digital marketing on rediff

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Digital Marketing on Rediff.com

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The special thanks goes to people at Rediff.com under whose supervision and support I

Was able to make progress in our internship.

I would like to ThankMr. Sheerjeel Ahmad and Mr. Sharad Chaubey for providing me

an opportunity to work in a superior and a professional organization like Rediff.com.

Their constant support and help at various stages helped me in gaining more knowledge

about the working of the organization and also helped me in my working of the internship

activities.

I would also take the opportunity to thankMr. Kaushik Chatterjee under whose

excellent supervision we were able to gain first hand information about the working of

the organization, without his support our task of completion of internship would not have

been possible.

I would take the opportunity to also thank the Staff at Rediff.com, which helped ingaining knowledge about the industry trend about the various other business verticals of

Rediff.com


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I would like to thank my faculty at IIPM, which gave me an opportunity to work in an

organization of high repute.

I would like to thank my parents who supported me in my endeavor for learning the skills

of sales and helping me in my educational program me envisage

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................................ 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 4

Purpose ............................................................................................................................. 4

Content ............................................................................................................................. 5

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY ................................................ 7

Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 7

Methodology..................................................................................................................... 7

SECTOR OVERVIEW..................................................................................................... 8

Demographics................................................................................................................. 17

The e-governance imperative ......................................................................................... 18

The National e-Governance Plan.................................................................................... 20

Risk capital and Entrepreneurship .................................................................................. 20

Growing entrepreneurship .............................................................................................. 21

Indian Online Advertising .............................................................................................. 21

Portals ............................................................................................................................. 25

Education ........................................................................................................................ 27

REDIFF.COM ................................................................................................................. 29

Mission In The Internet Space ........................................................................................ 29

PRODUCT AND SERVICE OFFERINGS .................................................................... 29

INDIA ONLINE BUSINESS ......................................................................................... 29

Information and Content................................................................................................. 29

Community Features and Products................................................................................. 30

Subscription Services ..................................................................................................... 32


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Mobile Services .............................................................................................................. 32

E-Commerce................................................................................................................... 33

UNITED STATES PUBLISHING.................................................................................. 34

PRIMARY ACTIVITY................................................................................................... 37

Procedure and Theory..................................................................................................... 37

Findings .......................................................................................................................... 38

THE LEARNING CURVE ............................................................................................ 44

RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................ 45

ILLUSTRATION ANNEXTURE .................................................................................. 46

BIBLOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 47

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The internship was for the Period of 2 months in Online Ad Sales. We were supposed to find educational

institutes and educational service providers of repute in Delhi and NCR and then get their feedback on

Online marketing on Rediff.com and brand perception about Rediff.com. We were supposed to call

educational institutes and fix meeting with their marketing team. We would get the Survey form filled

which contained information such as their annual spend on advertising, various platform used in online

advertising and types of platforms which used for print and other advertising for their institutes and

services.

We were provided with a media kit, which contained presentation and softcopies of the same and survey

forms and the rate card of Rediff.com for various properties of Rediff.com. We were supposed to give a

presentation and then ask for their feedback. Then we would note down the current requirement of the

client and would provide with a customized package according the specifications mentioned. This

package was based on trial period and was specifically designed to:

Get Reputed institutes on board with Rediff.com

To Showcase Rediff.coms sheer user base power and various properties and options available on

rediff.com as to which the clients can get a hold of the Rediff.com working superiority

The packages were generally based on CPM model. CPM- Cost Per Mile (CPM), also called cost % and

cost per thousand (CPT) , is a commonly used measurement in advertising. Radio, television,


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subscription, the growing number of cyber cafes in the country has also contributed greatly to the

popularity of the Internet.

The biggest spenders for Internet advertising in India include the biggest industries in the country;

namely, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI); Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG);

and the retail industry. Other industries include education, telecommunication, travel and the autoindustries.

CONTENT

The purpose of this report to highlight the effectiveness, contribution and role of rediff.com India Ltd. In

the contribution to the increased online advertising spent in the Indian economy.

This global trend is now sweeping across India and has become one of the more accepted and preferred

advertising mediums by businesses and corporations. In an online performance study conducted by

Ozone Media, internet advertising jumped 70 percent in performance in 2010. Many companies are also

considering using online digital media for display advertising, as they are now seeing the potential of

tapping into Indias Internet community as a viable market for products and services.

According to Technology for Marketing and Advertising India, the advertising industry in the country

will continue to grow by 12% and will reach figures of up to INR 246.9 billion. Internet advertising will

take a major part in this, with the fastest CAGR of 29.6% within the next five years, and is expected to

reach $220 million in 2011, as indicated in the report published by the Internet and Mobile Association

of India.

In 2011, the biggest contributor and investor to internet advertising is still expected to be the Banking,Financial Services and Insurance industry, which is projected to take up to 39 percent of the total market

share. Print Media as well as the Education industries is expected to experience the highest growth rate

of 76 percent, followed by the automobile industry at 46 percent. It is expected that the public will

experience more product launches online.


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The popularity of social media will also play a significant role in the growth of Internet advertising in

India, getting 17% of the share over other online marketing tools such as email marketing and other

online marketing mediums, including search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and website

banner ads. Advertisers will also be focusing more on online display ads than text advertisements.

With the growth in the user base, online advertising in India is on the rise as well. Currently, onlineadvertising market in India is pegged at USD 410 million and the spends are expected to quadruple to

USD 1.6 billion by 2015. Online channel currently represents 7% of total advertising spends and is

expected to reach 15% in next 3 years.

FIGURE A

Among Indians who have internet access, majority of them access internet frequently through their

mobile phones. Mobile Advertising revenues were pegged at USD 56.5 million in 2011 and are

forecasted to reach USD 247 million by 2015. This increase in revenue can be attributed to a 15%increase in Rediffs registered users. Still, this could be good news depending on your perspective.

