And now the action shifts to the regional level! The intense war going on for a share of the online advertising pie is slowly and steadily shifting to lower levels. The biggies [Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google..] first battled it out on the global stage.  Then Microsoft and Yahoo!  set up the .in (India-specific website) versions of their global websites. This opened the Pandora ’s Box and very soon the other global players like Google, AOL and Reuters have followed suit with their local versions — the latest one being YouTube.

This I think is a very shrewd move as local versions only can satisfy the demand for local content. So an average surfer like you or me who is interested in India-specific content need not navigate through a global mix. This would sound as sweet music to the ears of millions of Indians who presently are extremely inconvenienced [ purposely using a mild term over here!] due to their inability to access local content. For E.g. Just imagine how frustrated a guy[ or a gal- I am a staunch supporter of anti-sexism- if there exists such a word that is ] might be when he [or she- there I go again !] wants information for accommodation in Mumbai but is unable to access the required site. Besides not only the user’s publishers, too, benefit from more online advertising. Indian online advertising stood at Rs 215 crores in 2007, which is estimated to zoom past the Rs 2,500 crore mark by 2011. Certainly, the local and regional portals will accelerate the online advertising growth.

Now this statistic will come as a blow in the face for many of you! Findings across 10 largest regional bases reveal that 80 per cent of Indians are comfortable with regional languages!! Add to this, the fact that not a single newspaper or TV channel of the most-sold and watched channels in India is in English and you come to realize the enormous potential offered by the regional portals. Though regional portal are still in infancy, I am definitely sure that  they will outdo local portals in future.

But amid all this hoopla surrounding regional portals an extremely intriguing trend is developing in the Indian online space. The so-called horizontal portals—websites that provide general news as well as email among a host of other services— it seems are losing out to sites that cater to more targeted audiences. And this is not just another rumor doing the rounds!! Here’s the proof for it – Although India’s online advertising market continues to be in the pink of health [supposed to grow at a mind boggling rate of 70% per annum], Rediff.com, a leading Internet portal, has posted declining growth in ad revenues!!

This is because horizontals are losing some of their sheen to verticals as advertisers are preferring to reach numerically lower but more focused users. Arvind Mahendru, managing partner of interaction at GroupM says,” Horizontals are cluttered and these days, for most needs, the customer knows which vertical to go to.” But promoters of horizontal portals are quick to deny these allegation [Obliviously! You can’t expect them to stand up and accept that they are losing out to others. C’mon people! Even they have bosses to answer to!]. Dinesh Wadhawan, chief executive officer of Times Internet Ltd,fights back by saying ,” Verticals have certain limiting factors. How many times in your life are you going to get married or be looking for a job? In comparison, won’t you check mail every day? In fact, several times a day?”

Hmm.. Horizontal or Vertical, Regional or Local one thing is for sure.. The online space in India is definitely heading towards some great times!!

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