proprietary and confidential no part of this document may be circulated, quoted, or reproduced for...
TRANSCRIPT
Proprietary and Confidential
No part of this document may be circulated, quoted, or reproduced for distribution without prior written approval from CopperPages.com.
T h e L a r g e s t Y e l l o w P a g e s & D i r e c t o r y f o r t h e NRI C o m m u n i t y
Confidential & Proprietary -- CopperPages 2007
Prepared for
Investor
Date
April 2007
CopperPages.com Contact
Preeti Gupta888-55-Copper (tel)888-552-6773 (tel)201-892-6094 (cell)
B U S I N E S S P L A N
w w w . C O P P E R P A G E S . c o m
Hik there
Executive Summary• CopperPages.com is the largest Yellow Pages and Directory Resource for NRI cross-border and intra-country listings. We will be the “Gateway to India” for 1) NRIs, 2) Mainstream markets accessing India, 3) Visitors to and from India, 4) B2B entities in Outsourcing, Import, and other industries.
• Market size estimated at $2 billion to reach NRIs worldwide. (This does not include revenue for E-Commerce, Ticketing, and cross-border services) The global Yellow Pages industry is estimated at $30 bil, and global Local Search at $100 bil.
• Opportunity to be the leader in this area with only one indirect competitor, which has many weaknesses. However due to its monopoly it is generating significant revenue, showing proof-of-concept.
• We are unique from other players in that we will ONLY be a Yellow Pages and Directory with automated, scalable, user-populated tools and services in under-served and revenue-generating niches. There will be no “leisure content”.
• Our team is the STRONGEST in the market. Founder has significant experience 1) as a serial Entrepreneur, 2) with the Internet/Intranet, and 3) in South Asian community and media. Exceptional technology and design team outsourced abroad with low operating costs.
• Website launched in the U.S. and marketing campaign has started, with traffic and revenue.
• $125k and 3 years already spent to create significant Barriers-to-Entry in operations and data, with a proprietary data sourcing method to get NRI listings in almost any country, and a database of 100k NRI listings (over 20 times the size of our nearest indirect competitor). Looking for $1-2 million to grow Brand Name to the same level.
• Opportunity to earn significant cash cow revenues with our tremendous lead. The ad revenue being spent on Zee TV, India Abroad, Sulekha, and other media will FIRST FILTER through us once we capture the Yellow Pages niche.
• In 1-3 years we will be the TOP acquisition target for the companies being funded in India today due to our 3 invaluable assets 1) NRI traffic, 2) NRI Ad Revenue Base (Lexus to Patel Bros), 3) NRI business listings.
Table of Contents• The Mission
• The Opportunity – Market
• The Business Model - Directory Services
• Revolutionizing Search and Bid Requests
• The Consumer Opportunity – Yellow Pages
• The Advertiser Opportunity – Yellow Pages
• Ecommerce and Web Services
• Classifieds
• Community Events
• Career Classifieds
• Movie Showtimes
• Ticketing
• Competition
• Risks / Barriers to Entry
• Strategy – Why We’re Different
• Management Team
• Operations and Marketing Plan
• Funding Allocation/Expenses and Revenues
• Why Invest?
• Appendix A – Calculation for Market Size
• Appendix B – Competitors and Features Comparison
• Appendix C – Screen Shots and Operations
• Appendix D – Yellow Pages and NRI Statistics
• Appendix E – Where We Are Currently Advertising
• Appendix F – Partial South Asian Print / TV Media List
• Appendix G – Cross Border Competition / Other
Confidential & Proprietary – CopperPages Inc. 2007
The Mission
For Consumers – We will be THE Yellow Pages and Directory Resource for cross-border and intra-country NRI listings.
For Businesses – We will be the FIRST STOP for advertisers trying to reach the NRI market.
The Opportunity
In the mainstream market:
- 35% of Business owners advertise in a Yellow Pages
- 90% of adults use a Yellow Pages
Why Yellow Pages?
- Searchable
- Permanent
- Inexpensive
- Higher ROI from Customers
- Customer calls the advertiser 88% of the time in YPages vs. 7% in Print
- Customers spend 25% more thru the YPages than other media
South Asian Advertising
South Asian Market – no Yellow Pages yet
current South Asian advertising spend will flow through
CopperPages first
The Opportunity
The Opportunity – Market
We are the place for 1) NRIs looking to find an Indian Photographer, Babysitter, Tiffin Service, Hindi Teacher, Cremation
Services, or other related business
2) Mainstream consumers looking to find Indian Travel Agents and Tourist Packages, Mehndi “Tattoo” Artists or inexpensive Medical care in India
3) Visitors from India looking to find Indian Restaurants, Hotels, or Grocery Stores
4) B2B entities looking to find Outsourced Services, Importers, or other cross-border, global listings.
• There are approximately 20 million South Asians living abroad worldwide. 2 million live in the U.S. and Canada, 1.2 million in the UK, and 0.4 million in Australia.
• Immigrants and those born here still have strong ties to their homeland and continue to purchase various South Asian goods and services. In addition, India is growing as a global superpower and the mainstream markets and companies need a gateway of access.
• It is estimated that $2 billion1 in advertising is spent to reach the Diaspora market. The global Yellow Pages industry is estimated at $30 billion, and global Local Search at $100 billion3. The Outsourcing and Import/Export industries are at $50-70 billion combined.
Indian
Asian
White
BlackHispanic
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
Median Family Income
1 See Appendix A for details
2 Institute of Asian Studies at St. John’s University
3 According to the Yellow Pages Association, see Appendix D for details
Estimated Annual Buying Power over $65 billion
Highest Median Household Income amongst any ethnic minority: close to $ 60,000 p.a. (Asian Indians)3
Directory Services
• We are a Directory resource with services that create efficiencies in the Diaspora market and are useful for practical every-day needs, there will be no News, Blogs, or “Leisure Content”.
• Like EBay, we create the tools and processes that enable users to submit their own data and interact and transact locally, nationally, and globally.
• All sections are revenue-generating, with most content being provided by the users/businesses themselves who already pay to publish this content offline.