From a publishers point of view, increases in overall ad spend mean that you could be more likely to

monetize ad supported Indian-centric content. Of course, most of us would actually need to create

Indian-centric content, but if youve been eying new markets you could make worse choices than India.


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While we like to believe that most advertisers are ROI focused, we know that experiments, branding

campaigns, and just plain bad ad buys can misrepresent the value of traffic as it relates to actual

conversions.

Regardless of your take on the increases Rediff is seeing and its reflection of the current online

advertising market, India represents a solid long-term opportunity. Many Indians are seeing huge

increases in standards of living and disposable income. Indian Internet infrastructure is very strong,

offering many citizens speeds Americans can only dream of. With the worlds second largest population

India has huge potential to be an online marketing powerhouse.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

OBJECTIVES

The objective of the research was to study the brand value and the perception of the people advertising

in the education industry. The primary goal was to get on board various institutes of repute in and around

Delhi to experience the online platform the power which Rediff.com to offer. Our objective was to find

good institutes in Delhi/NCR and get their feedback on Rediff.com as online education marketing

system. We also in the process showed them a presentation, whose copy is attached with the report,

which showed the sheer user base of Rediff.com, and how it can help in getting business to the

institutes. In the due process of the survey we were also told to showcase our product range and explain

the customer about various advertising options available with us. If the client seemed interested we

would then offer them a trial package, which would show a demo of the Rediff.com platform to the

potential customers.

METHODOLOGY

The method used for the survey was based on a feedback form that was designed by Rediff.com. The

form along with a presentation (called the Media Kit) was given to us along with a guideline of script on

how to get clients by cold calling and meeting them, basic etiquette of cold calling and client meeting

was taught to us. The Survey form, which is also attached at the end of the report, which we were made


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to fill from the clients. In Due course of time we got to know the industry practices and the procedure,

which is to be following in a corporate culture scenario. We were supposed to fix up meeting with

clients from all over Delhi and NCR. The survey form had basic questions related to the

organization/institutes advertising pattern and their preferences in choosing an online advertising

platform and medium. The Survey form also carried questions relating to their perception about

Rediff.com as their partner and a brand perception about Rediff.com in general.

SECTOR OVERVIEW

FIGURE B

Increasing Internet penetration has helped to expand the potential customer pool. Internet penetration is

only about 10% (or about 121 million users) as against about 81% in the US and 36% in China.

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8.5

21.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

2009 2010 2011

Percentage

Internet Penetration in India

Internet Penetration inIndia


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However this number continues to rise at a consistent pace because of falling prices for broadband

connections.

Indians are also increasingly taking to mobile devices for not only search but shopping as well. The

number of smartphone users is rapidly increasing in India and with 4G services about to take off its

expected to get even more people going online. There are currently about 900 million mobile subscribersand this number is expected to touch 1.2 billion by 2015. Of these about 27 million are estimated to be

active mobile Internet users. More importantly, 20% users indicated intent to buy products through their

mobile phones as against the current 4% and this number is expected to only increase in the next two to

three years

The Internet is now an indispensable part of our lives and we hardly even notice the touch points

(Exhibit Annexure A captures some of the important milestones in the evolution of the digital consumer

industry in India. Till last year, however, the Indian Internet story was limited to virtual goods and

services tickets, classifieds and ringtones - physical retail had been stubbornly slow to take off. Issues

around connectivity, consumer trust, supply chain capabilities and payment solutions were generally

cited as insurmountable dampeners.

India A country going digital

80 million Internet users

10 million 3G connections within 6 months of launch, almost equal to the base of

Wire line broadband connections

The 2nd largest user base for Google+ and Orkut in the world

28% of travel gets booked online; 117 million transactions on IRCTC alone

47% of the classifieds business is online

7% of bank users in India access their accounts online


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25% of IT returns were filed online in 2010-11

Close to 50% of music revenues in India comes from mobile downloads

As we understand it, the digital consumer ecosystem comprises several external and internal

components, summarized in Exhibit 4. While internal components can be controlled by the industry,

external components mostly remain outside their direct influence. External components often have a

higher level of influence over the growth of the industry.

FIGURE C


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Fortunately, this is an aspect of the ecosystem that is witnessing heightened activity on various counts.

This includes the commercial launch of 3G mobile services in early 2011 and the launch of 4G

broadband recently by one player (with others slated to launch in early 2012). There is also the National

Broadband Plan 2010 conceived by the government, which envisages government investments of Rs

20,000 Crore ($4.5 billion) to build a National Fiber Optic Network. We have conducted a detailed

analysis of the growth trends of various technologies, and expect the number of unique Internet users in

India to reach 376 million by 2015 close to 5 times the current number.

FIGURE D


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Among the multiple parameters that determine status of Internet access/connectivity in a country, PC

broadband is perhaps the most significant. This is because, at least from a rear view mirror perspective,

there has been a high level of correlation between penetration of e-tailing and penetration levels of PC

broadband across countries.

Number of PCs is not constraint availability and costs (device and usage charges) are the two key factorsdetermining Internet adoption. Currently, there are 55 million PCs in India as against 15 million PC

broadband connections. PC penetration, though low, has not been the constraining factor. A BCG

estimate suggests that the number of PCs in India will reach 216 million by 2015, making it a non-

constraining factor.

Broadband availability and cost are the major constraints. Prices of broadband connections as well as

availability have been the bigger constraints to the growth of broadband in India. Broadband prices in

India remain among the highest in the world. Unfortunately, the expectation that the success of Indiastelecom sector in driving mobile penetration would be leveraged to drive broadband penetration has not

been realized this far.

Availability has also been a sore issue, as the infrastructure to reach homes through DSL, digital cable or

fiber was just not present across a major portion of the country. The problem is being faced even in the

metros, with several areas still facing service gaps.

