Economic Times Launches Gujarati Website

BCCL (The Times of India Group) has launched the website for The Economic Times, Gujarati (ET Gujarati). The domain name ETGujarati.com redirects to the website, though it hasn’t been linked to from the main site EconomicTimes.com. There is no official announcement from ET on the Gujarati site, and perhaps it is still being tested. This follows the launch of the website for ET Hindi in August this year. ET has also put up a page for assisting users who aren’t able to view the font correctly.

The launch of the ET Gujarati website is a welcome development, particularly since Business Standard has stopped updating the website for its Gujarati financial daily, after the publication was shut down. The site doesn’t appear to have been updated since September 10th.

Remember that ET had launched a portfolio tracker earlier this month…I wonder if they intend to launch the same service in Hindi and Gujarati as well. A mobile version of the Hindi and Gujarati sites should also be in the offing. 

Meanwhile, according to a poll we took on Indic languages, most of the respondents feel that we will see mass adoption of Indic languages only after 2013. Hopefully, that shouldn’t deter the proliferation of Indic language content online. The poll is still open, so do cast your vote.

Related:
– Times of India Group To Lay Off Around 5% Staff Across Businesses
– Economic Times Launches Portfolio Manager - Equity, Real Estate, ESOPs 
– Rediff To Allow Users To “Communicate” In 22 Indic Languages
-– @ IGF: “Let Us Not Assume That Users Want Indian Languages” 
– Our Indic/Regional Language segment

Times of India Group To Lay Off Around 5% Staff Across Businesses

IMPORTANT UPDATE

While we enourage an healthy debate on the layoffs, please ensure that you don’t make any personal remarks against any individuals or slanderous remarks about the organization. We already have removed some comments, and may have to remove others. You may question certain policies and decisions, but please ensure that you don’t say anything slanderous. Please be civil.

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Original story: High level sources from Bennett, Coleman and Co, Ltd. (BCCL/Times of India Group) have indicated that the group plans to lay off approximately 5 percent of its staff. The layoffs will be across businesses, including print, radio, Television and Internet, and across functions - whether editorial, finance, marketing or IT. In case of print, Times of India alone employs around 1000 people, so around 45-50 will be laid off. Indiatimes also employs around 900 people. Since morning we’ve heard rumours of between 600-1500 in all being laid off…doesn’t appear to be as bad as rumoured.

The layoffs haven’t begun yet, but pink slips will be handed out soon. We haven’t been able to ascertain what kind of a deal they’ll be getting. 

From a digital media perspective, it’s important to note that both Times Internet Ltd (Indiatimes) and Times Business Solutions Ltd (TBSL) will be impacted. 

We have not been able to confirm whether BCCLs latest television initiative, Economic Times TV (ET-TV) will be put off due to high costs.

The Times of India group is the largest media house in India, with publications including the Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Mumbai Mirror, Maharashtra Times, Bangalore Mirror, radio channels Radio Mirchi, TV channels Zoom nd Times Now, and magazines including Femina and Filmfare. Their online portfolio includes Indiatimes, online remittance business Times of Money, and classifieds businesses Times Jobs, Simply Marry, Magic Bricks. Earlier this year, the Times Group had bought Virgin Radio, which was rebranded as Absolute Radio.

Update: More inputs coming in - from what we’re told, Times Business Solutions Ltd (TBSL), which employs over 1000 people, is among the worst hit by the downturn; there’s a list that’s been prepared for layoffs at Times Jobs, and the number is expected to be upwards of 150.

Economic Times Launches Portfolio Manager - Equity, Real Estate, ESOPs

The Economic Times has launched a portfolio manager powered by Rupeelog Financial Services, reports WATBlog. Frankly, I was quite impressed by the level of detail in the portfolio manager - which allows users to track investments in Equity, Mutual Funds, Real Estate, IPO and even ESOPs. In addition, there is a tax wizard as well, and I wonder if ET will monetize this by enabling tax filings, the way other online tax filing utilities have been doing. Another feature I liked is the ability to upload data directly from brokerages (ICICI Direct, Sharekhan, Reliance Money, Religare, Motilal Oswal, IDBI, Man Financial, etc)or an Excel sheet, hence saving users the trouble of individually importing data. 

While the attention to detail is laudable (you can even store contact details for your bank and/or brokers), the service does have a high barrier to entry because of the level of detail it requires. Take a look at the forms for IPOs or ESOPS. It’ll take a lot of effort for a user to add all his investment details online, but once he’s in, he’s likely to keep using it. Some features are just an eyewash - the “Generic Research” page leads you to the relevant news section at the Economic Times website, and there isn’t enough specific information yet. Take a look at the screenshot for Reliance Mutual Fund.  ET Portfolio competes with the likes of MoneyControl Portfolio Manager and Rediff MoneyWiz.

Disclosure: own shares of Network18, which owns MoneyControl

Indiatimes 58888 Launches MoCoLife Keywords

As much as we’ve been critical of MoCoLife’s choice of offering paid subscription services when there are free services around, credit should be given where it is due. MoCoLife has launched MoCo Keywords, which allows the general user to buy keywords on the short code 58888, albeit suffixed to the parent keyword MOCO.

Using the keywords, small businesses can run contests, share information with customers, and promote their company. For example, we could use set up a poll for MediaNama on the keyword: MOCO MN, asking you to vote by SMS’ing MOCO MN YES or MOCO MN NO. At the end of the day, we’ll be able to check MoCoLife for the votes, and announce the final results. Take a look at the tutorial, here.