Cross-Border Directory (Yr 3)Intra-Country NRI Directory (Yrs 1 & 2)
B2B – Import/ExportOutsourcingYPages E-Commerce Classifieds
Events, Showtimes, Ticketing
Career Classifieds
NRI Investments in India
Mainstream and NRI Travel to India
B2C – NRI ECommerce
NRI Charity Vehicles
NRI Events/Conferences
Outsourcing - IT, Legal, Accounting, Advertising, Payroll ($30 billion)
B2B – Import/Export: Housewares, Fabrics, Plastics, Leather, Medical Supplies ($20 billion)
Events/Conferences – Prabasi Event, TIE Bangalore event
NRI Investments in India – Real Estate, Mutual Funds
Mainstream and NRI Travel to India – Listings of Hotels, Airlines, Tours (does NOT include booking Tickets or Reservations)
B2C NRI E-Commerce – India-Authored Books, Wedding Clothes, Dance Costumes, Musical Instruments, Ayurvedic Medicine
Charity Vehicles – NRI Charity funds, Initiatives, Political Contributions
Intra-Country Yellow Pages, E-Commerce, Classifieds, Events, and Career – see upcoming slides
• We are going to offer more customized search via a Push/Pull method that will “push” out data that can be searched and sorted by numerous parameters
• Or the customer can “pull” a customized search by submitting a Bid Request with their own specific questions which is then answered and displayed back to them in a customized comparison chart
Yellow Pages search – More Relevant Results via Push/Pull
Category
Location (Country, State, City, Zipcode)
Keyword
Years in Business
Coupon
Price Range (like Zagat)
Ratings
Ethnic Group
- Jurisdiction
- Contingency
- Retainer Size
- US Representative?
- Insurances Accepted
- Weekend / Office Hrs
- Languages Spoken
- Veg vs NonVeg
- Male vs Female
- Smoker vs Non
- Pets Allowed
- Region (Punjabi, Sindhi)
- Maximum Rent
1st tier: Status Quo Search 2nd tier: Additional Search
3rd tier: Customized Search Examples
Yellow Pages
Physicians
Classifieds
Roommates
Outsourcing
Legal
Import/Export
Fabrics
Yellow Pages – Nth Tier Categorization (Push)
- Shipping Services
- Quotas Available
- Fabric Types
Yr. 1 – partial code to be developed
We will build the Nth criteria levels for 250+ categories by harnessing community domain knowledge by enabling Vendors to suggest further categorizations when they post their business listings, and awarding them CPP$ for their efforts. Currently, we already have this feature with general Categories, and we get 2-3 new Category suggestions per week.
Customized Bid Request Form Available for Date 1/11/08?
Describe a Package costing $1000
Package Price Range
Black/White Photos
Do you include Albums and which kinds?
Please describe your other packages
Backdrops included?
Name of Photographer
Contact DetailsVendor Fills out
Customer Gets Info back, customizes Data Display
Available? Price Range
Black/White? Equipment? Packages
Vendor 1 Yes $1200 Cannon 350
Vendor 2 Yes $800-$2000
Professional Sony 220v
Vendor 3 Yes $4000
Vendor 4 Yes $2500
Vendor 5 No $3000
RFP / Bid Request – PullYr. 1 – all code to
be developed
This chart display will be very flexible, the customer will be able to sort/shuffle vendors and criteria, hide rows or columns, and make internal notes
Customer can specify which fields should be answered in Free Text form, Dates, Prices, Yes/No, or Multiple Choice
CPP will save commonly asked questions for each category so customers can choose questions from already built templates, and we will award CPP$ to customers who contribute new questions to the RFP process
The Consumer Opportunity - Yellow Pages
• There is a need for an updated, comprehensive source of NRI Yellow Pages listings for people living within a particular area:
Recent Immigrants looking for attorneys, real estate agents, and driving schools that speak their native language.
Brides looking for South Asian wedding planners, photographers, disk jockeys, and beauty salons.
Families looking for South Asian nursing homes or funeral services, home cooks and nannies, grocery stores, or movie theatres.
Despite the presence of a few local directories, there is also a need for a NATIONAL, Yellow Pages:
Young professionals temporarily residing in another city for work and wanting to join cultural organizations and locate South Asian grocery stores or restaurants during their stay.
People living in small towns who don’t have a lot of local South Asian goods and services and wanting to order from out-of-town.
Brides and Grooms planning an out-of-town wedding.
Search Page
Posting Page
Multiple State, City, and Zip Code Search
Category, Keyword, and Name Search
LOCAL
NATIONAL
Yr. 1 – already launched
The Advertiser Opportunity - Yellow Pages • There is also a great need for business owners to have a permanent, wide-reaching, affordable platform to advertise their goods and services:
• The cost of producing Newspapers, TV and Radio programs is capital-intensive, so most media must charge a minimum rate even to small advertisers. In addition, the advertiser must shell out large funds weekly or monthly to appear in these temporary media.
• Also, there are 100s of papers and programs and even small businesses must advertise in several to reach just a fraction of the community.
• Unlike printed directories which are issued once every 1-2 years, the Internet platform allows business owners to change their information anytime, advertise seasonal promotions, and be visible under several categories, subcategories, zip codes, keywords, and other search criteria.
• For all these reasons, the online NRI Yellow Pages platform will be the first avenue of advertising when a new NRI business opens its doors, just like any mainstream business would first register itself with a mainstream Yellow Pages. Only AFTER joining CopperPages.com will businesses allocate their budgets to other temporary media platforms.
Multiple Locations
Coupon
Distance Expansion
Area Map
Search Results Pages
Basic Free Listing
Expanded Listing
Sponsored Listing
SubCategory Banner Ad
Section Banner Ad
Report Wrong Info
Yr. 1 – already launched
Home Shop by Product Shop by Store Specials My List
Sports
- Cricket Sets
- Carrom Boards
Instruments
- Tabla
- Sitar
Dance
- Ghungroo
- Costumes
Kitchen
- 220v Mixies
- Coffee Grinder
Beauty
- Shahnaz Herbal
- Hair Oil
Housewares
- Luggage
- Silver Artwork
Featured Products:
Featured Stores:
Featured Specials:
Redeem your CPP$ for free shipping!
Note: CPP will NOT carry any inventory. We will simply allow vendors to upload their products through their CPP store and call our Customer Service hotline in India with any questions. Vendors will pay a flat monthly fee as well as per transaction and also pay to showcase their products on the CPP Ecommerce home page.
This is different from existing Ecommerce sites like Rediff or IndiaPlaza in that we are a platform or bridge connecting NRI Vendors to NRI Customers, just as we already bring them together via the Yellow Pages and Bid Request. We are not selling gifts to India or selling our own product.
Ecommerce Web Services Yr. 1 – all code to
be developed
• Content Websites: Many small businesses in the community want a web presence but are web-illiterate. We have created the largest template collection available to the NRI community, as well as a Self-Help tool allowing business owners to edit and maintain their own web content. This has been our most popular service to-date. We have created an online “Tutorial” visible at http://www.CopperPages.com/demos/webedit/webedit.html to automate the training process.
Static Web Services
• E-Commerce Websites: In addition, we will be building the same engine for businesses who want a “Shopping Cart” functionality, as most of them cannot research and manage a web team to do this on their own. They will be able to maintain their own products in the Shopping Cart, and have their own Credit Card merchant account. We will create one master “Shopping” page like Amazon which will list all the stores by Category, and promote products for a fee (esp. during festivals like Diwali).
