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Why Yahoo Should Buy WPP

2010-01-14T14:30:39Z

Alok Kejriwal is CEO and co-founder of the online gaming company games2win.com. He blogs at rodinhood.com.

In October of last year alone, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) attracted 605 million unique Internet users (50% of the global Internet population), got them to return another 18 times, stick around for 9.5 minutes during their visit and generate over 100 billion page views. Which traditional media brand do you know that achieved this?

We all have experienced Yahoo – it’s all about seeing and interacting (vs. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) that’s all about searching and clicking). If Google taught the world all about “performance advertising,” Yahoo can create even a bigger impact in display advertising by deeply integrating with the world’s leading brands. It has the heft to create a new paradigm of how display ads are bought, priced and really made profitable for the spenders.

Yahoo could begin this journey by acquiring WPP – the custodian and best friend of the world’s leading brands:

Why this works for Yahoo: Yahoo needs a partner that really understands how brands spend big money, and WPP knows that business the best. WPP’s mega portfolio of companies, which include advertising agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, and media-planning companies such as Mindshare, work closely with global Fortune 1000 brands that spend over $600 billion in advertising. Yahoo’s billing is in the $6 billion range, or just 1% of the global market. WPP understands brands’ needs intimately. Yahoo needs to go deep into brand-spend psychology and orient itself to what they want and get beyond the 1% of global media spending. It needs to have an “interested” partner that quickly influences the gray-haired marketing directors of the power brands into buying the internet (even though they get their secretaries to print out e-mails to read). Buying WPP accelerates that learning and influence. Today, Martin Sorrell is the marketing oracle brand owners listen to. Yahoo needs to partner with him.

Yahoo knows how to create audiences. That’s its core business. It lost out on search (first to Google and then by allowing Bing in) primarily because it’s an audience media company – not a technologist. WPP and team can lead Yahoo’s evolution on the media-sale side and help scale it to the next level. Getting the best media sales partner on your side can be a big win for Yahoo.

Why this works for WPP: Sorrell thinks of Google as a “frenemy,” thanks to its disruptive business that eliminates the need for WPP-type companies. Yahoo could turn out to be his “solome” (soulmate). The medieval media models that made WPP successful are crumbling. Advertising is no longer about making slick ad films that cost millions of dollars and then spraying them across expensive media and praying that they work. Consumers zap ads on TV; the younger set rarely spends time in front of the idiot box, and word-of-mouth marketing is actually what influences consumers the most today.

WPP needs a Yahoo to resurrect itself before it becomes a business that ran out of fashion. Fundamentally, WPP is an “intermediary” – it acts as a go-between between media and brands owners. However, intermediaries are headed the way of the dinosaurs. Technology is making everything transparent and going the DIY way. Brands are getting consumers to make ads for them. Media companies allow their media to be bought at the stroke of a button rather than relying on an army of planners. This deal can help WPP transform itself by becoming a complete solution provider to brands in the world - by not just creating ads but also playing those ads for brands.

Why this works for both Yahoo and WPP: Display advertising in its current traditional avatar is broken. The famous adage in traditional advertising that went “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half” needs resolution. Google dealt with it by going the non-advertising route and creating text links around content. That works well for local brands that need leads and e-commerce brands that thrive on visitors; not necessarily for Coca-Cola, which needs to show itself to the world and remain top of mind.

Yahoo and WPP can actually create the new business model of impacting consumers using their vast interactive media assets and actually show how its display ads not just make consumers fond of brand but also measure their responsiveness and commitment. Today, Coca-Cola gets its ads made by a creative agency and then gets its media agency to buy media for that ad on traditional and internet media. It gets yet another agency to monitor and measure the impact of those ads. All all these agencies charge Coke upfront without really guaranteeing that the campaign will work.

Imagine if the creative geniuses of WPP pair up with the media power of Yahoo and create campaigns that charge Coke only on the measured success of its brand lift. Pay per performance in the display world! If Yahoo and WPP become one entity, they can afford to take these risks (risking some test campaign creation costs and media spends) and take the display-business model to a higher level. If successful, Yahoo can become a monopoly in the display-advertising space.

