Rediff has announced a 18% jump(Q-o-Q) in its revenues at $4.73 Million compared to $4.19 Million in sequential quarter. The internet conglomerate has also registered a heavy decline in its losses which stands at $1.64 Million Vs $2.61 Million in last quarter.
The results might look bad in Y-o-Y scenario but should be compared on sequential quarter basis as Dec-2008 quarter was a tough one for Indian economy and enterprises as a whole.
Indian Online ad revenues contributed majorly to Rediff’s revenue surge whereas U.S publishing business is seen at stagnant phase. Rediff’s operating expenses are showing good signs as it has been declining from past few quarters.
Rediff in the meanwhile has claimed that its user base has grown 14% to 85 million compared to a year ago period. The total user base number looks high in awake to India’s total internet user base (around 50-80 million) despite knowing its focus on NRI market. This might be because rediff is yet to write off a large part of Inactive user base not using it service and also due to duplication of user profiles across it services.
The company continues to maintain its capex plans for next 2-3 more quarters and in our opinion may need to launch some additional properties to penetrate its social based strategy adopted in recent past. Rediff during last quarter launched Songbuzz and even tied-up with diamond comics to bring comics on to mobile platform.
Rediff still do not have any killer property which can bring in ample amount of revenues. Newer properties like Rediff Money are winning users but are far away from becoming segment leaders. Rediff in future could very well utilize its cash balance of $48 Million for smaller acquisitions in Indian market.
I think the minimalist version of rediff paid off, in the sense, it has generated more ad revenues as the pages or impressions of the same content has gone up. Raghav, any idea as to the contribution of its shopping vertical ?
@ranjith
segmented numbers are not available for their shopping vertical.Although important thing to notice is that the company is embedding shopping referal links in mails sent by rediff mail users.So they might be getting decent visitors through this technique but there is still not enough clarity on their shopping numbers or conversions.