This will serve a pressing need for customers who have called us in the past looking for specific items like “Cricket sets” or “Tablas” but can’t figure out which stores to contact.
Microsoft Word-type tool for easy editing, including Hyperlinks, Font, Colors, etc.
All Website pages listed in “File Manager” with ability to Edit, Add
Pages, Copy, and Delete
Yr. 1 – already launched
• The Classifieds section is a revenue-generating extension of the Yellow Pages. Listings for temporary services and sales of goods that are not appropriate for the Yellow Pages directory will be displayed here.
• Although there are current local classifieds listings in newspapers and portals, there is also a need for a NATIONAL platform that has a comprehensive listing of Classifieds:
– Businessmen looking to move cross-country, wanting to buy a Dunkin-Donuts or South Asian grocery store.– Immigrants or young adults/students looking for roommates in another city.– Families looking for a travel companion for their young child or older grandparent going to India alone and in need of someone to watch over them during the flight.
• Opportunity to further distinguish ourselves among other Classifieds by maximizing the advantages of the Internet platform and search capabilities as in the following example:
– Roommates and Rental – searching by advanced criteria such as:1) Start date of lease, 2) Square Footage, 3) Furnished vs. Non-Furnished, 4) Vegetarian vs. Non-Vegetarian roommate, etc.
Classifieds
Search Page
Search Results Page, Condensed View
Yr. 1 – already launched
• The Events section is a needed resource in the community. There are Event listings available through competitor websites, national and local, but most of them are simple in their search, posting, and display functionality. We have added unique, proprietary features such as allowing organizers to post Multiple Locations for an Event (I.e. Asha Bhonsle concert in several cities can go under the same listing).
• In addition, based on customer feedback, we will be adding an “Ongoing Calendar” feature which will allow Dance and Music schools, Religious classes, Radio and TV programs, and other ongoing community organizations to post their schedules for ongoing events, a service which is not offered anywhere currently.
Community Events
Search Page for Community Events
Posting Page for Community Events allowing self-content population and automation
Yr. 1 – already launched
• The Career Network is not yet launched but is in development. It will be divided into 2 sections: 1) Job Network, 2) Entrepreneur’s Network.
It will offer traditional functionality such as Resume and Job Posting and Search. However it will also incorporate issues specific to our community such as H-1, H-4, and Greencard sponsorship. In addition, the Entrepreneur’s Network will encourage the posting of startup and investment opportunities and cater to the growing number of South Asians looking to start their own business.
• There is no such service available in the South Asian community, except for Job subcategories under the Classifieds heading in Newspapers and Web Portals. Currently, we also offer the same functionality, but will be expanding it close to the size of a Monster.com or Naukri.com to allow a more detailed search and posting capability, as well as Employer and Employee matching, and other advanced features.
• We already have several businesses awaiting its launch and willing to be paid customers, including Prudential Insurance.
Career ClassifiedsYr. 2 – partial code
to be developed
• There is no brand name website that offers a listing of Movie Showtimes– currently the community must call each theater separately or rely on word-of-mouth. In keeping with our mission as a Directory resource only, we do NOT offer Movie Reviews, only Showtimes and Theater information. Also in line with our goal of automation and scalability, we have created a self-posting form that allows Theater Owners to post their own Showtimes and a back-end functionality that alerts them via email if they have not posted Showtimes for a particular week.
Movie Showtimes
Showtimes on Front-End for Theater in New Jersey
Posting form on Back-End for Movie Distributors / Theater Owners to post their own Showtimes
Yr. 2 – completely developed but not launched
Ticketing
Front-End Ticket Link
Back-End Ticket Sellers Report
• Ticketing services will increase the CPP brand name as organizations will advertise the link to our website where their attendees can purchase tickets. This will serve as low-cost publicity for us, in addition to generating revenues on each ticket purchase.
• This service is also automated, in that all purchases, reports, and changes are made online. No paper tickets will be printed or mailed. The organizer can access all reports and buyer information on the backend, through their Account. Currently, there are a few other websites offering this service, however we offer the most backend functionality and flexibility.
• In addition, we are working on a “Reserved Seating Chart” capability which is not currently available in the market. This will allow us to sell tickets for all kinds of events.
Yr. 2 – completely developed but not launched
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3
Services
Initial Focus:
Yellow Pages
E-Commerce
RFP / Bid Request
Classifieds
and
some Community Events
Additional Focus:
Feature Improvements:
+ Relational Advertising (showing products or info related to each other in cross-sections of the site)
+ Pay Per Click / Call / Transaction
+ Data Mining, CoBranding, other revenue sources
Sections
+ Ticketing
+ Movie Showtimes
+ Community Events – ongoing calendar
+ Career Classifieds
+ Cross-Border
+ Outsourcing
+ Import/Export
+ NRI / Foreign Investment Vehicles
+ Alliances with Sites from India
+ Travel (MakeMyTrip, Yatra)
+ Entertainment (Donwloadable movies)
+ Career (Naukri)
+ Indian Govt (Charity Vehicles,
Railways)
Target Market
NRIs
Visitors from India
+ Mainstream markets
+ B2B
Regions
US
Canada
+ UK + Australia
+ Africa
+ Malaysia
1 to 3 yr plan - Services, Target Market, Regions
Note: The focus in Yr 1 is on those services which bring the Customer to the Vendor. The Vendor will be willing to upgrade their free ad to a paying ad if they get customer calls and sales from CopperPages. The Bid Request process brings value to the Customer not obtainable elsewhere by allowing them to reach multiple vendors through our system and easily compare vendor responses. It also brings value to the Vendor because it is sending them live customer leads. Ecommerce will also increase Customer calls to Vendors because it will showcase specific products which they cannot learn about elsewhere as TV, Print, and other advertising platforms don’t offer such detail.
Competition – Very Little
• Sulekha
- Community and blogs are the focus
- Temporary Classifieds are being treated as a Yellow Pages
- Only 5k listings in Yellow Pages (CPP has 100k)
• Search Engine (Google)
- Missing data: They only pick up websites, not retail locations, comparative search on CPP vs Google shows we are better
- Less Relevant data: The presentation of results is not as efficient for the user due to lack of attributes such as Geocoding and Nth-tier Categorization
- Lack of Bid Requests: More difficult to directly bring the Customer to the Vendor unless contact info is uniformly captured like in the Yellow Pages
• Mainstream online Yellow Pages (Yahoo)
- No Indian Categories: Only one is “Indian Restaurants”
(see Appendix A-C for more detail)
Competition – Companies (see Appendix A-C for more detail)
• Sulekha.com+ Strong monopoly in the U.S. and some Brand Name abroad, $6 million Gross Revenues for 2004, just received $10 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners (see Appendix )- Only has ~5000 Yellow Pages listings for U.S. (mostly in West and East Coast), which are not well categorized and little functionality
- Has abundant Classifieds and Events data, but poor search functionality and organization…also offers some Ticketing and Movie Showtimes…there is no Career Network - Trying to do too much as a portal, has a lot of content driven areas that do not add to the bottom line, old data, inconsistent navigation and poor user-interface, and frequent website crashes. Problems are also related to trying to capture the India and NRI market with limited resources.