Competition between different technologies is likely to fuel growth Currently, the number of PC

broadband connections is estimated to be 15 million. DSL has been the primary driver of this -

accounting for 10 million connections. While cable and wireless fixed connections have struggled to

gain significant traction, CDMA dongles have grown very rapidly to become the second biggest

contributor at 4 million connections. The introduction of 4G in the Indian markets is expected to be the

next game changer. We expect the growth in PC broadband to be driven by Dongles and 4G Broadband.

Dongles have gained significant traction through attractive pricing, and the quality of connections

offered. This has been possible due to the declining voice usage on the CDMA space, freeing bandwidth

for data usage. There have also been significant investments in moving towards next generation

technologies, which help in reaching speeds close to 10 Mbps. 4G is projected to achieve a 9%

penetration globally by 2015, and is likely to translate into 28 million connections in India by 2015.

However, we remain cautious on our estimates for 4G since the technology is new and no country has


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seen mass adoption as yet. We estimate around 17 million 4G connections with half of them catering to

PCs by 2015

Cable broadband, though a significant contributor to broadband Internet access in other countries, has

seen lukewarm performance in India. This is because the Indian cable industry is highly fragmented and

unorganized. Large parts of the cable network still work on analog technology. Local cable operators(who control last mile connectivity to the consumer) have been resisting adoption of digital technology

to protect their turf.

We therefore remain guarded in our projections of cable broadband as well. Having said that, there could

be a significant upside to our projections of cable broadband subscribers, because several factors

(including government regulations and demand from consumers) could fall in place leading to mass

digitization of cable networks in India. Once that happens, the industry could attract the much-needed

investment from institutional players to drive cable broadband penetration. We also expect the growth ofDSL to slow down due to the continuous decline seen in wire line phones over the last decade. Having

said that, if the National Broadband Plan even partly succeeds in what it intends to do - provide 10 Mbps

connections to all homes in top 63 cities through Fiber-to-Home connections, and Fiber-to-Kerb in all

other cities - we may have a significant fiber optic upside as well.

PC broadband penetration to reach 15.6% of households by 2015

Summing up, we estimate India will have 39.3 million broadband connections, a penetration of 15.6% of

households, by 2015. We believe this is a reasonably conservative estimate that doesnt factor in the

upside of various initiatives that are underway translating into hyper growth.


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FIGURE E

Mobile broadband to be the primary driver of overall Internet penetration - 3G to reach 22% of

the population by 2015

Besides PC broadband, there is a massive mobile broadband phenomenon underway. 3G services have

acquired 9 million connections within 3 months of launch. We expect this number to improve

significantly in the coming years. Smartphones are becoming more and more prevalent, with the lowest

priced smartphone being available at Rs 3,000 (~$65) already. This number is expected to further go

down to reach Rs 2,000 (~$45) in early 2012, potentially opening the floodgates for smartphone

adoption. A McKinsey estimate puts the number of smartphones in India at 450 million in 2015 .

The declining voice ARPUs of Indian mobile operators and the need for increased data revenues is a

well-documented story. Mobile operators are under immense pressure to make 3G work in India due to

the investments (Rs 67,719 Crore - $15 billion - in license fees) which they have made and the cost ofinfrastructure building (estimated at Rs 248,000 Crore ($55 billion), similar to China). We expect

operators to continue their marketing push on 3G services and drive innovation on pricing - resulting in

279 million connections by 2015. This is in line with global penetration trends.


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FIGURE F

Total number of users transacting online in India at 8-10 million, expected to increase to 38 million by

2015. The number, which matters most to e-commerce players, is the number of users actually

transacting online. At present, the total number of such users is estimated at 8-10 million - about 11% of

the online universe in India - a large part of this universe are users transacting on Travel sites. Number

of unique users transacting on travel sites (only) are estimated to be around 6 -7 million and for non-

travel e-commerce sites is around 2-3 million today.

The total number of unique transacting users is expected to reach 38 million by 2015.


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FIGURE G

Access in 2015 :: The facts that matter

80 million online users today, 376 million by 2015

Device costs - PCs or smartphones are not going to be limiters to growth. Access and

pricing will play the major role PC broadband - the key driver for e-commerce growth - to have 15.6% household

penetration

Conventional wire line broadband likely to be eclipsed by the introduction of 4G and the

growth of CDMA dongles

3G will change the face of Internet access - creating access for 22% of the population


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Shared, or public access will reduce in proportion as more people get personal Internet

access

The time spent online will grow by 27% per user - driving advertising and commerce

Number of transacting users to grow from 9 million at present to 38 million

DEMOGRAPHICS

Tier I cities dominate, but penetration increasing fast across tier II/III cities and towns. The geographic

distribution of Internet users has been skewed towards tier I cities till date. However, the number of

users in other cities and towns has been increasing steadily, and this trend is expected to accelerate as the

next 100 million users get added. This augurs well for the e-tailing industry as 30-40% of their total

sales already come from tier II/III cities. The penetration of modern retail in tier II/III cities is much

lower than that in tier I cities. The Internet has the potential to solve the availability issue faced in these

places.

FIGURE H

The digital-divide is reducing

The National Broadband Plan 2010 envisages Internet in every village by 2014, by utilizing the

Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund to build infrastructure. Private players have also been playing

their part in reducing the digital divide. ITCs e-choupal, for instance, is involved in building

connectivity infrastructure across villages to provide real-time market price information of crops to


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farmers. There are over 6,500 e-choupals in operation today, covering 40,000 villages across 10 states.

Similarly, Nokia life tools, is a mobile subscription service, where one of the primary services is the

delivery of weather forecasts for the region through periodic SMS updates. There are currently over 17

million subscribers to the service, making it one of the largest mediums of information dissemination to

the rural populace. eFarm is another initiative that utilizes technology to create an efficient low cost

supply chain mechanism connecting farmers with the end markets.

