Business Standard Launches Instant Messenger - BS Buddy

Financial daily Business Standard has launched a branded Instant Messenger called BS Buddy, which appears to be a customized version of Mundu IM from Geodesic Ltd. The Instant Messenger allows access via a single messenger, to MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM, AOL Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk and Jabber Talk. That’s nothing new - Pidgin already allow access to multiple IMs.

What’s noteworthy is the access to content that the IM allows - when you click on the yellow blob (seriously - what were they thinking?) in the IM that represents BS Buddy, it opens up a pane as shown below, called BS Dashboard.

The BS Dashboard provides current news, stock market information, stories from the days Business Standard, content from BS Motoring, and a merchandise from BSshopping (powered by IndiaPlaza). Details of the features available here. They appear to have a couple of advertisers already on board in Nokia, HP and Oracle.

As a product, I quite like the BS Buddy, but I don’t really see the point for Business Standard to launch somethng like this. Even though they have, they aren’t really communicating the key feature of the IM is the interoperability between various IMs, and they haven’t communicated that on the main page for the service - http://bsbuddy.business-standard.com/ . Without that being communicated, it appears to be a Business Standard IM, and hence there’s no incentive for a user to download it - that fact that users are also getting BS content is just an add-on.

NDTV Convergence Ties Up With TutorVista; Our Take On Their Strategy

Going through NDTV.com, we noticed a few sites and sub-sites that we haven’t come across before: Among them, is a tutoring site NDTVTutor.com, powered by Tutorvista.com, which primarily targets their US based visitors. While we don’t endorse Alexa as a measure of traffic, according to Alexa, only around 8.5% of NDTV.com’s traffic comes from the US.

The movies site - NDTVMovies.com also features a new look. We also noticed a couple of other partnerships that the company has inked, though we’re not sure of how old these are - a commodities site powered by commodityonline.com, and an astrology section powered by Astroyogi.com. Interestingly, there’s also an environment site called Green.NDTV.com, sponsored by Toyota, with Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Director General of TERI as their expert advisor. There’s an environmental anthem for you to sing along to (you may download it here)
Quick take on NDTVs strategy
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Notes From A Discussion With Students At NMIMS

I gave a talk (rather, was more of a discussion) on Digital Media Business Models at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai yesterday, to students pursuing a combined course in Engineering and Management. Was pleasantly surprised to find most students aware of developments in the digital media space - someone asked me why IPTV hasn’t yet taken off. 

There were around 50 students at the discussion, I thought I’d share some of the observations here:

– They were all (and I mean ALL) on both Facebook and Orkut. All had heard of Ibibo, a few of Minglebox (forgot to ask about BIGAdda).
– Facebook is their preferred social network. All of them use Facebook applications, but change applications often - they get bored with them quickly
– They haven’t noticed any advertisements on Orkut (not even the text ads), but have noticed and even clicked on Facebook advertisements.
– From a business perspective, most of them didn’t think the number of registered users is of any consequence - active users matter more.
– All of them use the Internet to research before purchasing goods, but prefer to buy offline.
– Only one student used the Internet to buy electronics online…and that too from China.
– They’ve all used the Internet for buying tickets, one or two to buy books.
– They appeared to be more keen on Internet business models than Mobile
– Many subscribe to MyToday and SMS GupShup. One student felt that SMS GupShup’s recent fundraising meant that their business model is good. They feel that the fact that MyToday and SMS GupShup have such a large user base means that advertisers will be interested in them, and this model will succeed.
– Less than half of them use Caller Ringback Ringback tones, but they were aware of the cost of the service.
– A few of the students were interested in starting up, and a few who have been working on a business plan.
– Some of the students were wondering about how much of their plans they should disclose to VCs or Angel Investors. I suggested that they study the VCs portfolio first, and be careful about VCs sharing their plans with portfolio companies who may be potential competitors.  

Update: almost forgot - only one of them is on Twitter. 

The most promising sign: a majority of them use mobile Internet. Apart from a couple of students who began a year or two ago, most have been using Mobile Internet for six months, largely because the monthly rental was waived off.

I’m probably hosting another discussion soon at a college in Delhi, so if there’s anything you’d like to know about how students are using the Internet or mobile, do leave a comment, and I’ll ask them.

Also, if any of you are looking to hire freshers, do have your HR Manager drop me a note at nikhil AT medianama DOT com, and I’ll pass on the contact details to the colleges.
P.s.: just in case you’re wondering - this is pro-bono.

Saving Indian Media: Part I - The Internet

Note: If you have an opinion to share with our readers, please do send across your contribution at nikhil AT medianama DOT com. However, please bear in mind that the selection of posts for publishing is a subjective decision, and we may request you for changes. 

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by Shyam Somanadh

Indian media has had the good fortune of being in a market reality that is different from the ones we see in the west. Empowered by our third world status, we have a market that is still far from being saturated and playing on potential than actuals, we have had it good for a while now. The past five years has been a time of extreme prosperity in the segment, with everyone and their uncle (or aunt) starting a publication or a television channel because the uncle (or aunt) next-door has one.

