Rediff Reports $1.9 M Loss For Q3-FY14; India Online Revenues Of $3.42 M

Rediff.com has reported a loss of $1.9 million on revenues of $4.17 million for the quarter ended 31st December 2013 (Q3-FY14). Compared to the same period last year, revenues were up 5% in US Dollar terms, and 20% in Indian Rupee Terms, while the loss was 37% lower in US Dollar terms. It’s worth noting, however, that in the corresponding quarter last year, Rediff had booked a Goodwill impairment charge of $2 million, and made an additional profit of $1.4 million from the sale of one of its investments. The company’s Operating EBITDA loss declined 25% to $1.50 million for the quarter, as compared to $2 million reported for the same quarter last year. Net loss per ADS declined to $0.069 from $0.109.

Rediff’s India Online revenues increased to $3.42 million, up 7% in US dollar terms (22% in Rupee terms) to over the corresponding quarter last fiscal year. Rediff’s U.S. Publishing business declined by $0.01 million or 3% year on year. Operating expenses were $3.12 million, down $0.4 million as compared to $3.52 million for Q3-FY13. According to the company, gross profit margins for the three months ended December 31, 2013 were 39% as compared to 38% in the comparable period last year.

What’s interesting is that in a statement, Rediff Chairman and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan has said that the company has introduced “content marketing and native ads”, and these are showing early signs of success. There’s no data on the performance of online advertising, unlike in previous instances, or of the performance of Rediff’s e-commerce business. However, Rediff says that it is ready for mobile now: Balakrishnan points out that Rediff has mobile offerings for Online Shopping, Enterprise Email and News, and “We are also leading the worldwide efforts in data journalism and you can see some examples of our work using Bayesian techniques on our homepage under the Rediff Labs link.”

Last quarter, Rediff had announced its first profit in 21 quarters, on account of the sale of an equity investment for $2.74 million. Without that, the company would have reported a loss of $1.68 million, so effectively, on the operating site, this is the 23rd straight quarter of losses.

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