Younger consumers driving growth

FIGURE I

THE E-GOVERNANCE IMPERATIVE

The Indian government is also playing its part in promoting digitalization of everyday life. While theprimary role of the government is to ensure the right infrastructure and policy framework in any

industry, the Government of India is playing an important secondary role too, by driving wide-scale

usage of Internet technologies. E-governance is a key focus area of the government, as technology

adoption can help bridge the vast infrastructure gaps that exist between urban and rural India. With


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inclusive development being the key theme in India over the last decade, this assumes increased

significance. 25% of income tax filings are now online

FIGURE J

A case in point would be the movement towards e-filing of income tax returns, which was made

mandatory for companies and firms requiring statutory audit from assessment year 2007-08. In this case,

the chances of voluntary consumer adoption are high since there are still multiple pain points in most

of the services delivered by the government.

For the government, there is the advantage of improving the efficiency and transparency of the

government machinery. While refunds from the government took an eternity to reach an assessee in the

past, e-filing has helped accelerate the process significantly - with refunds being processed even within a

week of filing in some cases. The process of filing income tax returns has also become much easier, with

multiple websites offering do-it-yourself services for filing returns. Consumer adoption rates show that

the consumers are more than happy with the movement towards e-filing of income tax returns. Almost


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25% of the returns filed last year were in the electronic form and it is estimated that nearly three-fourths

of all tax filings in assessment year 2015-16 will be done online.

THE NATIONAL E -GOVERNANCE PLAN

Adoption of technology in income tax processing though is just one of the several initiatives being

pursued by the government, under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The vision of NeGP is to:"Make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service

delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs

to realise the basic needs of the common man. The plan comprises of 27 Mission Mode Projects

(MMPs) - with clearly defined objectives and timelines - which are being implemented by the central

government and/or the state governments. It involves a massive build-up of infrastructure such as

Common Service Centers (CSC) being established at every village in the country, and large-scale

digitalization of government records. The plan outlay is around $7 billion and the targeted completion is

by 2014. 15% of the plan outlay is being utilized for building infrastructure that will get utilized across

projects. Apart from this, most state governments also have taken initiatives in the e-governance/m-

governance space.

RISK CAPITAL AND ENT REPRENEURSHIP


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A whole lot of money availability of risk capital in the digital consumer market has been on the rise with

newer VCs entering the market, and many PE investors turning towards early stage deals. The trend has

got more pronounced in 2011.

GROWING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The entrepreneurial ecosystem has matured significantly in recent years. First generation entrepreneurs

and not large corporates are leading the current wave of start-ups in the digital consumer space. Several

of the leading e-commerce companies including Flipkart, Redbus and Snapdeal stand testament to the

impact first generation entrepreneurs (in their 20s and early 30s) are having in the development of a

new industry. Improved support systems Support structures have also been improving with the presence

of associations like The Indus Entrepreneurs, (TiE), proto.in and pluggd.in across multiple cities in

India.

Initiatives like the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) are doing high quality work in channeling

entrepreneurial energies of students at the university level towards new 5-venture creation. Incubation

centers at various prestigious educational institutes in the country have also played their part in

encouraging the top talent of India to venture on their own.

Critically, the angel and seed funding ecosystem has improved significantly in recent years, making

much needed risk capital and mentoring more accessible to entrepreneurs. Some of the leading

organizations providing angel/seed stage financing include Mumbai Angels Network, Indian Angels

Network, Seedfund, Blume Ventures, etc.

Several VC firms have also started providing seed stage financing to try and catch them early.

Furthermore, successful business houses and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) are also carving out a

portion of their capital to invest in early stage opportunities.

INDIAN ONLINE ADVERTISING


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There are multiple forms of advertising, which get utilized in the online space, the most prominent ones

being search, display, rich media, video, and classifieds. Online advertising market estimated at Rs 1,850

Crore ($410 million), 7% of the overall advertising pie

The Indian online advertising market accounts for 7% of the overall advertising industry. This is less

than the global average of 15.5%, but is probably ahead of where it should have been relative to theInternet penetration in the country. Several leading advertisers in India are now spending 5-10% of their

advertising budget on the Internet.

FIGURE K


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across geographies/verticals, a variable cost per click model and other specialized and targeted offerings.

Online advertising leverages technology and delivers advertisements through a central Ad server, which

enables targeting, tracking and reporting of impressions that traditional media alternatives fail to capture.

Advertisers also leverage AdAgencies to create advertisements and then distribute them through various

digital media. AdAgencies act as agents to the advertisers and place their ads through AdNetworks or

exchanges. With time, solutions have evolved and today digital advertising is being delivered through a

mix of online marketing, mobile, search, social media, blogs and video platforms. Agencies and

networks are offering integrated solutions to their clients that help maximize their ROIs and reap the

benefits of a 360 marketing campaign. Globally, Google has become the largest player with presence

across the landscape.

Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are also key players in the eco-system. There are only a handful of

independent players in a market that has seen a fair degree of consolidation .

The top 4 companies have made multiple bets in AdNetworks, Exchanges, Mobile, Video, RSS and Real

Time Bidding (RTB).

Indian AdNetworks scaling internationally due to relatively small domestic market Even though a large

portion of Indian advertising revenues are mopped up by Google,Facebook and Yahoo, local

AdNetworks are slowly gaining popularity in the country, driven by the increase in publishers and adinventories. Some of the key players include Komli Media, Tyroo (acquired by Yahoo), Ozone Media,

AdMagnet, NetworkPlay and DGM India.

Given the relatively small size of the Indian online advertising market, players like Komli have been

aggressively developing a strong international network through acquisitions. The company acquired

ZestADZ (India), Activ Digital (Singapore), PostClick (Australia) and Indoor Media (UK) to gain a

ready client base in these geographies. It recently also gained a foothold in the video advertising

networks segment through its partnership with Jivox for Asia-Pacific.

The mobile advertising space has been dominated by mobile Adnetwork InMobi, which gained

unprecedented attention on the back of its $200 million funding by Japanese media conglomerate

SoftBank in September this year. Recognizing the limited opportunity in Indian mobile advertising (at

least in the short term), InMobi has aggressively expanded its mobile ad network overseas. Within a


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span of just 4 years, it has grown to become a credible number 2 to Googles AdMob, serving over 60

billion ad impressions every month to more than 350 mobile users in over 165 countries. InMobi is also

leveraging M&A strategically to build out its service proposition - it recently acquired US-based ad

software developer Sprout which has an expertise in rich media ads for devices that support HTML 5.