• PlanetGuru.com+ / - Used to be the largest online and printed Yellow Pages for 17 cities (NYNJGuru.com, ChicagoGuru.com, etc.)
…but has been dormant recently and Brand Name has faded- Yellow Pages used to be very poorly organized, not much functionality, has only 7,000 listings- Also trying to be a portal, too many sections with shallow coverage
• Rediff.com + Big brand name nationally and internationally, could copy us if they wanted to+ Has resources, large team, and national contacts- No Yellow Pages or other services for U.S.A., mostly based in India
• Local Portals (IndoLink.com – CA, AapKaManoranjan.com – MA, MiIndia.com - MI) + / - Some brand name in local areas, but out-of-towners will not know about sites- Most offer only partial data and functionality of CopperPages
• Printed Directories (Rose Pages (Chicago), Fast Yellow Pages (CA), etc)- These are printed sporadically, with few listings, few copies, minimal geographic coverage, and with limitations inherent in print vs. online
Competition - Summary
• Most websites are trying to be portals, with news, movies, music, sports, recipes, columns, e-cards, books, and other content-driven sections that require resources to create but do not add directly to the bottom line or appeal to the average busy consumer.
• Many websites are trying to cover several geographic regions at once without properly covering any one area.
• Most websites are poorly designed and very difficult to use. Also most of them do not advertise and have inconsistent branding.
• Some websites or companies have a Yellow Pages and Directory services, but they are incomplete or infrequently updated, with no zip code, multiple-state, city, keyword, last name, or expanded search functionality, limited categories, and few automated posting and editing features. No portal currently has separate Career Network or Web Services. (see Appendix B for details)
• As a result, these portals are like department stores – good for visitors who want to get a little of everything, but not for those who desire quality, detailed information in a niche area (like hard-core Bollywood fans who visit Raaga.com or Indiafm.com or singles who visit Shaadi.com for matrimonials)
Despite its many weaknesses listed above, our one indirect competitor, Sulekha.com, is generating annual gross revenues of $6 million due to its monopoly. It is evidence of the strong untapped market. There is a rare opportunity to enter a lucrative and proven market with no strong competition and quickly become the leader.
Risks / Barriers to Entry
• Only room for 2 or 3 Players Unlike content websites where visitors judge the site subjectively, Yellow Pages and Directory
websites will be judged mainly by quantity and accuracy of data. The first 2 or 3 entities to become a brand name will enjoy a significant competitive advantage. The risk is having a larger brand name like Sulekha or Rediff copy our layout, strategy, and data and capturing the market before we do.
• Mitigating Factors Currently there is no direct competition in the Yellow Pages NRI market. CopperPages.com has
built up a strong Barrier-to-Entry by creating a database of 100,000 listings, 75% of which has not been released yet and will be launched once we have increased our Brand Name and Traffic. In addition, we have a proprietary method of extracting South Asian businesses from almost any country in the NRI market – UK, Canada, Africa, New Zealand, etc. - which took us a year to build.
The lead in data is in addition to the superiority we already have in terms of features (see Appendix B).
Because we are focusing our resources on this revenue-generating niche, we will continue to widen the gap between our position as the Yellow Pages leader and other multi-purpose media.
Strategy – Why We’re Different (Focus, Customization, Automation, and Quality)
• Customized Search Results to the Nth Degree and Advanced Technology• We plan to use our revolutionary Search customization technique (slides 7-9) and advanced technology such as AJAX to deliver the user highly relevant data in their search results.
•For example, CPP does not allow user-submitted listings to be displayed until after CPP has unflagged them – preventing foul language, racial/political biases. There is a automatic filter process in place to guard against duplicate data.
• As a further example, all data is ranked according to its source and likely accuracy and stamped with a date when entered or updated. Upon expiration, 3 automated emails followed with 3 automated phone calls are made to ask the User to re-confirm the listing. If a response is not obtained, only then is a live call made to manually verify the data.
• Another way we save labour costs is the creation of self-help online tutorials which train the User to use services on CPP (see Web Services, slide 14).
CPP$ earned for contributions, and ability for us to Approve or Delete a Listing
Duplication Warning
• We are going to focus on revenue-generating, automated, scalable, and practical-use niches in the Yellow Pages, Directory, Career, and E-Commerce areas.
• There are already many providers of news, Bollywood reviews, travel, blogs, and other resource-intensive content. We are going to be the leaders in a few strategic revenue-generating areas which are untapped or under-served, most needed by the NRI market, and complimentary to each other under the Directory umbrella. We will capture a few verticals at a time and cement our position as leaders before expanding to the next.
• Quality Control of Data and Automation - Once we achieve significant market penetration, the User’s job is to populate CPP with data, our job will be to maintain the quality of the data and to continue creating great marketplace tools.
Strategy – Why We’re Different (User Contributions and Incentives)
Edit Listings (Yellow Pages, Events, Classifieds)
• Harnessing the User community and Domain Knowledge Masters
• To encourage the User to input and control his own data, our goal is to create incentives to contribute, although business owners naturally take advantage of the free advertising opportunity.
• CPP has a posting form for EVERY vertical awarding CPP$ to be redeemed for discounts on purchases or upgrades.
Edit Movie Show Times
Edit Ticketing Events
Edit Website
The Account Control features allows them to track CPP$ and manage their contributions.
• For example, we may seed initial variables for the customized Search Criteria in each Category, but reward Users for alerting us when something is incorrect or missing. It is worth “paying” them in CPP$ and benefiting from Domain Expertise rather than paying our own team members to fill in the customized search criteria for 1000s of categories.
Strategy – Why We’re Different (Branding & CoBranding)
Portals such as Sulekha.com are viewed as general websites. The CopperPages brand name (formerly known as IndoPakPages) is associated with Yellow Pages and Directory services. For example, we will be profiling other companies in our Print media. Businesses and Consumers have begun to recognize the unique CopperPages marketing campaign and further associate our company with Yellow Pages and Directory services.
In addition this strategy has allowed us to be in over 30 papers at little or not cost, coverage that normally would have cost thousands of dollars per week.