Google billed $22 billion in top line last year. My bet is that if Yahoo bills $6 billion today and combines with WPP, which trawls the $600 billion global advertising markets for its clients, the results could be market changing and also a win-win for brands, consumers and the media business.

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Prem Panicker, One Of Rediff's Earliest Employees, Leaving To Join Yahoo India As Managing Editor

2009-11-17T11:29:25Z

Well-known cricket writer Prem Panicker, one of Rediff.com’s earliest staffers and the editorial director of the company’s US-based newspaper India Abroad, is leaving the Nasdaq-listed firm after a 14-year stint, a person familiar with the development said. According to our source, Panicker is likely to join Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) India as managing editor, a post that has been vacant for a long time now.

Panicker declined to comment for this story. A Yahoo India spokesperson also declined to comment.

Panicker is currently based in Mumbai. Yahoo India’s editorial operations are based out of Bangalore.

Panicker has been with Rediff since October 1995 (Rediff.com launched in January 1996). Prior to that, he was a senior editor at Sunday Observer. Between 2002 and 2006, he was based out of New York, editing India Abroad. Panicker is a cricket writer of note and is also a popular blogger. He was a key member of the startup team that built Rediff.com into one of the earliest sources of news and information on India on the Web.

This is the third recent high-ranking departure from Rediff (NSDQ: REDF). CFO Joy Chakrobarty and Zaki Ansari, VP, product development, had left in August (more in this story).

If the move comes about, Panicker will likely report to Yahoo India MD Arun Tadanki, who came on board in April. Once Panicker joins, Yahoo India will have filled two key roles that have been vacant for a considerable period.

Yahoo Wants To Make More Money From Its International Users

2009-10-28T20:00:45Z

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) purchased Arab portal Maktoob this summer for a reported $75 million and additional international acquisitions could be on the way. Keith Nilsson, Yahoo’s SVP for emerging markets, noted the purchase during his presentation to analysts Wednesday and said the company would “continue to evaluate expansion opportunities in new markets through buy options, through build options.”

On the international front, Yahoo is battling a gap between its audience and its revenues. Currently, Nilsson said, 75 percent of Yahoo users are from outside the United States but international operations account for only 37 percent of the company’s revenue. To make that more “commensurate,” he said, the company is trying to create a more “consistent Yahoo experience in every international market with rich, relevant local content.” In the past, he said, many of the company’s international properties had been decentralized and often featured “older versions” of Yahoo properties, something that the company is changing. In his own presentation, CFO Tim Morse described boosting monetization of Yahoo’s international audience as the company’s third top priority, after winning in display and growing search volume.

Nilsson pointed to the new Yahoo Cricket site in India as an example of an international success. Yahoo Cricket, Nilsson said, has already surpassed ESPN-owned Cricinfo in traffic.

At least one missing piece: In July, CEO Carol Bartz said the company was “closing in on someone” to lead its international operations—but Yahoo still has not named an international chief.

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Yahoo Starts Singing About Its Yodel

2009-10-13T08:54:20Z

After those somewhat derivative TV ads, the next stage in Yahoo’s effort to drive awareness of its new personalisation features is Yodel Studio, an engagement marketing campaign aiming to “give the yodel back to the people”.

In sound stages erected at London’s Covent Garden, New York’s Times Square and Mumbai’s Phoenix Mill on Tuesday and Wednesday, the site is asking passers-by to record their own interpretations of Yahoo’s signature jingle. A website is also asking users to record via webcam.

Ultimately, this still fails to communicate exactly what Yahoo’s new features are or why anyone would use them over rivals’, but, as an branding exercise leveraging UGC, it’s far more likely to bring a smile to people’s faces than those TV ads.

Winning yodels, picked by vote, will be decided in November and featured in a new series of TV spots. There are seemingly plenty of city-dwellers only too happy to give up their lunch hour for someone else’s marketing campaign.

Artists like LeAnn Rimes, Jewel, Pixie Lott and VJ Nikhil Chinappa are participating at the live events. Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is donating to charity for each yodel submitted, up to $100,000 in the U.S., £15,000 in the UK and $6,300 in India.

