Rediff announced its first quarter results for FY2009-’10 registering a growth of 11% in revenues to $4.96 million compared to corresponding quarter. The Net loss at $1.43 million also showed a better performance compared to a loss of $8.86 million (due to some non-recurring charge) in March quarter.
The results may look disappointing if compared Year-On-Year as the Total revenues and profitability seems to have taken a dive but corresponding result comparison paints a better picture as the economic conditions are also showing revival compared to turmoil seen in 2008.
Rediff’s India revenues were up 15% Q-o-Q and came at $3.95 million although is lower by 40% on Y-o-Y basis. US publishing revenues have shown de-growth but domestic revenues more than mitigated the damages from it.
WATBlog earlier broke the story regarding Rediff’s new avatar and also conducted an Interview with Mr.Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and CEO, Rediff. The Rediff revamp strategy was to keep pace with its new brand positioning along with providing a new identity to a decade old service.
Rediff current forte lies in rediffmail, content and shopping contributing a third each of traffic to its portals. It also holds a 8-9% share in Indian Search market. The majority of revenues comes from financial companies,travel portals, job, matrimony, shopping and real estate segments.
Rediff has also conveyed that its investment in product development and brand building would continue to see renewed thrust in coming 2-3 Quarters and even expects a surge in operating expenses to the tune of $1.0 to 1.5 million per quarter from current levels.
This time Rediff’s strategy seems to be on the correct path by de-cluttering the services and giving brand new identity conveying the right message to a youth oriented country. Although some analyst might put doubts regarding the execution capabilities of the management as they were not able to ride the humongous growth opportunities in past decade.
The hopes would also be pinned on their current revamp as the site revamp came after the june quarter and should be given few months to point out the effectiveness of the work. Rediff should also increase its INDIA based focus as advertising spend growth here would pick up early momentum after seeing a lull even in comparison to US. It should also keep a close watch on Indian search market as a hold on search market could devise a change in its fortune.
