Reed Midem, the entertainment events business of Reed Exhibitions, today unveiled MipWorld.com, a new portal integrating all of its entertainment exhibitions such as MipTV, MipCom, MipJunior and MipDoc. Miptv.com now redirects to mipworld.com, but mipcom.com has not yet switched over.

Ted Baracos, director of digital media at Reed Midem, said the integrated portal was a move towards creating an online content market. The portal already has an online community feature, where a user can search for all the participants at the events. Baracos said the feature will be developed into a full-fledged social networking utility for buyers and sellers of content. “We want to create a social networking site for the creative community. So users can highlight the content they have, put up trailers and other teasers and potential buyers can sample that content before coming to the event itself,” he added.

Baracos said the company did not foresee the economic slowdown majorly impacting the MipTV event, which is slated for March 30-April 3 at Cannes. “At last year’s Mipcom, we had record participation. This year, we anticipate it will be close or at worst, may be a 5% decline,” he said. The participation from emerging markets have been increasing steadily, particularly from China. 83 Indian companies participated in the Mipcom event in 2008. In 2009, Mipcom will do a special focus on the content markets of Russia and India. “India’s content production business has really grown alongside its media industry and many players want to reach global buyers,” Baracos said.