PORTALS

Most portals offer services such as e-mail and instant messenger, along with information and

entertainment content. Though there could be premium services, which portals offer to its users for a fee,

the bulk of revenues of most portals still come from advertising. And as ad spends normally depend on

eyeballs and time-share, traffic becomes extremely important for portals.

Internet users generally tend to devote their unplanned surfing times on portals as they give a multitude

of options to spend time. While portals boast of high time spent by users, they often lack the targeting

capabilities of a search engine. As a result, portals are generally at the forefront of display advertising as

a specific target base of users is available on portals. The biggest portals globally are MSN, Yahoo!,

Wikipedia, AOL and CBS interactive. Some of the global portals are big in India too, having developed

strong local content capabilities.

Portals continue to attract high traffic, ~46% of total Internet users access the top

Portal Yahoo leads the way amongst portals, a clear 50% lead over the next placed MSN sites. Indian

players, Times Internet sites, Rediff.com and In.com follow the suit. September saw ~44 million unique

visitors clicking through to portals.

There is a high concentration of visitors amongst the Top 5 portals and a stark dip there onwards. This

leads to the marginalization of players outside the top 10, and making them depend on advertising

networks to sell their ad inventory. The share of advertising networks ranges from 25% to 35% of the

total advertising revenues, reducing the revenues further for the smaller players. With only around Rs

100 Crore ($22 million) left for all small players put together, pursuing an advertising-driven business

model doesnt seem to be lucrative enough to pursue.


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FIGURE M

It takes time to build a successful portal. It takes significant time and money to build a new online

portal. A look at the top players shows that they have been present in the online space for a long period

of time, or are offline media houses who own and generate significant amount of content otherwise.

ESPN Cricinfo and Rediff, for instance have been around since the mid-90s. There are several ongoing

opportunities in the content space - the challenge is that of creating scale. Several niche plays exist - like

Pagalguy, Mouthshut and Team-BHP but they only get around 0.1% share of the total time spent on

portals.

Meanwhile, social networks have become a clear and present danger to portals The advent of social

networks have been putting increased pressure on the time share of top portals. Social networks nowaccount for more than 25% of the overall time spent by users online globally, as against an insignificant

share in 2005. Portals have been one of the biggest losers in this. Such a shift has been witnessed in

India too, with the time spent on Facebook shooting up to around 22% of the overall time spent online in

India in May 2011.


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EDUCATION

The global e-learning industry is estimated to be around $32 billion in 2010, and expected to reach $50

billion by 2014. The US contributes a big chunk of that, with revenues of $18.2 billion in e-learning in

2010. The Korean market seems to be the next biggest with estimated revenues of around $2 billion in2010. UK, Japan, Germany, France and China are other prominent contributors, with revenues ranging

between $0.5 and $1 billion in 2010.

A good portion of the US e-learning revenues comes from corporate e-learning, which accounted for

$6.8 billion in revenues, 37% of the overall market. The other prominent categories were K-12 and

higher education. Indian e-learning market still small 31 The Indian e-learning market was estimated to

be around Rs 176 Crore ($40 million) in 2010 and projected to grow at 30% CAGR over the next few

years. Like other countries, the corporate segment too dominates the e-learning space in India. Earlystage models (lead generation and hybrid teaching) are doing well, but pure online models are still

struggling for scale. K-12 is a big opportunity, but remains a B2B2C play for now

K-12 is one of the prominent sectors across the world, as can be seen from the success of Tutor.com and

Khan Academy. K-12 remains the sector which has witnessed the most action in India too. Educomp and

Everonn are the prominent players in the space. But the model itself remains B2G2C (Business to

Government to Consumer) or B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer), and does not involve direct

customer acquisition.

Also, these services still remain as technology-enabled learning, rather than e-learning per se. There are

a few interesting companies like Heymath! which offers K-12 mathematics modules that can be

accessed online. However, pure B2C business models have still to gain scale in the online education

services segment. Supplementary education likely to be the first to move

Supplementary education segments - tutoring, test preparation and distance education - are the ones that

have gained the most traction in the B2C e-learning segment so far. Utilization of online medium to

generate leads has become a well accepted practice, with institutions like Sikkim Manipal University

spending a significant portion of their advertising spends online. There are multiple other educational

institutions which partner with sites like Shiksha to generate leads for their courses.


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Online content delivery is also on the rise, with distance education universities like SMU, and test

preparation companies like Careerlauncher and IMS being early movers. Symbiosis, the other big player

in the distance learning space has also started offering courses that can be accessed completely online. In

the pure-play online space though, there have been several initiatives of late. Companies like Learning

Hour, eTuitions, Lampsglow and Trivium have come up. Others like 24x7 Learning, who were catering

tothe corporate e-learning segment, have started offering courses targeted at consumers. directly and

now have 20% of their revenues coming directly from customers. Ace Creative Learning, which targets

both the K-12 and test preparation space online, has attracted investments from Accel Partners and

Catamaran.

At this stage, having an offline presence seems to be an important factor to facilitate adoption of e-

learning. The differentiator for SMU still seems to be the wide offline content delivery infrastructure itpossesses to deliver distance education courses. Similarly, iProf has created a hybrid model by offering

its courses in tablet-friendly formats. Unlike other players, who were typically content owners, iProf has

delinked content (though it creates some of it) from its platform. They have tied up with some of the top

players in each of the targeted categories (IGNOU in distance education and Career Launcher in test

preparation).

The company attracted investments from Norwest and IDG earlier this year. The scale of pure-play

online models is small today but holds tremendous promise given the large demand-supply gap the

education sector suffers from. Companies in the online education services segment remain bullish based

on the size of the overall industry and the fact that the consumer response has been encouraging in early

days.