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For The First Time, Gmail Is Ahead Of Yahoo Mail In India

2009-10-12T04:12:30Z

A week after Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) splashed India’s top newspapers with its bright yellow house colour in a high voltage ad campaign, it has emerged that its email service has lost its status as the most popular email service in India to Gmail, rival Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Inc.‘s email service.

In September, Gmail received more traffic from India than Yahoo Mail, for the first time ever, according to data from Internet analytics tool Vizisense (see chart). Gmail has been closely trailing Yahoo Mail for a few months now and beat the much older rival in September.

Yahoo recently introduced several new features to Yahoo Mail and pushed the revamped product as part of the ‘You’ campaign.

While Gmail grew from 17.2 million unique users in June to 18.2 million in September, Yahoo Mail fell from 18.3 million unique users in June to 16.8 million in September.

Vizisense is an web analytics tool from ad startup Komli Media. A Yahoo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Trailing the two close competitors are Rediff (NSDQ: REDF) Mail, MSN Mail and In.com mail, in that order. In September, Rediff Mail had 6.25 million unique users, while MSN Mail had 4.11 million and In.com mail had 0.84 million unique users.

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Yahoo's Nitin Mathur On The You Campaign In India; Communicating 'The New Yahoo'

2009-10-07T08:11:07Z

In the normal course of things, it’s rare for Internet companies in India to take out print advertising at all. On Monday, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) stunned Internet users with a high voltage campaign that broke as jacket ads (equivalent of full front page ads) in national dailies, including The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Mint and DNA. Simultaneously, the ‘You’ campaign’s TVC broke on television channels while a digital campaign broke out on the Internet and mobile devices. An out-of-home campaign also went up in four cities—New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The same day, Yahoo’s new home page, which the company has been beta testing since December 2008 and partially migrating users to since July, went fully live (became the default option for all users).

“Yahoo! once again reaffirms its commitment to India by rolling out this campaign in India along with the US and the UK. With over 72% of the Indian Internet users already coming to Yahoo! every month, this campaign will reinforce our leadership position and attract new users to Yahoo!” Yahoo India MD Arun Tadanki wrote in an email response.

Yahoo India’s marketing director Nitin Mathur declined to tell us what part of the $100 million global budget for the campaign is being spent in India, but said the campaign was part of a multi-year transformation of the brand. “It comes with a transformation of our product mix and the campaign is about communicating the new Yahoo to our large user base,” Mathur said. Apart from the new home page, Yahoo has revamped Yahoo Mail, incorporating “open and social” elements to it. Yahoo Messenger also gets some new features, apart from other products.

Ogilvy did the creative work for the campaign globally and the India team worked with the LA office of the ad agency on the Indian campaign. Mindshare is the media agency.

The dramatic use of print was to achieve “disruptive visibility”, Mathur said, adding that print will be used at a later stage in the campaign for business-to-business communication, but for little else.

Mostly, the campaign is going to remain at a brand level, but some parts, especially in digital, will focus on specific products. Print was used to achieve disruptive visibility, television is about reaching out to new customers and digital is about driving usage of Yahoo properties, Mathur said. “Digital is also about getting the conversations about Yahoo going”.

The company was taking the digital campaign very seriously, Mathur said. “We will go all out on showcasing the digital might. In a sense we are walking the talk by leveraging the power of the digital medium, both on the Internet and mobile,” he said.

Interestingly, the campaign is also going to cybercafes, where, according to Mathur, 40% of all Internet traffic in India originates from. There will be some brand communications through cyber cafe chains and some work will also be done in terms of driving usage through Yahoo toolbars and other widgets. Earlier this year, Yahoo had also tied up with Tata Indicom, and developed a co-branded portal, which was the default homepage everytime an Tata Indicom Internet customer fired up her net connection.

On television, the media plan includes some mass market channels as well as infotainment channels such as Discovery, Nat Geo and Fox History, and movie channels. The digital plan is a combination of hi-context, niche websites and larger portals, Mathur said, elaborating on the media mix.