Former Logo taking 15% to
25% of ad space
BEFORE: AFTER CPP AD DESIGN:
Management Team – Preeti Gupta (Operations & Marketing)
• ThinkIndia.com: Worked as one of 4 founding team members with ThinkIndia.com, an Indian portal based in Silicon Valley, CA that sold to Rediff (Nasdaq: Redf). Helped raise $3 million in VC funding, worked on website, including portal and screen shots, content sourcing, technology design, logos and marketing materials, and other areas.
• Participate.com: Consultants and developers of website community software such as message boards, chat rooms, and polls. Acted as consultant to several high-profile clients such as Staples and Kodak on increasing their web communities.
• IndoPakPages Inc: Internet / Intranet consulting and project management for large multinationals such as Schering-Plough.
• RajaRani, Inc. Importing / Exporting: First company founded. Sold 10,000 products in one year of operation at the age of 23 while working a full-time job. Nationally branded clients included Macys, Nordstrom, Fashion Bug, and Hot Topic. Worked in all aspects of the business, including sourcing raw materials, customs clearance and bulk purchasing from India, manufacturing and package design in the U.S., and marketing to buyers of national retail chains.
• Arthur Andersen: Auditor and Consultant for 4 years. Earned Certified Public Accountant (CPA) after graduating from college in 2.5 years.
• 2Crusade.com: Founder of community/petition software product. Raised $50k in Angel funding and had clients such as ESPN, Readers Digest, and Chicago Tribune.
• Euro RSCG Tatham: Advertising Manager for Vidal Sassoon and Bayer, working on print, TV, and radio campaigns.
• South Asian Community and Media: Active leader for over 25 years, having organized cultural programs, youth conferences, part-time Dance School with 60+ students, served as MC for shows and TV Host for local TV programs, column Writer in various South Asian newspapers, and other leadership roles. Intimately connected to the South Asian community, with a deep comprehension of its needs and business conduct, as well as being able to speak the language and form good relationships with all kinds of South Asian business owners and consumers.
Serial Entrepreneur13 years
Internet Experience10 years
South Asian Community Leader18 years
Media Experience1-10 years
TECHNOLOGY:
Marcos Francos Christiano (Buenos Aires, Argentina) – TECHNOLOGY and PROGRAMMING: Handles all programming, database design, and technology support for CPP. Supervising a team of coders in Argentina who are also programming for CPP. Has worked as a manager at several large companies in Argentina, including government and newspaper entities with similar website and database design requirements.
Roshan Gupta (San Francisco, CA) – TECHNOLOGY: Previously with Oracle, currently with Yahoo, part-time collaboration with Marcos to design website and tables for CPP, and other miscellaneous network setup tasks, demo installations, and tech help for everyone on the team.
DESIGN AND GRAPHICS:
UraLabs (Ilichevsk, Ukraine) – CPP WEB GRAPHICS and PRINT DESIGN: In charge of web design and user interface for CPP, as well as creation of all marketing materials and CPP logos.
Efex Media (Delhi, India) – DEMOS and TUTORIALS: Creation of client materials such as websites, banner ads, and cobranded newspaper ads.
Prizmik Solutions (Delhi, India) – WEB TEMPLATES: Creation of client materials such as websites, banner ads, and cobranded newspaper ads.
DATA ENTRY:
ADI Systems (Madurai, TN, India) – DATA ENTRY: Doing all manual data entry for Yellow Pages, Classifieds, Community Events, and Movies.
Nishant Bambay (Pune, India) - DATA ENTRY: Doing all automated data entry for Yellow Pages.
CopperPages has the STRONGEST team in the market. Many have commented on our superior design, layout, and user-interface, and our technology and services are unique and high-quality thanks to our extraordinary team.
Other Team Members
Operations
Source Data
- Indian Newspapers
- Screen Scraping
- Mainstream YPages
Marketing
- next slides
Maintain Data Quality
- Duplication Filter
- Listing Expiration & Update process
- Incentive Contribution system via CPP$
Automated, User-Contributed Site
- Account System
- Auto Data Verification Process
Short Term Long Term
15 Marketing Techniques Tested in 20061) Direct Sales by sending Media Kits to Citibank, Air India, etc., now we will send Online Demo
http://www.copperpages.com/info/salesdemo.htm http://www.copperpages.com/info/salesdemo.swf
2) Flyers distribution (100,000) at high-traffic South Asian Grocery and Video stores, Restaurants, etc.
3) Newspaper Ads in local and national Indian papers
4) Press Releases in Indian papers
5) TV ads local and national (Zee TV is the most effective)
6) Yahoo eGroups (60 South Asian) joined
7) Banner Ad Exchanges done with other South Asian websites
8) Email campaign (10 cents per email, have done 10,000 so far)
9) Phone campaign (6 cents per call, have done 10,000 so far)
10) Google and Yahoo Adwords/Overture Pay-Per-Click in 350 keywords
11) Sponsor local Indian events with booths
12) Asian/South Asian Ad Agencies contacted to present CPP as another media vehicle for their clients
13) Viral Marketing - Video Blog at YouTube, Vote Taj Mahal campaign, etc.
