting cybercafes, which, according to the company, provides access to Internet applications - Internet Explorer, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, Windows Live Messenger etc, while monetizing the application with advertisements on the side.

To put it simply, CLINCKS appears to be the application that powers the access to Internet services at Cafes, serving as the desktop for Internet access users. While at first sight, it might appear that there is no real need for such an application, the opportunity is there perhaps for the cybercafe owners to earn some additional income by getting a revenue share from the advertisements. (note: we haven’t confirmed this with Ideacts yet. Will update).

CLINCK has, as per the release, already showcased over 75 Brand Campaigns for advertisers like Cadbury, Perfetti, Naukri, MakeMyTrip, Dell, Yahoo, Guruji, Radio Mirchi, Lenovo, eBay, etc. According to the release, around 36 percent of Internet access in India is via Cybercafes.

However, one worrying factor is this very dependency on Cybercafes - if the Cybercafe market is going to grow at a fairly small pace - of just 8 percent per year, it will essentially cap the opportunity for CLINCKS. Ideacts will have focus on adding to its product portfolio, and another revenue stream. At present, however, they’re focusing on expanding beyond their existing market of 8 cities - Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, into B & C tier cities.

Ideacts was founded in March 2007 by Rudrajeet Desai, Maninder Gill and Saurabh Khullar (details here). R. Ramaraj and Mohit Bhatnagar from Sequoia have joined the companys Board of Directors. Interestingly, serial entrepreneur Alok Kejriwal is a part of the companys board of advisors.

Update: The opportunity for ideacts lies, in my opinion, in powering kiosks, particularly the rural kiosks being set up by the Indian government. However, its anybodys guess about when those will be implemented.

Advertising, Advertising Networks, Funds, Internet, Investment, Sequoia Capital India, Venture Capital
Tags: Advertising, Alok Kejriwal, clinck, cybercafe, desktop application, Ideacts Innovation, Investment, maninder gill, Mohit Bhatnagar, R.Ramaraj, rudrajeet desai, saurabh khullar, Sequoia Capital, Venture Capital

1. Interesting idea , the value proposition for Cyber cafe folk is not the Advertisement but the help in manging the Billing ,identity , Hours Log etc .
   they might be having a Interface line the one you see in Reliance Web World .

   they can also expand in to home ISP client also ..CalTiger did it last boom .
   problem is of privacy and context . when 20 user log on from same desktop everyday how will they to profiling and context setting for Ad Placement ?
   it will be interesting to see there execution

   Posted by Prashant Singh | July 2, 2008, 3:56 pm

2. “its anybodys guess about when those will be implemented.”

   they are being implemented as i type ..Comat is one such company who is doing it in KArnatka . Very interesting work they are doing

   Posted by Prashant Singh | July 2, 2008, 3:58 pm

3. hey prashant - are they piloting, or is this a full scale deployment? lots of people have spoken about piloting, but the returns on scaling is the issue.

   if you could connect me with them, would be interested in talking to them about their business.

   Posted by Nikhil Pahwa | July 2, 2008, 9:46 pm

4. some more stupid money!(why is have to be sequioa all the time!).Who runs that ship?

   Just dont get it. First Ozone - video ad network(what about Jivox,etc). hardly a defined markets space or any hint of it unlike payments on mobile which seems to be buzzing.

   Now some cyber cafe play.. I have it on good authority that cyber cafes are losing value propositons per se (like starbucks and barista!).The basic plain vanilla services revenue is hardly enuf, against the footfalls.So where is the play for more apps on desktop. Too much cluter anyway in browser of cybercafes.

   This has got funded on some plain old IMRB type market assessment for out of home internet usage stats - which IMRB has been talking up since 1999!

   Not happened, and expected to happen.

   Why ?

   because the internet cloud is coming to a theatre near you - your mobile phone!

   Posted by gautamkumar | July 3, 2008, 11:08 am

5. Prashant: there are user logins so profiling is not an issue.
   GK: dont rule out the role of the Internet…remember, it’s all going to be IP based :)

   Posted by Nikhil Pahwa | July 3, 2008, 11:48 am

6. I don’t think it will be contextual. There won’t be good response for non contextual media.

   Posted by Sudheer Dayanand | July 11, 2008, 11:22 pm

7. The worst problem that anyone can guess is that.. this Clinck totally removes the conventional desktop. Such a new interface, which is not in the usual habit of users, would make them really uncomfortable. You can’t even refresh this new ‘desktop’ or even click on it, otherwise it will unintentionally open some link of an advertisement. The cafe owners just go for it because of some ‘extra’ money but they don’t understand that this will seriously affect their own service.

   Posted by parvesh nehra | July 23, 2008, 9:46 pm

8. I DOwnloaded this interface…
   It eats a lot of RAM, more than internet explorer, slowing down the system..
   The desktop itself is very unfamiliar.. and a lot of mess with Ads. I cant directly access my desktop files and other icons.. which is the very first purpose of a windows desktop.
   Unless they improve the application.. cafe owners will have to think twice. They can give an option to minimize/maximize this new destop with an attractive icon on the desktop.

   Posted by parvesh nehra | July 23, 2008, 9:54 pm

9. I am a regular at a cafe where clink was installed recently. In my opinion is solves a lot of the problems for people using internet cafes. In an internet cafe the desktop is so messed up and ever changing that finding shortcuts can be a task item. With this product atleast it’s more organized.

   Posted by Ranvir Bang | August 2, 2008, 7:49 pm