Yahoo India Commercial - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Industry Moves: Yahoo India Sales Head Pearl Uppal Resigns

2009-10-01T09:21:57Z

Pearl Uppal, director, sales, at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) India, who headed monetization across all revenue streams for the Internet major’s India operations, has resigned (via e4m). She confirmed the development, and said she was serving her notice period.

Uppal has worked at Yahoo India for seven years, having joined at an early stage in the company. Prior to Yahoo, Uppal worked at Rediff.com (NSDQ: REDF) and General Electric (NYSE: GE). We are yet to hear from Yahoo India about a replacement.

According to industry sources, Uppal is setting up an online retail business with backing from European and Indian investors. Further details about the venture weren’t forthcoming.

Yahoo Shuts Down SpotM Social Network

2009-08-31T21:30:27Z

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is shutting down SpotM, the social networking service it began testing in India a year ago. Among its features: Users could keep certain friends secret from others and also correspond via text message without revealing their phone numbers. On the SpotM website, Yahoo says it was “experimenting” with SpotM and says the site will no longer be accessible as of Tuesday.

It’s at least the third social network that Yahoo will have shut down, although the company has nevertheless said it is looking to make a buy in the social networking space. It shut down Yahoo 360 in July—and closed down Yahoo Mash last summer. Yahoo has been steadily cutting non-core products under CEO Carol Bartz.

SpotM’s closure was first reported by Pluggd.In.

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Yahoo Acquiring Arab Portal Maktoob After All; Around $75M-$80M

2009-08-25T07:26:45Z

Last month we got a tip that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) was in the final stages of buying one of the largest Arab online portals Maktoob, for about $75 million. This was right when the MSFT-Yahoo deal was announced, and we tried kicking the tires on it, and finally gave up with just a tweet about it. Turns out it is true, as the tweets from the official company account confirm. This is the first major buy by a U.S. portal company in the Arab region, a fast-growing internet and mobile market.

The Jordan-based portal was founded in 1999 mainly to offer a free Arabic language online e-mail service, a rarity then. It expanded from there to include all the regular features of a portal. In June 2005, the UAE-based PE house Abraaj Capital purchased 40 percent stake in the company for $5.2 million, which in turn flipped it to Tiger Global Management in Dec 2007. More about the company history here in Wikipedia.

According to Maktoob’s business news feed, a joint announcement was made by Keith Neillson, VP of emerging markets, Samih Toukan, founder Maktoob, and Ahmed Nassef, GM of Maktoob, at a company wide conference. The price was not officially announced, but our sources say it is in the $75 million to $80 million range. The new Yahoo division will be called Yahoo Middle East.

Some selected tweets from the company’s feed (paraphrased for clarity):

» After today yahoo products will be made arabic and content arabized.
» Uniting Yahoo’s 20 million users from the arab world, with Maktoob’s 16 million.
» Starting with arabic mail and messenger
» Other parts of Maktoob group, Souq.com, Cashu.com, Tahadi mmo games, and Araby.com are not part of the deal but will be a separate company called Jabbar Internet Group.
» Product will be co-branded Yahoo and Maktoob; deal expected to close in Q4

Updated from a story on Maktoob’s business new channel: The remaining products under the Maktoob Group, not part of the Yahoo deal, will operate under a new entity called the Jabbar Internet Group, capitalized to about $20 million, which means the founder are not staying as part of this deal. Ahmed Nassef, the current GM of Maktoob.com, will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams and will report to Keith Nilsson. Yahoo and Jabbar will continue to have a “strong commercial relationship” going forward, which will include the promotion of Jabbar companies on the Maktoob.com portal, the two companies said.

A very important concern that will come up with this acquisition by a global company like Yahoo: concerns over freedom of speech in a region known for censorship of free speech online. Yahoo will be closely watched on how it reacts to such concerns and requests by local governments from here on. Its China policy has come under fierce criticism over the years.

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How Microsoft + Yahoo Stacks Up In India

2009-08-21T08:20:25Z

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) reached an agreement last month under which Yahoo Search will be replaced by Microsoft’s Bing sometime in 2010.