Quite a few of these entities were built on the ‘invest-now-reap-the-benefits-later’ school of thought that is the cornerstone of a bullish market. When the industry as a whole is trending upwards in its vitals, almost everyone wants in on a piece of the action. Losses are glossed over, since at least some money is coming in and ‘it is just a matter of time’ before the huge chunk of change comes in. Which is all fine when the going is good. Trouble is that the going is not that good anymore.

Internet

If there is one thing that has marked the eight-plus years that I have had the good fortune of being a part of this industry, it is the perpetual promise of a better and bigger tomorrow. The number of times you hear “when the market opens up” at any industry event is always greater than the sightings of companies actually having a clue about what they are trying to accomplish in the long run. I have written at length on this topic before, so i won’t subject you to more of the same torture and we’ll look at the possible solutions:

1) Cut content creation costs: Let us face it, 80% of content across the majority of the media websites are pretty much the same. The troubling aspect of that equation is that every year it gets more expensive to produce this content, while the returns on it decreases every year. With the advent of the new traffic brokers like Google, Digg, Fark and a multitude of other aggregation points, it is extremely important to get the outlay of effort (between original and non-original content) right.

Content in this age and time is very much like data in consumer internet these days - not all of it is created equal, nor should it be treated equally. The takeaway from this being that you cannot put equal amounts of effort across your content segments. Content needs to be treated in accordance with the returns you receive on it. Well-performing content does not add much to existing numbers when you work on the quality side of it. You need to work the quantity side on those to make a difference.

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India TV Sets Up Interactive Company; To What End?

It’s over a year since India TV launched their website, and began streaming their sensationalised (occasionally comical) news content online. The company has now announced the formation of India TV Interactive (ITVI) with Arvind Mahendru as SVP (New Media) of ITVI. Mahendru will report to India TV MD Ritu Dhawan, and joins from GroupM. He has worked with Bharti Airtel as GM Marketing, Indiatimes as Chief Manager (Broadband), as well as media companies like Zee Turner and Star TV.

ITVI will focus on the digital domains - Internet, Mobile and probably other platforms like IPTV. Over the past couple of years - with an eye on valuations and possibly an IPO, several Indian media companies have established separate digital subsidiaries:

HT Media - Firefly e-Ventures
India Today and TV Today Ltd - India Today Digital (Digital Today)
UTV - UTV Interactive and UTV New Media
NDTV Ltd - NDTV Convergence
Network18 Group - Web18
BAG Films & Media Ltd - BAG Convergence

The problem is that many of these digital companies haven’t yet turned a profit, and with a global recession in sight, a $1 Billion IPO on NASDAQ (you know whom I’m talking about) is certainly not on the cards any more. So, from India TVs perspective - too little too late?

India TV had raised $11.5 Million from Fuse+ Media (part of Velocity Interactive Groupfor a 19.17% stake), and another Rs. 20 Crores from Shyam Equities earlier this year.

Microsoft Launches Navteq Powered Maps For India; For How Long?

Microsoft has launched listings and street maps for India, powered by the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform, and with map data from Navteq and the Goverment of India.

In India, the service has street level data for 9 cities, business listings across 29 cities and highway networks to 20,000 cities and towns. Try out the internet version at http://maps.live.co.in and mobile version at http://m.live.co.in

It’s important to note that while, last year, Microsoft had signed “multi-year deal” with Navteq, Navteq itself was acquired by Nokia. This puts Nokia and Microsoft in an interesting competitive situation - since Nokia has its own plans for Navteq, particularly around local information, perhaps extending to location based services. Navteq had launched Maps for India last year.

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Sify Consumer Business Revenue Down 7% To $7.5 M; Drops Broadband Rates To Stem Decline

I wonder how long Sify will continue to hang on their consumer business - finding a buyer in the current financial crisis won’t be easy. Not that the company has disclosed any plans to sell the business - but the decline in the consumer business, the longer they take to get rid of it, the less it will be valued at.

What’s telling is that the only question on the earnings conference call, was about how much of an impact on its bottom-line does Sify expect, if they reach a settlement with Yahoo. Sify declined to comment since the matter is subjudice.

Consumer Business

The quarter ending September 30th was yet another poor quarter for Sify - revenues for the consumer business declined 7.46% quarter on quarter - down to $7.50 million, from $8.06 million last quarter.

Broadband Rates Reduced, ARPU Decline: In what appears to be an effort to stem the decline of their broadband subscriber base, Sify has dropped Broadband access prices to Rs. 95. Consequently, Sify’s ARPU has further declined to Rs. 305, from Rs. 316 at the end of the last quarter, and Rs. 336 at the end of Q4 of last year. At the same time, the Sify has reported a decline of 10,000 in their broadband subscriber base, despite an increase in their Cable Operator network.

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