14) CoBranding deals (not fully tried yet, just G1G insurance, can try more)
15) Stickiness/Other Channels cultivated on CPP (Ticketing, Movie Showtimes, Photo Albums) to see if we could attract more traffic, but had to take code down due to limited maintenance resources
Highest ROI, Lowest Cost:
10 cents/email for InfoUsa
20-30 cents/visitor for Google
2007 Marketing Strategy for West CoastPrinted Yellow Pages – distribute to 50k households on West Coast, cost of $1.00 each, self funded through advertising sales
Online – Google Adwords and InfoUSA Emails
CoBranding Print – Share cost of advertising in Indian papers
Voice Broadcasting – Automated telemarketing, 6 cents per household
Other – ZEE & Local TV, Flyers, Event Sponsorship
Logo taking
15% of ad space
Funding Allocation / Expenses (Yrs 1-3)
$150k $300k $600k $1 mil $1.5 mil $2 mil
Online PPC (Google and Yahoo): $10,000/month x 12 months $15k (focus on West Coast) $45k (focus on West Coast) + $60k (East & West Coast) + $60k (Ntnl)
Email Campaign (InfoUSA data): 10 cents x 500,000 emails $10k (West Coast) $25k (West Coast) + $25k (E & W) + $50k (Ntnl)
TV Campaign (Zee TV): 12 months x $4k - $10k/month $24k (National) + $36k (Ntnl) + $60k (Ntnl)
Phone Campaign: 1,000,000 households x 6 cents $3k (West Coast) $15k (West Coast) $60k (E & W) + $60k (Ntnl)
Print Campaign: 10 newspapers x $250/month x 12 months $10k (West Coast) $15k (West Coast) + $15k (E & W)
Online Banner Ads: $2000/month x 12 months $25k (Ntnl)
Movie Theater Advertising $5k (West Coast) $16k (West Coast) + $7k (E & W)
Wedding Expo & Event Sponsorships: 10 events x $5000 each $18k (West Coast) + $32k (E & W)
Miscellaneous Marketing Materials: TV Ad creation, Flyers, etc. $5k (West Coast) $10k
India Advertising and Data Collection + $50k
UK and Canada Advertising and Data Collection $40k +$250k + $120k
TOTAL MARKETING $48k $168k $430k $530k $780k $1120k
Call Center for Data Verification: 100,000 listings x 50 cents $50k $50k +25k + $35k
Call Center for Customer Service $25k + $50k
Preeti’s Salary $30k
Full-time Programmer Abroad $36k + $40k + $40k
Full-time Designer Abroad $6k $40k
Head of India Operations + $65k
Customer Service and Admin Reps Abroad $35k + $35k + $35k
Operations and Sales Person for US and Canada $115k
Operations and Sales Person in UK $115k
Travel $10k + $10k + $10k
Office Space, Equipment, Hosting, other Admin, Legal Fees $10k $10k + $15k + $35k + $15k
TOTAL FUNDING / EXPENSES $150k $300K $600K $1 mil $1.5 mil $2 mil
Yr 1 Yrs 2 and 3
Revenue Projections (Yrs 1 -3) – assume $300-600k funding in Yr. 1
REVENUES Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total General Banners and Sales $42,600 $148,600 $302,400
Overlays $4,000 (2 sections x 4 of 12 months x 1 ad x $500/month) $36,000 (3 sections x 12 months x 1 ad x $1000/month) $57,600 (4 sections x 12 months x 1 ad x $1200/month)
Section Banner Ads $21,600 (3 sections x 3 banner ads x $200/month) $57,600 (4 sections x 4 banner ads x $300/month) $76,800 (4 sections x 6 banner ads x $400/month)
Database Sales & Licensing $5,000 (10,000 listings x 10 cents/listing x 5 sales) $10,000 (10,000 listings x 10 cents/listing x 10 sales) $60,000 (10,000 listings x 12 cents/listing x 50 sales)
Newsletters $12,000 (12 newsletters x 5 ads x $200) $45,000 (12 newsletters x 5 ads x 3 regions x $250) $108,000 (12 newsletters x 5 ads x 6 regions x $300)
Total Yellow Pages $432,000 $1,138,800 $8,295,000
Expanded Listing $0 Free for the first year $240,000 (1000 listings x $20/month) $1,500,000 (5000 listings x $25/month) + 1.0 x Year 11
Sponsored Listing $300,000 (500 listings x $50/month) $720,000 (1000 listings x $60/month) $4,800,000 (5000 listings x $75/month) + 1.0 x Year 11
National Listing $120,000 (100 listings x $100/month) $150,000 (100 listings x $125/month) $1,920,000 (1000 listings x $150/month) + 1.0 x Year 11
Subcategory Banner Ads $12,000 (10 cats x 2 banner ads x $50/month) $28,800 (20 cats x 2 banner ads x $60/month) $75,000 (35 cats x 2 banner ads x $75/month) + 1.0 x Year 11
Pay-per-Click / Call $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure, this might replace flat fees for other upgrades $0 Not sure, this might replace flat fees for other upgrades
Total RFP / Bid Request $0 $10,000 $250,000
Pay-per-Bid $0 Free for the first year $10,000 ($5 per bid x 1000 vendors x 2 bids each for the year) $250,000 ($5 per bid x 25,000 vendors x 2 bids each) + 1.0 x Year 11
Sponsored Listing $0 Free for the first year $0 Not sure if this will be fair to the Customer $0 Not sure if this will be fair to the Customer
Total ECommerce / Web Services $28,500 $49,700 $130,500
Static Text & Graphic Websites $8,500 (50 websites x $10/month + $50 initial fee) $14,500 (100 websites x $10/month + $50 initial fee for 50 new sites) $39,250 (150 websites x $15/month + $75 fee for 50 new) + 1.0 x Year 11
ECommerce Sites $20,000 (50 websites x $25/month + $100 initial fee) $32,500 (100 websites x $25/month + $50 initial fee for 50 new sites) $86,750 (150 websites x $35/month + $75 fee for 50 new) + 1.0 x Year 11
ECommerce Promotion Page $0 Free for the first year $2,700 (15 websites x 12 months x $15/listing) $4,500 (15 websites x 12 months x $25/listing) + 1.0 x Year 11
ECommerce Pay-per-Transaction $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure if we will get involved due to credit card sales $0 Not sure if we will get involved with this due to credit card sales
Total Classifieds $0 $147,000 $378,000 Sponsored Listing $0 Free for the first year $105,000 (250 listings x $35/month) $189,000 (350 listings x $45/month) + 1.0 x Yr 11
National Listing $0 Free for the first year $42,000 (100 listings x $35/month) $189,000 (350 listings x $45/month) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Total Career Classifieds $0 $75,000 $108,000
Employer Job Listings $0 Not developed first year $75,000 (250 listings x $25/month) $108,000 (300 listings x $30/month) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Matching Service $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure if we will have this $0 Not sure if we will have this
Total Community Events $0 $87,000 $54,000
Sponsored Listing $0 Free for the first year $75,000 (100 listings x $25/month) $36,000 (100 listings x $30/month) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Ongoing Calendar Listing $0 Not developed first year $12,000 (100 listings x $10/month) $18,000 (100 listings x $15/month) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Total Movie Showtimes $0 $0 $0
Charge for Theater Listing $0 Already developed, but not launched first year $0 Not sure if we will charge or keep it free $0 Not sure if we will charge or keep it free
Movie Promotional Videos $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure how much we can charge $0 Not sure how much we can charge
Downloadable Movies / Music $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure if we will develop this $0 Not sure if we will develop this
Total Ticketing $0 $25,000 $30,000
Pay-per-Transaction $0 Already developed, but not launched first year $12,500 (250 events x 50 tickets x $1.00 per ticket) $15,000 (300 events x 50 tickets x $1.00 per ticket) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Flat Listing Fee $0 Already developed, but not launched first year $12,500 (250 events x $50/event) $15,000 (300 events x $50/event) + 1.0 x Yr 11
Seating Chart Event Upgrade $0 Not developed first year $0 Not sure if we will develop this or how we will charge $0 Not sure if we will develop this or how we will charge
Gross Revenues $503,100 $1,681,100 $9,547,900
1 Assumes revenue for US and Canada in Yrs 1 and 2, and revenue in Yr. 3 for UK equivalent to Yr. 1
Financials – 3 Year Projections
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3A B C
Total Revenues $503,100 $1,681,100 $9,547,900
General Banners and Sales $42,600 $148,600
Yellow Pages Upgrades $432,000 $1,138,800
RFP / Bid Request $0 $10,000
Ecommerce / Web Services $28,500 $49,700 Classifieds $0 $147,000
Career Classifieds $0 $75,000
Community Events $0 $87,000
Movie Showtimes $0 $0
Ticketing $0 $25,000
Total Expenses ($600,000) ($1,000,000)
Net Profit ($96,900) -19% $681,100 41%
A U.S. and Canada
B Launch in UK
C Launch in Africa, Australia, Malaysia, and other regions, as well as launch into Cross-Border Directory markets like Import-Export, Outsourcing, and Foreign Investment Vehicles
Why Invest?It all comes down to ROI, and here are some POWERFUL reasons that make this extremely Low Risk and
almost guarantee an array of lucrative Exit Options:
• The Business Model is not in question. The question is not WHETHER an NRI Yellow Pages and Directory will make money, but WHO will make this money? Compare the advanced progress CopperPages has made with its limited resources and time to slow progress made by larger media players here for many more years with much more money. We will be the undisputed leaders in this market.