According to Komli Media’s analytics platform Vizisense, the combined share of search traffic from India for Yahoo and Microsoft in July is only 8.49%, compared with Google’s 91.19%. However, the combined reach of search users is higher, at 37.90%, compared with Google’s 93.17%.

This latter metric shows a high number of duplicated users—people who use both Google and Yahoo or Google and MSN. While share of searches (see accompanying tables) denotes number of search queries, reach of search users indicates the number of users who use a particular search engine. In effect, this means some 38% of Indian search users used either Microsoft or Yahoo search during July. Many of them are duplicated users—those who also use Google (NSDQ: GOOG). And going by Google’s share of search traffic, these people seem to use that site a lot more.

Yahoo-Microsoft Deal: The Last 24 Hours In Links

2009-07-29T16:30:50Z

It’s been a busy 24 hours in the life of the Yahoo-Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Search Deal. Our coverage:

Deal Talk With Yahoo’s Schneider, Microsoft’s Mehdi: ‘Adding Display Is Boiling The Ocean’

Why Microsoft Appears To Have Gotten The Better End Of The Search Deal

If Microsoft Wants Yahoo’s Mobile Search, They’ll Have To Earn It

MicroHoo Euro View: Still Miles Behind Google

Microsoft Will Also Power Yahoo Mobile Search, But Deal Is Not Exclusive

Bartz On Microsoft Deal: ‘Boatload Of Cash Is Us Preserving Our Revenue Line’

Yahoo Stock Drops Big

It’s Official: Yahoo-Microsoft Announce 10-Year Search/Ad Pact

Yahoo To Keep Almost All Revenues For First Three Years With Microsoft Deal

Microsoft-Yahoo—Some Key Numbers

Likely Regulatory Questions On Microsoft-Yahoo

My Quick Take On The Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal

Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Talks History In Links

Reports: Microsoft, Yahoo Reach Search Partnership; No Upfront Payment

It's Official: Yahoo-Microsoft Announce 10-Year Search/Ad Pact

2009-07-29T11:51:25Z

Updated: The 18-month Microsoft-Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) saga finally enters a productive phase (regulators willing) with a 10-year global search and advertising sales pact between the two companies. The deal, much of which has already been reported, was announced formally before U.S. markets opened. Yahoo estimates that the deal will improve its annual operating income by about $500 million. The companies hope they will be able to close the deal in early 2010; Yahoo’s transition to Bing, which will be the exclusive search engine, would start about three months after close.

Full details in the release; Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about the deal during a conference call with analysts and press. In a message for Yahoo “fans” on the corporate blog, Bartz wrote: “With Microsoft powering Yahoo! Search, we’ll be able to focus on the things we do best -– being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.” And, without identifying Google (NSDQ: GOOG) by name, mentioned “lopsided” competition in search, adding, “This transaction will create a healthy competitor that’ll keep everyone on their toes.”

The deal includes:

—An exclusive 10-year license to Yahoo’s core search technologies; Microsoft can integrate them into its existing web search platforms.
—Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo sites but Yahoo will continue to use its technology and data in other areas (such as enhancing display advertising technology)
—Yahoo will be the exclusive worldwide sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers but self-serve advertising for both will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform with pricing for all search ads set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.
—Display advertising business and sales remain separate.
—Yahoo stays in charge of its own user experience—including search powered by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT).

The money:

—Microsoft will pay Yahoo with revenue sharing on traffic generated on Yahoo network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.
—Microsoft will pay Yahoo traffic acquisition costs (TAC) at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement with Yahoo continuing to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
—Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.
—The companies say that within two years of regulatory approval, Yahoo will be able to save about $200 million in annual capital expenditures and improve the company’s annual operating cash flow by $275 million. Yahoo’s annual operating income will increase by roughly $500 million.

