Ibibo Announces iHunk

So the beginning of 2009 seems to be keeping ibibo.com busy as it did towards the end of 2008. They announced the launch of a new application – iHunk, for young men across India to showcase their talent, and create their audience and fan club in order to enter the business of modeling.

Ashish Kashyap, CEO of Ibibo says,“Seeing the success and recognition achieved for the young women through ibibo iFreshFace, we wanted to extend a similar platform forthe young men in the country. All these initiatives are part of our vision to provide a platform to the ibibo community to showcase their talent and get recognition. We will continue to incubate such applications across various genres.”

Ibibo is banking on what has worked for it in the past and its own unique model of tie up and integrated contests. It had launched similar efforts like iVideostar, iFreshface, SingurDil and iFashion Photographer earlier. WATBlog had also reviewed this model back when iVideostar was launched in December. Rajiv had concluded then that Ibibo is focusing on being a talent showcase platform via these contests and has a strong focus on entertainment.  And not to forget the word of mouth that such endeavors can generate.

However, clearly as the earlier initiatives now suggest, there isn’t enough sustainability compared to other new media apps that we hear. It is not a big problem really, and the silver lining is fresher content.

The January contest has ended and the users have picked a winner ( Sanjay Khan is the most popular iHunk of the month) while the February contest is still going on. Every month, the community will vote for theirfavourites and one young man will be named iHunk of the month and will win a two-year modeling contract with Elite Model Management and also get an exclusive portfolio shot by photographer, Subi Samuel.