Rediff posts net loss of $2.61 million for 2Q 2009-10
06 November, 2009
Rediff.com has reported a net loss of $2.61 million for the second quarter ended September 2009, as compared to a net loss of $0.42 million posted for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. Total revenues declined by 43 per cent to $4.19 million during September 2009 ended quarter from $7.32 million posted for the second quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Rediff’s India Online revenues, which include advertising and fee-based revenues, for the quarter ended September 2009 totalled $3.08 million, which was a decline of 45 per cent compared to $5.62 million recorded a year ago. US Publishing revenues went down by 35 per cent from $1.70 million reported for the September 2008 ended quarter to $1.11 million posted for the second quarter ended September 2009.
Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO, Rediff.com, has said, “As we had said in our last earnings call, we have taken a number of steps to improve the customer experience on our site, including the removal of ads from our home page, reduction of intrusive and non-contextual ads on other pages, as a result of which we expected a reduction in our revenue in the upcoming quarters. Accordingly, we saw a decline in revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 by 16 per cent over the previous quarter and by 43 per cent over the corresponding quarter in the previous year in US Dollar terms.”
“However, we believe that these user-experience-improvement initiatives have started to show results and have helped us restore the growth in our user base, as measured by ComScore Media Metrix. We propose to continue this strategy for the next two or three quarters and also plan to continue our investment in product development and brand building, at the rate of about 1.0 to 1.5 million dollars in the next few quarters,” Ajit Balakrishnan has further said.
“We are hopeful that all of these steps, user experience improvements, social enabling and heightened brand profile, will significantly improve our share of unique users in India, which in turn will translate to higher revenue and profitability over the next few quarters. Our cash balance of $48 million as of September 30, 2009 allows us to meet our liquidity needs and to execute on our product development and investment strategy,” Balakrishnan has added.
Approach taken by Rediff is right, particularly under the changing face of Internet. However, it does appear that there is still some distance to cover. User experience has improved - but could have been better. Mail (I am sure Rediff won't try to make this an USP) needs quite some cleanup - it performs quite well, but instead of giving a fresh look, it always looks like a re-modeled one (in fact I think, this is quite true for Rediff.com - overall experience). Shopping experience needs to be provide users more comfort feel - which somehow is missing (& I think Ebay India does it quite well).
Overall, Rediff is heading the right direction & my best wishes to Rediff. But user experience needs a big push, not just a remodeling, but a freshness (after all, we are competing with players like Google/AOL/Yahoo).
what a pathetic performance. ab keep talking about comscore, but the results are there for all to see. the site was in a case of decline after having remained stagnant for a long time. that is unless his team shows him their own version of coNscore!!! rediff is losing revenues, people and is seriously threatened by a more severe multi player environment. and it appears that the period of decline has crept into the system. there needs to be fresh blood, thought and aggression especially at the top management levels if they want to stem the rot. Amen
I am agree with the views of Mr.Balakrishnan. I am a regular user of Rediff since long and I always prefer to read sections like Get Ahead, Sports and Business. It is true that the new user interface is easy to navigate and not cluttered.
I have other opinion too. If I am think like a regular internet user then I would surely like to say that a regular user wants quick information and that is the reason Google is the most popular website in India. The old interface had its own benefit and Rediff also can make more money from advertisement.
I appreciate the efforts of Mr.Balakrishnan to improve the user experience at the cost of the company revenue.
Best luck ahead.
Yogendra Oza
www.affiliatemanager.in
Post new comment