Yahoo Set To Launch Home Page Redesign; New Look For Search, Too

2009-07-21T00:59:37Z

After nearly a year of testing, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is unveiling its overhauled home page, which it is describing as the “most radical” change to Yahoo.com since the company started 15 years ago. The last redesign was in 2006, and Yahoo which has struggled to define its place on the web hopes the new look—in the words of CEO Carol Bartz—will give it some “mojo.” The bottom line is that for all of Yahoo.com’s traffic, there’s a strong perception that it’s not cutting edge a la Facebook or Twitter. Users in the U.S. will have a chance to opt in to the new design Tuesday afternoon; people in the U.K. and India will have access later this week. The redesign puts a heavy emphasis on customization.

Users, for instance, will be able to add “apps” to a list of “My Favorites” on the home page, in order to get quick access to services from both Yahoo and also from third-party sites (Click on image to the left for several screenshots). In a conference call with reporters Monday, Yahoo SVP Tapan Bhat said that the company’s goal was to make Yahoo.com the “center” for people’s online lives. He pointed to previous versions of the site, which often included a long list of various Yahoo properties, where apps will now be featured instead, saying they were “about Yahoo, not about the user.” Of course, there’s a revenue opportunity for Yahoo here too: The company has claimed that ad impressions on the home page increased between 10 percent and 20 percent due to the inclusion of ads with apps.

One big question, however, remains unanswered: How the new page will impact user engagement. The launch was reportedly delayed, because testing showed that people tended to spend less time on Yahoo.com in its new form. Bhat repeatedly declined to offer details about that, only saying that “when you design a page that users like, they tend to get more engaged.” The site will also be going up against some new competition from fellow portal MSN, which is set to launch its own new look this fall. AOL (NYSE: TWX) did its own redesign last October. Yahoo continues to beat both in traffic both in the U.S. and worldwide.

The company also said that beginning this August it would start bringing in some elements of the redesign to its search pages. A left hand column will be added to search results, so that users will be able to access their apps directly from there.

More highlights:

—Apps: By far, the addition of apps is the biggest change to the home page. Yahoo has a selection of apps that users will be able to choose from but users will also be able to create their own, simply by searching for the name of a site. The app will then be pulled together automatically based on RSS feeds and other elements from the web, Bhat said.

The apps also create new opportunities for more relevant ads, since ads can now be targeted based on the “context of things you care about,” Bhat said. Asked whether it was problematic that Yahoo might be running ads adjacent to third-party content, Bhat said that Yahoo had already been doing so on sites like its customized My Yahoo portal.

—News: Users will also be able to customize the news headlines that they see, including selecting hyperlocal news to put there. Yahoo also plans to introduce a tool that will allow people to slide a lever to determine the mix of content—be it fun or more serious—they want to see on the page. Bhat pointed to new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz as inspiration saying that “one of her big things is why do I keep on seeing Britney (Spears) in the today module.”

—Search: The search box is now bigger—and a list of frequently searched terms now appears on the upper right of the page. Executives had previously pointed to those changes as evidence that Yahoo was still putting a heavy emphasis on its search business.

—Impact On My Yahoo: Bhat said that My Yahoo was not going away, even though the new home page borrows many of its elements, saying the page meets the needs of users who wanted to “customize everything.”

—Social: Users will now be able to edit their statuses on social networks including MySpace and Facebook directly from the home page.

Ed’s note: For a look at Yahoo’s homepage design over the years, check this CNET photo gallery.

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Industry Moves Roundup: Radio Today, BCCL, Indian Express, Yahoo!

2009-06-01T12:51:37Z

Anil Srivatsa, COO at The India Today Group’s Meow FM, has left the radio station he launched in 2007, reports AFaqs. Meow markets itself as a talk radio station targetted at women.

Senior journalist Gautam Adhikari stepped down as editorial pages editor at The Times of India. He is moving to the US to spend time with his family and will focus on writing books.

P.S. Saminathan has stepped down as the chairman of scam-hit Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd. Saminathan, who was barred by Sebi from participating in the market, will continue as managing director.

Business Bhaskar editor K. Yatish Rajawat has been named managing editor by the Bhaskar Group.

Rajiv Jaitly, who left as president, marketing and ad sales, at DB Corp, has joined The Indian Express Ltd as president, marketing, reports e4m.

