During the Rediff.com earnings conference call, CEO Ajit Balakrishnan said that the sequential quarterly growth has largely been driven by a growth in India Online revenues, though revenues from US operations have marginally declined. Rediff.com claims registered user base of 80.4 million at the end of the quarter, representing a 15% growth year on year. Cash and cash equivalents stood at approximately 46.8 million at the quarters end. Gross Margins for the company were 71%, down from 80 % last year. India Online Advertising Trends Performance driven advertising remained flat on a quarter on quarter basis, but Display advertising did well for the company: Banking and Financial and the Insurance segment remained top advertiser segments for Rediff, followed by IT Products, PC makers Dell and HP. Balakrishnan said that though the environment has been challenging for their advertisers, the company has not seen any change in overall eCPM pricing rate. Advertising from credit card, home loans, personal loans and online brokerage continues to be subdued, and it's too early to say when advertising will recover. Revenue from top 10 advertiser comprises of 34% of Indian advertising revenue, as compared to 45% for the same quarter last year. We spoke to Balakrishnan about the financial implications of the redesign, whether they are planning to change advertising rates, and sought usage trends given that the company had previously redesigned their India Abroad website: What is the contribution of the Rediff.com homepage to revenues: how much of a revenue hit we can expect with no ads on…