• The current focus is on India. We are ahead of the curve by capturing the NRI market. In 1-3 years, we will be the TOP acquisition target for all the companies currently being funded in India when they decide to expand their presence to global Indians (NRIs).
- Naukri.com, Yatra.com, IndiaGames.com, Seventymm.com, Mauj.com
• They will compete to acquire us for our 3 solid assets which will help them speed their growth: 1) Our NRI traffic2) Our Cash-Cow Ad Revenue base (Lexus, New York Life, Patel Brothers) which we will generate with
our tremendous lead since there is no major competition and we will be the FIRST STOP for advertisers targeting this market
3) Our South Asian Businesses Database (100k already, prob. 200k+ in the future)
• Or we will be acquired by a media company wanting to extend their media channels - Zee or Sony TV, IndiaTimes
• IPO may also be a distant option - Rediff (Nasdaq: Redf Share price: $17.92)
Appendix A – Calculation for Market Size
• The total market size for media and advertising spending related to the South Asian diaspora is not available.
• Estimates based on rough calculations come to $500 million for the US market to $2 billion for the global NRI market.
• Note: This does NOT include potential revenue for E-Commerce transactions, Ticketing, Bid Requests, and other services.
Media Type Units Estimated Annual Revenue Total Annual Revenue
Small Newspapers 20 papers x 10 states $250,000 $50,000,000Large Newspapers 25 $1,000,000 $25,000,000National TV Stations 5 $10,000,000 $50,000,000
Local TV Programs 2 programs x 12 states $350,000 $8,750,000
Radio Programs 5 programs x 20 states $150,000 $15,000,000
Movie Theater Ads20 states x 2 theaters x 10
advertisers $1,000 $400,000
Outdoor Advertising (Billboards, Shopping Carts, etc) $1,000,000
Google Advertising 50,0000 business $5,000 $250,000,000
Other (Flyers, Cultural Event
Programs, Booths, Sponsorship) 250 events x 10 states $20,000/event $25,000,000
TeleMarketing / Direct Sales/ Direct Mail $5,000,000
Large Websites 5 $5,000,000 $25,000,000Small Websites 50 $30,000 $1,500,000E-Newsletters 250 $250 $62,500
Total Ad Revenue spent to reach NRI market in US $456,712,500
UK (65% of US Revenue) $296,863,125Canada (65% of US Revenue) $296,863,125Middle East (65% of US Revenue) $296,863,125Australia (20% of US Revenue) $91,342,500Africa (20% of US Revenue) $91,342,500Other Countries (Equivalent to US Revenue) $456,712,500
Total Ad Revenue spent to reach NRI market Globally $1,986,699,375
Appendix B – Competition: Comparison of CPP vs Google
Keyword CPP (results from 25k data only,
75k yet to be released)
Google (no Expansion capabilities)
Indian Photographer, Fremont CA
10 (3 initial and 7 additional within 25 miles)
1
Indian Tailor, Edison NJ 7 (2 initial and 5 additional within 10 miles)
Almost 0
Indian Real Estate, Fremont CA
35 0
Indian Grocery, Hinsdale IL 10 (2 initial and 8 additional within 10 miles)
1
For local search on Indian goods or services, Google delivers far less results than CopperPages in most keyword searches, especially those for less common categories (i.e. Tailor) or less popular cities (i.e. Hinsdale, IL).
CopperPages Sulekha 1 PlanetGuru 2 Print Directories 3
General / Other Services Comparison
Yellow Pages / Classifieds Yes Yes Yes and No No
Business Websites Yes No No No
National and accessible free of charge? Yes Yes Yes No
Quality Check / Pre-Approval Before Publishing Listing Yes Yes No Yes
Automatic Notification of Entry Expiration Yes No No Maybe - Manual
Account Points Awarded to Contributors Yes No No No
Filter for Duplicate Contributions Yes No No Maybe - Manual
Shopping Cart Yes Yes No No
Online reporting of incorrect listings Yes No No Maybe - Manual
User can edit their websites online, anytime Yes No No No
User can update/upgrade listing online, anytime Yes No No No
Display of upgraded advertising information in Account Yes Yes – not US? No No
Consumer Report / Newsletter Yes Yes No No
Expanded/Condensed views on Classifieds and Events? 3 views 2 views 1 view N/A
Allow Photograph for YPages, Classifieds, Events? Yes, Yes, Yes No, No, Yes No Not usually
Automated SMS or Hidden Contact Info for Classifieds? No Yes No N/A
Preview Yellow Pages and Classifieds listing? No Yes No Yes
Appendix B - Competitor and Features Comparison
1 Sulekha.com consists of Yellow Pages, Classifieds, Ticketing, Cricket, News, Blogs, Chat Rooms, etc. and does not have a printed directory
2 PlanetGuru.com is similar to Sulekha, but not as popular, and also prints local directories of its Yellow Pages which are free but not easily available