Ashish Chadha, who quit as associate publisher at India Today Group, has joined Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) India as head of audience marketing, reports e4m.

Canaan Appoints Former Yahoo Exec Sharad Sharma As Entrepreneur-in-Residence

2009-05-27T11:52:54Z

Venture capital fund Canaan Partners has appointed former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Syamtec executive Sharad Sharma as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Sharma earlier led Yahoo! India R&D and was the India General Manager and VP of Product Operations with Symantec. Sharma was responsible for turning around the operations of Symantec’s, formerly VERITAS Software, operations in India. Sharma, who has more than 22 years of experience, will help strengthen Canaan’s presence and focus on the cloud computing market. Canaan already has investments in this area like Virsto Software and SOASTA, Inc.

“Cloud Computing is a global phenomenon and Canaan is very well positioned to be a partner for pioneering companies worldwide. Sharad will help us expand our investments in this space by identifying key trends and attracting innovative entrepreneurs across the globe,” said Alok Mittal, General Partner at Canaan.

Sharma was also a co-founder and CEO of Teltier Technologies, a wireless infrastructure start-up that is now part of Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO). He has also established AT&T’s and later Lucent’s R&D organization in India.

“Sharad brings a unique mix of investment, leadership and product experience in both infrastructure technology and global markets to Canaan,” said Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan. “His experience will be a real asset as we continue our growth in India and other global markets. Sharad’s insight will also help us build on the momentum we’ve established in the virtualization and Cloud Computing markets with investments in companies like Virsto.”

Canaan Partners has been active investor in the Indian venture capital market with around half a dozen investments. Some of its investments include BharatMatrimony, Cellcast and more recently Bollywood website Chakpak and mobile VAS firm mCarbon.

This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle.

Yahoo! Launches Social News Site Buzz In India

2009-05-21T14:40:46Z

Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) today launched its social news site Buzz in India, making it the first international version of the product that launched early 2008 and soon beat competitor Digg.com in traffic. From the company’s official blog Yodel Anecdotal: “Today, Yahoo! Buzz in India is starting off with more than two dozen featured Indian publishers and we look forward to welcoming many more in the coming weeks and months. Since Yahoo! Buzz launched in the U.S. just over a year ago, more than 20,000 publishers from around the world have had stories ‘buzzed up’.”

Yahoo also introduced changes to Buzz overall. “With our new “Buzz Updates” tab, we’re making it easier to follow the submitting, voting, and commenting activity of your friends and the larger Yahoo! Buzz community,” Julie Demsey, senior director for product management for Yahoo Buzz, wrote.

Here’s how Buzz works and how voting up stories can influence what ends up on the Yahoo India home page.

News Roundup: Yahoo To Hire In India, HC On Publishing Confidential Info Of Companies

2009-04-27T08:46:16Z

Even as it is trimming staff globally, Internet major Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) will hire nearly 150 people in India, according to this PTI (via livemint) story. Available openings include those in engineering, customer care, research and product management. One note of caution, however: The story is based on positions advertised on Yahoo’s careers page. It’s possible that the positions were announced a while ago and the page has not been updated. In fact, a cursory glance over the dates on which the jobs were posted, shows that most of the jobs were posted before Yahoo! announced on 21 April it was cutting 5% of staff worldwide.

The Delhi High Court has refused to restrain IndianPetro.com from publishing confidential information about Petronet LNG, saying such an order would amount to curtailing the freedom of speech and expression, reports PTI. “Some may argue that the press could sensationalise the facts in presentation of such information, yet the right to disseminate these views is at the core of freedom of speech and expression and any restrain would have a chilling effect on its exercise,” the court said, according to the story. It imposed a cost of Rs1 lakh to the public sector unit to be paid to the proprietor of the website http://www.Indianpetro.Com. Unless the publication of such information threatens “the very existence” or “would gravely jeopardise a commercial venture”, there is no reason to restrain the media from publishing confidential information of companies, the court said.

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd will invest Rs1,000 crore over the next three years to expand facilities and capture 12-13% of the printing and writing paper market in India, reports Business Standard.