However, all of this, as is the case with (MoCo) Life, comes at a price:

Indiatimes must be hoping that all the generic keywords like “PRINTERS”, “BILLS”, “TV” will be picked up, thereby guaranteeing them some revenue on an annual basis. MoCoLife subscribers were sent an SMS today, with the message -

“Share Ur space, Ur style, Ur thought, Ur life thru Mobile. Let the world know u by SMSing MoCo “Ur Name” to 58888. Get ur own MoCo Keyword on www.mocolife.com’

Makes me wonder how they’re positioning MoCoLife - as a consumer site or an enterprise sevices site. By the looks of it - both.

It still does appear to be a very interesting experiment with the 58888 short code, by making public a fixed price for short code keywords, and opening it up to everyone, not just enterprises. I wouldn’t be surpised if others companies follow suit.

P.s.: Do take a look at our list of Short Code Services page. Let us know about updates, if any.

Mohit Hira, Director-Marketing At Indiatimes, Puts In His Papers

After well over four months of will-he or won’t-he (see the comments to this post), Mohit Hira, Director (Marketing) has decided to quit Indiatimes (Times Internet Ltd). We’d heard about it yesterday at the IAMAI MVAS conference, and Afaqs has reported the same, albeit unconfirmed. 

Now our sources have told us he is leaving, saying that Hiras notice period ends this week. However, Hira has declined comment - neither a confirmation nor a denial. Other industry sources say that Hira’s move was never really in doubt - we had asked, repeatedly, over the past couple of months and both Hira and Indiatimes denied it. As one comment on this post put it, when we had reported on Sunil Rajshekhar joining as President and COO of Indiatimes - “What’s not reported is the resignation Vineet Jain is refusing to accept - one of their most valued people has put in papers over two months ago. it’s an open secret and they don’t know how to handle it.”

Hira joined the Times Group in 2003 from Contract Advertising, where he was Head of its Delhi and Kolkata ops. Aside of Indiatimes, in the Times Group, he has been the Brand Head for Times Foundation, Navbharat Times and The Economic Times, Delhi, as well as its Resident Editor for ET.

Indiatimes Launches QnA; Ties Up With OnYoMo For Local Search

Times Internet Ltd (Indiatimes), has launched an “answers” service, on the lines of Yahoo Answers, Google Answers (shut down in 2006), Rediff Q&A, ibibo Sawaal and a host of other similar services. This follows down the road to innovation (not!) charted previously by Indiatimes for the Digg-like service Hotklix.

Apart from this, Indiatimes has also tied up with startup OnYoMo, which is powering both a WAP service, and an SMS service.

Indiatimes has also launched an Ad RBT called AdRingles; we’ll have more on that tomorrow. I’m off for the Mobile VAS Conference, and we’ll try to update live from there.

Uphill Task For Indiatimes’ MoCoLife

Indiatimes’ MoCoLife is an attempt by the BCCL company to provide a host of mobile services under a second brand: remember that Indiatimes’ 58888 is a fairly established brand as well. Under MoCoLife, Indiatimes is providing SMS from Web to Mobile, Group Messaging, Subscriptions, Scheduled text messages, Text Reminders, and Gift a Ringtone; it’s a mix of free and subscription services. Afaqs reported it earlier today.

I think MoCoLife will struggle, because there are too many limitations and too many “Terms and Conditions”:
1. Some of their key content services are already being provided free of cost by others
Indiatimes clearly isn’t bold or foolhardy enough (take your pick) to offer for free, the same content that they otherwise charge for. Take a look at their content rates (Note: Rs. 150 for 500 credits and Rs. 500 for 2000 credits). Remember that MyToday offers the same content for free, and mobile operators also charge for the same services. Indiatimes will have to really push this service, and hope to target users who haven’t yet subscribed to MyToday.
2. Free isn’t Free enough
My sense, when I saw the site first a couple of weeks ago, was that they’re going to push the “FREE SMS from Web to Mobile” to drive signups, which is also being provided by 160by2. But the fine print: only 30 free SMS per month (max 5 per day). Even in these messages are limited to 80 characters, and the rest will be a footer advertisement.
3. Payment itself is a limiter
While Indiatimes does have Credit Card, NetBanking and Paymate as options for buying credit, payment itself is a limiter for usage. One needs to buy credits, and then pay for these services. Credits are also being given for free, but if every time you run out of credit, and you need to buy another subscription pack - will you go through the hassle?
4. Restricted (at present) to a userbase that uses both the Internet and the mobile
The solution to the second issue is simple - they need to create a mobile web interface for the service, and hope that users sign up. But that’s only adding the off-portal mobile web users from India. There has to be an SMS-only element to this service as well.

I quite liked the idea of scheduled SMS and Text Reminders - I don’t think anyone is providing either of these services in India.

I’m not very sure of this model of a mix of free and paid services, particularly when you make it so complicated…in fact MoCoLife comes across primarily as a paid service, with a few freebies thrown in. So I don’t think mass adoption is on the cards for MoCoLife. Question is - why even bother to launch a service with the issues mentioned above?

Related:
– @MoMo Delhi: Video Ads On Mobile; Need For Mobile Ad Standards; Do-Call Registry; Personalization
– @MoMo Delhi: Airtel WAP Banner @ Rs. 5 Lakh/Day; Affle & NDTV Active Not Taking CPL
– Cost Of Push SMS Services
– Your Take - On The Cost Issues Of Push SMS Services In India