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REDIFF.COM

Rediff.com (Nasdaq: REDF) is one of the premier worldwide online providers of news, information,

communication, entertainment and shopping services. Rediff.com provides a platform for Indians

worldwide to connect with one another online. Rediff.com is committed to offering a personalized and a

secure surfing and shopping environment. Rediff.com additionally offers the Indian American

community one of the oldest and largest Indian weekly newspapers, India Abroad. Founded in 1996,

Rediff.com is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai,

Hyderabad and New York, USA.

MISSION IN THE INTERNET SPACE

To provide world-class online consumer service offerings to Indians worldwide.

PRODUCT AND SERVICE OFFERINGS

INDIA ONLINE BUSINESS

The Rediff.com India website consists of information, communication and content services, free and

paid community features and products, including e-commerce and mobile services.

INFORMATION AND CONTE NT

Information and content channels currently include news, business, movies, cricket/sports and several

other topics of interest.

News content includes:

Current affairs and breaking news: Rediff provides breaking news focused on events of interest to

Indians, including feature news stories, interviews and online chats with leading Indian personalities.


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Business: This channel covers the happenings of corporate India, stock market quotes and analysis,

regular columns and feature stories, as well as personal portfolio tracker.

Movies and Entertainment: For latest news and trends from Bollywood and Hollywood. Box office

information, regular columns, feature stories, interviews with movie personalities, movie reviews and

slide shows.

Sports and Cricket: Provides coverage of Indian and global sporting news. There is in-depth coverage

of cricket news from India and around the globe, with statistics, scores and schedules, regular columns,

feature stories and interviews.

Get Ahead: Aimed at enriching the lifestyle of younger online audiences, this section cover topics of

interest such as careers, education, relationships, work environments, among others.Rediff.com offers a

Message Board facility through which users can post their comments.

Rediff Newshound is a content aggregation tool, which collates India related content from over 1000

news sources. This content, which is updated every 5 minutes, is categorized as under News, Business,

Entertainment, Cricket / Sports, Health, Infotech, Science and World.

COMMUNITY FEATURES AND PRODUCTS

A key focus for Rediff.com is using world-class technology to drive community building. Through a

single login facility, Rediff.com provides a combination of free and paid community features and

products to consumers and businesses. These include e-mail, instant messaging, Search, Chat, Blogs,

Message Boards, Social Networking, Mobile services, online shopping and auctions.

Rediffmail: Rediffmail is the flagship product of Rediff.com. It is one of the most popular web eMail

service used by Indians world wide. Rediffmail offers users a complete outlook desktop experience with

features like unlimited storage, instant mail preview, quick attachments of upto 10 MB, Drag & Drop

facility to manage your folders and auto address completion. It supports eleven Indian languages and

also comes with the integrated web-messenger allowing all Rediffmail users to chat in real-time with all

their Rediff Bol (Instant Messenger) users within their inbox.


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languages like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telgu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Gujarati, allowing users

to blog in the language they are most comfortable in.

Rediff Bol instant messenger is a free service that works even on low bandwidths. Users can make PC-

to-PC voice phone calls; send SMS to mobile phones in India and create customized avatars and

participate in chat rooms.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

Rediffmail Pro is a subscription service targeted at business users. Rediffmail Pro offers businesses, the

ability to select, subject to availability, their own domain name for e-mail addresses. Subscribers are

given five e-mail addresses and 1GB of storage space, which can be allocated among employees and

increased without limitation, at an additional charge. Rediffmail Pro also offers enhanced address book

features and advanced virus protection.

Rediffmail Enterprise Pro is a web based e-mail service suited for enterprises with large field forces of

users/agents/sales associates/dealers.

Rediffmail Plus is a subscription service that offers a variety of premium features. Rediffmail Plus

subscribers receive 2GB of storage space, the ability to send large attachments (up to 10MB) and

accounts which do not automatically expire when not used. Subscribers can also send up to 100 SMS

messages and access their e-mail accounts with other client applications, free of charge. Rediffmail Plus

comes with a 30 MB Briefcase.

Rediff Business Solutions is suite of web based business solutions, which allow individuals and

businesses to purchase domains and web hosting packages directly online.

MOBILE SERVICES

Rediff Mobile offers mobile phone users in India a variety of value added services on the text messaging

platform by sending a requesting SMS to 57333, which is the designated code number for Rediff.com as

well as on the WAP platform by visiting mobile.rediff.com on the WAP browser.


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Mobile offerings on the 57333 & wap platform include:

Downloads: Users can download mono ringtones, polyphonic ringtones, true tones, logos, picture

messages, wallpapers, videos, animations and games from our website. We have introduced search of

ringtones & imagery on web and mobile phones. Downloads include popular Indian content, such as

Indi-pop ringtones, Indian cricket team logos and wallpapers featuring Bollywood, Hollywood and

Tollywood movie stars.

Services: Rediff.com offer users a variety of mobile phone related services by SMS, such as the ability

to search, seek and flirt with other users, play interactive games, and receive jokes and astrological

predictions. Users can also participate in contests to win prizes by correctly answering questions sent to

them by SMS (Short Messaging Service, or text messaging).

News and Information: Users can stay updated on current events by receiving cricket scores, news and

stock quotes by an SMS message.

Subscription: Subscription based services allow customers to subscribe for a monthly/weekly/daily

service for receiving daily SMS based information, news, cricket scores, jokes, or astrology related

services for a fixed fee. Such services are replicated on the WAP platform also when needed.

E-COMMERCE

Rediff Shopping is an online marketplace where users can purchase products and services from various

merchants. Users can avail of a variety of payment options such as Cash on delivery (COD), Internet

banking, credit card and cheques.

Rediff Auctions is an e-commerce platform, which enables sellers to sell their products at dynamic

prices based on supply and demand. This gives buyers a chance to buy their desired products at

competitive prices.