News Roundup: Yahoo India Labs, Ad Startups, Media Code

2009-02-16T03:38:41Z

Looks like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is winding up OurCity. The homepage now carries the following message, which also appears on top of every search page.

Yahoo! India Our City will be going off the air on 18th Feb 2009. We have incorporated successes within Our City, into our new offering Yahoo! India Local which provides information on services in your neighbourhood. Feel free to drop in at http://in.local.yahoo.com/

OurCity, a local search mashup, was launched by Yahoo co-founder David Filo when he opened a new Yahoo facility in Bangalore and designated India as the Centre of Excellence for Product Engineering for ‘Emerging Markets’.

In the backdrop of the Open Hack Day ay Yahoo India’s Bangalore offices on Saturday, which saw participation of Filo, India R&D chief Sharad Sharma told Mint about how “India is being used as lab, a test market for the rest of the world”. Sharma cites Yahoo Glue, a search mash up that puts together news, blogs, RSS feeds, audio video and all multimedia content related to the search topic on one page. Glue, developed in Bangalore, was initially launched and tested in Yahoo India’s search pages before opening it upto users worldwide. Sharma doesn’t talk about ongoing lab experiments, but says similar experiments are on in local search utility OurCity and Yahoo Maps. Wonder what’s in store for Maps.

Mint Radio also has an interview with Yahoo’s editor-in-chief, Srinija Srinivasan, in which she talks about early day troubles in organizing the huge amount of information and issues of privacy as well as dealing with controversial content in times of conflict. The transcript is here.

Ad honchos starting up:

Business Standard points out that six top executives from leading agencies such as J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra and Grey Worldwide have left in the past 45 days to set up their own ad startups, counting on the relationships they have built and betting that specialized services will bring them the clients even in these slowing times. The accounts of The Times of India and Mid Day have already moved from JWT to TapRoot, the startup of former JWT CEO Agnello Dias. An interesting aspect of these moves is the focus on emerging and digital media. Former Grey Worldwide executive creative director Brijesh Jacob has set up a digital agency called 22 Feet. TapRoot’s Dias and Santosh Padhi (former ECD at Leo Burnett) will set up another digital agency and former DDB Mudra ECD Jadish Acharya’s new venture, Cut The Crap, has tied up with Bangalore design shop Design Intersect for product and web design.

Comprehensive media code:

Business Standard also reports that the governent is considering setting up a commission to come up with guidelines encompassing all media. There has been a flurry of activity in media regulation post the coverage of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, but much of the scrutiny was on TV channels. It seems now there is a thinking within the government that “web-based and other electronic mediums” should not be left unregulated. While there has been talk about regulating news websites in the past, thankfully nothing concrete has taken shape so far.

Yahoo Buys 30 Percent Stake In Indian Phone Directory Service Ezee

2008-12-19T19:10:51Z

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has acquired a 30 percent stake in Indian telephone-directory search service called Call Ezee, which is owned by Network Management Co., reports Reuters. Yahoo’s cash infusion will help the company expand its reach from covering 14 cities to up to 50, and grow its information data base five-fold to 10 million numbers. It also seeks to improve call volumes by up to 10 times by year-end 2009. Currently, Call Ezee is estimated to generate about 10,000 calls a day, according to San Francisco Business Times. The company’s competition includes Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which has launched local search in India; JustDial; AskLaila, which is creating local search content and reviews about companies; and Guruji.com, which is funded by Sequoia Capital and is primarily Internet based and is becoming more of a general search engine for India.

Yahoo Takes 30 Percent Stake In INMAC For Local Search

2008-12-18T16:35:41Z

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has made a strategic investment in Info Network Management Company (INMAC), a phone directory search company based in Chennai that offers online and voice-powered directory assistance. Yahoo bought a 30 percent stake in INMAC, known for its Call Ezee service, and will gain at least one spot on the board. There’s also a revenue-sharing component, though IDG says financial specifics were not disclosed. The two companies will integrate their business lists, giving users of Yahoo Local and other properties more in-depth listings of local companies and services; additional projects may follow.