Web18, the Internet company from Network18, has begun moving some of its properties to the domain In.com - starting with its entertainment portal Buzz18 and e-commerce portal StoreGuru. Buzz18 is now hosted at buzz18.in.com, while StoreGuru has been moved to the domain http://shop.in.com/ and rebranded. Apart from these, In.com has also integrated Live TV, with mostly Network18 channels, and a podcast section. Web18s financials indicate a considerable increase in the companys spends over the last two quarters - with operating expenses of Rs. 18.5 Crores in the last quarter (operating loss of Rs. 5.59 crores), and Rs. 31.5 crores (operating loss of Rs. 13.5 crores) in the quarter before that; we believe much of this expenditure has been on In.com, which is Web18's biggest bet yet. Over the past month or so, we've noticed several instances of Adwords spends, TV advertisements and tie-ups with Network18 properties like Singh is Kinng and Bigg Boss, and more so, the company trying get users from across its channels to sign up for in.com; they've splashed advertisements asking users to sign up for In.com at MoneyControl, IBNLive, CricketNext and now Josh18. So is the company getting desperate to make a success of In.com? Rishi Khiani, COO of Web18 disagrees, saying that it isn't desperation, but means of acquiring users - "We were set aggressive targets by our management, and the entire process was in order to meet those targets, which we've now beaten." The integration of group sites into In.com will consolidate traffic, and…