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Rediff Books is one of the biggest online book stores offering users the biggest catalogue of books.

Users can choose from over 2 million books or search for books from over 4000 authors.

UNITED STATES PUBLI SHING

The Rediff.com United States publishing business primarily consists of the India Abroad newspaper and

the Rediff India Abroad website.

India Abroad is one of the oldest weekly newspapers focused on the Indian community in the United

States. The newspaper has five North America editions - New York, Tristate, Chicago/Dallas, Los

Angeles and Canadian.

India in New York is a guide to events and entertainment from India Abroad. The newspaper features

news, events, sports entertainment and a wide array of classifieds and is distributed free in the Tristate

area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Rediff India Abroad website offers information and content and is targeted at the Indian-American

community in North America.

FIGURE N

Rediff.com has a three-month global Alexa traffic rank of 207, and approximately 23% of visits to the

site consist of only one pageview (i.e., are bounces). The fraction of visits to the site referred by search


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engines is roughly 7%. This site's content places it in the Web-Based category. Visitors to Rediff.com

view 6.9 unique pages each day on average.

FIGURE O

FIGURE P


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FIGURE Q


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PRIMARY ACTIVITY

PROCEDURE AND THEORY

In our two months of internship we were made to carry to surveys for educational institutes and

education service providers. We were made to first find a consolidated list of all potential institutes and

service providers of repute in Delhi and surroundings and then fix meeting with them. We were then

made to ask them their online advertising pattern and ask them their perception about online advertising

and their view about Rediff.com as on online sales partner.

Rediff.com basically does campaign on CPM basis (Cost per 1000 Impressions). One view of the ad is

counted as one impression. The rates vary anywhere from ` 75 to ` 450 for 1000 impressions on various

properties on Rediff.com. Educational institutes are interested in campaign, which return them leads

(leads is the information of potential student, whom their telesales team can call and convert them into

admissions). Many of Rediff.coms competitors do a CPL based campaigns. Basically in the online

Advertising medium there are three major types of advertisement styles.

CPC

Cost per click

charges on theclicks the ad gets

CPMCost per 1000impressions

Charges on per1000 impressionthe ad gets on

the website

CPL

Cost per lead

Charges clientsbased on per

form fill from thead running onthe website


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CPC campaigns are done by companies/organizations which want to increase traffic on their website by

getting clicks on their ad and then forwarding the same to their website.

CPM is done by organizations generally who are looking forward towards brand building on a pan India

basis.

CPL is generally done by companies which are looing forward to getting information about potential

clients/students whom their telesales team can call and convert the same into their clients/students.

The education vertical generally follows a CPL model where in they are expecting a certain amount of

information about students (leads). For Eg: a contract can be of 2000 leads over period of one month at `

40 per lead. So each form fill will fetch the company ` 40.

FINDINGS

Institutes/Service Providers of An Average Annual Spend of` 1 Crore and Above

There were 9 institutes in this category.

The Average Annual Spent was ` 7.22 Crores


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Organizations relied on all major websites for their online advertising spend.

Websites include, google.com, facebook.com, yahoo.com, education verticals such as

minglebox.com, shiksha.com and pagalguy.com

All organizations preferred to follow a CPL based trend, in which they were expecting

leads from their advertisement campaign

All Institutes/education service providers took online medium to be result oriented cum

brand building platform.

Organizations expected both leads and significant brand building of out of this platform

Organizations of this category were expecting leads of high conversion and were

concerned with the sharing of leads with other competitors/institutes.

All institute expected a campaign of` 2 lakh and above.

All institutes of this category were of repute and were keen to sign a service level

agreement that provided them confidentiality of information and the quality of leads tha

were being committed to them.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Spent YoY

TV

Print

Outdoor

Internet/Mobile


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There were no institutes who had never tried online advertising in this segment.

Majorly all institutes did advertising on their own rather than choosing an ad agency

All institutes of such category had an idea about Rediff.com as a medium of advertising.

Majorly all institutes had an India about Rediff.com all felt that its importance was

reducing by the day. Majorly all institutes saw the total cost of accusation of the student, they saw their cost

per lead followed by conversions per lets say 1000 leads, effective cost per lead after

clearing junk leads and then finally average conversions per 1000 leads.

So the effective cost was calculated on conversions on 1000 leads and the cost incurred in

converting those leads to clients

Institutes/Service Providers of An Average Annual Spend between ` 1 Crore and ` 50 Lakh


The Average Annual Spent was ` 58.33 Lakhs.


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Organizations relied on Print medium for their advertising needs

Their Focus on Web based medium were Facebook, Google and niche education vertical

only.


leads from their advertisement campaign

All Institutes/education service providers took online medium to be an upcoming but no

so effective medium, CPL was again the demand in this case

Organizations expected only leads, and the vendor with the cheapest CPL would be

preferred ir-respective of the fact the quality of leads provided.

Organizations of this category were expecting leads of any quality and did not mind the

leads being shared with other institutes.

All institute expected a campaign of` 1 lakh to ` 1.5 Lakhs.

All institutes of this category were of medium repute and were not so keen to sign a

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Category 2

Outdoor

Radio

Print


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service level agreement they were expecting hardcore leads only.

There were no institutes who had never tried online advertising in this segment.

Majorly all institutes did advertising through an agency rather than doing themselves


Majorly all institutes had an India about Rediff.com all felt that its importance wasreducing by the day and questioned the repute of rediff.com as a medium

Here the cost was seen as the amount that was being given to a company and felt that

only sheer amount of leads at a cheaper cost was benchmark of the industry

There was no interest on Effective cost, the core interest was to generate calls from their

telesales team, ir-respective of the fact that the information being redundant.

The Marketing executives of such organizations were not so comfortable with online

marketing jargons and technicalities of the campaign.

Institutes/Service Providers of An Average Annual Spend below 50 Lakhs


The Average Annual Spent was ` 8.43 Lakhs


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Organizations relied on online medium for their advertising needs not because it was

effective, targeted and result oriented, but to the sheer reason that it was cheaper than

print in some scenarios

Their Focus on Web based medium was Facebook, Google and niche education verticals

only and cheap online advertisements. The focus was region based rather than Pan

India basis. The target was a region and such campaigns were difficult to process due to

sheer focused nature of the campaign


leads from their advertisement campaign and some were even expecting data from the

Rediffs property database

All Institutes/education service providers took online medium to a no option left scenari

since here the advertisement could suit any kind of budget, CPL was again the demand i

this case.

Organizations expected only leads, and the vendor with the cheapest CPL would be

preferred ir-respective of the fact the quality of leads provided.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Category 3

Online

Radio

Print


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Organizations of this category were expecting leads of any quality and did not mind the

leads being shared with other institutes.

All institute expected a campaign of` 0.50 lakh to ` 1.0 Lakhs.

All institutes of this category were of average repute and were not so keen to sign a

service level agreement they were expecting hardcore leads only and ways of mass

mailing customers at lower cost.

There some institutes who had never tried online advertising in this segment.

Majorly all institutes did advertising through the IT Dept. of their organization


Majorly all institutes had an India about Rediff.com all felt that its importance was

reducing by the day and questioned the repute of rediff.com as a medium

Here the cost was seen as the amount that was being given to a company and felt that

only sheer amount of leads at a cheaper cost was benchmark of the industry

There was no interest on Effective cost, the core interest was to generate calls from their

telesales team, ir-respective of the fact that the information being redundant.

The Marketing executives of such organizations were not so comfortable with online

marketing jargons and technicalities of the campaign.

THE LEARNING CURVEThe learning Curve of working in this organization has been immense, though this internship we learnt

the insides of the trade of sales and most importantly Ad sales and how we deal with people of all types.

The Learning From Doing Sales starting from ground and above

We learnt how to adjust in a corporate atmosphere and become more disciplined.


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We learnt on as to how to learn the product and service we were going to sell and what kind

of questions can be asked from us.

The ways to finding potential clients, introspection of data and building a database of

potential clients.

Making a record of contact developed and way of finding close contacts.

Building a record of all information found and gathered about a client and adjusting ways

to fill information about meeting. How to call clients (cold calling) and convincing about the products on Rediff.com.

Dealing with different type of clients with varied interests and understanding their needs

and understanding their scenario.

Designing a customized package as per the demand of the customer and substantially

delivering to the client.

Following up with the client and then eventually getting feedback about our offering.

Preparing a DCR (detailed Call Record) about all the meeting conducted.

FIGURE R

The internship helped in putting to work all the knowledge gained by us in the classroom

combined with all the work that we were given.

We are now able to make a more known and sound decision about our carrier and our

future plans about a sales and marketing job.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In our Two months period about Rediff.com we got to know the trade facts and the working of the Ad

sales in the education verticals. Based on our meetings and client feedbacks we have some generic

recommendations to make.

Rediff.com is a 16 Year old brand and the first .com to be registered in India. Rediff.com

has immense brand value cause of its sheer presence over a long period of time.


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All the clients visited had said that Rediffmail was the most common product used but that

too had now reduced its usability due to incoming of Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.

Rediff.com needs to innovate in terms of product quality and product range.

Rediff.com is a renowned brand but has lost its shine due to upcoming of niche services

such as Gmail for mail, minglebox for education, Facebook for social networking and et.

Al.

Rediff.com needs to promote its brand and its core offerings to the customer to remind

them of the brand Rediff.com.

All major .com business have to advertise to increase traffic on their website, Google even

after being pioneer does regular localized TV Ad campaigns.

Rediff.com needs to Change its policies with respect to the AD campaign done with the

educational institutes.

If Rediff.com was to complete in the education vertical we recommend that it firstly get a

separate domain/sub domain for education purpose solely.

The floor price of the minimum contract to be reduced to `20,000 from the current price

Rediff.com should start promotion of its education vertical to more education-focused

events in order to gain more hits and queries on its page.

The current platter of advertising properties should be tweaked to get more innovative

campaigns such as live chat, discussion boards in education vertical and review and forum

all in one education vertical only.

The Ad campaign should be accustomed to fit all types of campaign CPC, CPL and CPM.

Since education verticals mostly ask for CPL, we need to devise a strategy for CPL

campaigns in education, which can be focused on providing more services to the same.

Rediff.com has the best brand perception in the Indian .com business and with its

educational domain it can have exponential growth and better than all education verticals .

ILLUSTRATION ANNEXTURE

Figure a ....................................................................................................................................................... 6


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Figure b ....................................................................................................................................................... 8

Figure c ..................................................................................................................................................... 10

Figure d ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

Figure e ..................................................................................................................................................... 14

Figure f...................................................................................................................................................... 15

Figure g ..................................................................................................................................................... 16

Figure h ..................................................................................................................................................... 17

Figure i ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Figure j ...................................................................................................................................................... 19

Figure k..................................................................................................................................................... 22

Figure l ...................................................................................................................................................... 23

Figure m .................................................................................................................................................... 26

Figure n ..................................................................................................................................................... 34

Figure o ..................................................................................................................................................... 35

Figure p ..................................................................................................................................................... 35

Figure q ..................................................................................................................................................... 36

Figure r...................................................................................................................................................... 45

BIBLOGRAPHY


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Information On Rediff.com

http://investor.rediff.com/

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rediff.com

Internal Media Kit presentations

ComScore Ratings

Indian Online Advertising Report

AVENDUS India Goes Digital Report

Research papers on Online

Rediff.com Online Advertising System reports

E-Commerce Trends Reports

http://www.biztechreport.com/story/1173-internet-advertising-india

STUDEN

T DETAILS
http://investor.rediff.com/http://investor.rediff.com/http://investor.rediff.com/


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E- Mail ID : [email protected]

Phone No. +91 98185 99696

digital marketing on rediff

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