3 Other printed directories include Little India, Fast Yellow Pages, Muslim Pages, Rose Pages, etc.
CopperPages Sulekha PlanetGuru Print Directories
Yellow Pages Comparison
Number of Categories and Subcategories 46 and 250 17-20 and 5 74 and 30 30 - 50
# of Listings 100,000 ~5500 ~7000 ~500 - 5000
Search by Business or Last Name? Yes Yes, but doesn’t show category
No No
Search by Keyword? Yes Yes No No
Search by 50 States? Yes Not all, 16 states/cities
Not all No
Search by Multiple State? Yes No No No
Search by City? Yes Not all, 16 states/cities
Not all No
Search by Zip Code? Yes Not working? No No
Expanded Search by Zip Code? Yes No No No
Associated "See Also" Categories shown Yes No No No
Non-Zero Results feature? Yes No No N/A
Multiple Categorization & Locations for listings? Yes and Yes No and No Yes No
Regional highlighting of listings? Yes No No Yes
Multiple Contact People and Phone Numbers? Yes No No Only in paid ads
Expanded listings with description? Yes No N/A N/A
Ranking of listings by quality and accuracy Yes No - Doubt It No - Doubt It No - Doubt It
Advertiser’s Report / Newsletter Yes Yes No No
Coupons and Search by Coupons? Yes Yes and No No Manual, Printed
Appendix B - Competitor and Features Comparison – cont’d
Appendix B – Competitors - RediffSELECT FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR THE QUARTER OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 06
Figures in $ 000s Oct - Dec 06 Oct - Dec 05 Variance % Oct - Dec 06 Jul - Sept 06 Variance %
RevenuesIndia OnlineAdvertising 4518 2221 2297 103% 4518 3624 894 25%Fee based service 1168 941 227 24% 1168 1088 80 7%Total India Online 5686 3162 2524 80% 5686 4712 974 21%
US PublishingOffline revenues 1305 1441 -136 -9% 1305 1307 -2 0%Online revenues 757 419 338 81% 757 644 113 18%Total US Publishing 2062 1860 202 11% 2062 1951 111 6%
Total Revenues 7748 5022 2726 54% 7748 6663 1085 16%
Cost of revenuesIndia Online 620 392 228 58% 620 540 80 15%US Publishing 787 864 (77) -9% 787 793 (6) -1%Total cost of revenues 1,407 1,256 151 12% 1,407 1,333 74 6%
Gross MarginIndia Online 5,066 2,770 2,296 83% 5,066 4,172 894 21%US Publishing 1,275 996 279 28% 1,275 1,158 117 10%Total gross margin 6,341 3,766 2,575 68% 6,341 5,330 1,011 19%
Gross Margin %India Online 89% 88% 89% 89%US Publishing 62% 54% 62% 59%Total gross margin 82% 75% 82% 80%
Operating ExpensesSales & Marketing 1,502 799 703 88% 1,502 1,548 (46) -3%Product Development 1,030 644 386 60% 1,030 908 122 13%General & Administrative * 1,985 1,361 624 46% 1,985 1,732 253 15%Total operating expenses 4,517 2,804 1,713 61% 4,517 4,188 329 8%
Operating EBIDTA 1,824 962 862 90% 1,824 1,142 682 60%
Depreciation/Amortization (760) (351) (409) (760) (601) (159)
Interest Income 940 383 557 940 913 27
Foreign exchange Gain/(Loss) (489) (661) 172 (489) (56) (433)
Other Income 6 - 6 6 112 (106)
1,521 333 1,188 1,521 1,510 11
Tax (10) (10) - (10) (15) 5
Net Income/(Loss) 1,511 323 1,188 1,511 1,495 16
* Stock-based compensation cost 437 - 437 226 included in General and Administrative
# of Advertisers 163 152 163 159
# Headcount at end of Quarter 288 266 288 288
Cash Balance $ mln at end of quarter 53.18 53.10 53.18 51.44
Net Income from continuing operations before income taxes
Financials for 3rd Quarter 2006-2007 for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2007.
Note that total estimated 2007 Revenue is $30 million, US Revenues are $8 million, of which $3.2 million is online.
Rediff does not specifically target the US anymore or the global NRI market, so the fact they are still earning significant revenues in the NRI market is further support of market potential.
Fiscal years Ended March 31
in 1000s
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Revenues 0 86 516 855 1,906 5,621 7,859 8,572 9,446 12,627 18,701
Cost of Revenues 26 121 175 321 953 2,616 5,098 5,560 4,738 5,113 5,039
Gross Profit (Loss) (26) (35) 341 534 954 3,005 6,665 4,386 4,708 7,514 13,662
Gross Margins 0.00% -40.70% 66.09% 62.46% 50.05% 53.46% 84.81% 51.17% 49.84% 59.51% 73.05%
Operating Expenses 111 390 692 1,545 7,869 14,916 20,938 14,903 7,927 9,227 12,683
Loss from Operations (137) (425) (352) (1,011) (6,915) (11,911) (14,273) (10,517) (3,219) (1,713) 979
Net Loss (137) (425) (352) (985) (6,666) (6,365) (14,765) (18,981)
Net Margins -494.19% -68.22% -115.20% -349.74% -113.24% -187.87% -221.43%
Appendix B – Competitors - Rediff
Sulekha.com, a popular global interactive online platform for the Indian community around the world with 60 city portals at present, plans to spread its footprint across India by setting up 20 more portals in Tier-II cities. The company, which has revenues in excess of $6 million, is also looking at forging alliances in the online and mobile spaces to supply value-added city content to the growing mobile and online customer base.
"Sulekha will provide a comprehensive combination of city specific information and services including yellow pages, classifieds, events, city-based groups and discussions," said Satya Prabhakar, president and Chief Executive Officer, Sulekha.com
Over 90 percent of the commerce and interactions in the new portals will be city-specific, he said. "Our target is to extend this concept of city portals to all cities and major towns in India," added Prabhakar.
Presently, the company has 10 city portals in India with the balance in other countries like Canada, US and UK. The portal currently has around on million hits per month. "Millions of Indians worldwide learn, interact and network through Sulekha," said Param Parameswaran, Chairman Sulekha.com.
The online company is said to be largest online ticketer for Indian events and movies in the US, with a 90 percent marketshare. Sulekha also operates a popular online classifieds for Indians in all its 60 city portals. It also has a tie up with MSN India.
Sulekha planning more city portalsFebruary 15, 2005
Appendix B – Competitors - Sulekha
From Sulekha.com Press Releases:
Sulekha Travel is one of largest niche web properties focusing on travelogues and encourages community interaction between people who are interested in travel. Sulekha.com enjoys 30 million page views and 1.2 million unique visitors a month and almost all the content in Sulekha Travel is member contributed.“ (July 2006)
Sulekha.com, the biggest and most popular online community portal has launched its Yellow Pages service on the WAP platform. This will enable users to access over 400,000 business listings through mobile phones anywhere in the world. This service is the first of its kind in India and is available to users having WAP enabled mobile instruments. (June 2006)
Sulekha Classifieds, the print classified edition of Sulekha.com is now available at a host of conveniently located outlets in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. A whole gamut of information on rentals, real estate, business opportunities, houseshold & business services, automobiles and NRI matrimonials are available in Sulekha Classifieds each week. (March 2005)
Appendix B – Competitors - Sulekha
I suppose Sulekha was bound to get funded. I never found Sulekha very usable, but they do have a dedicated userbase. Traction, as they call it, is critical to funding, as was repeated often at TIE Delhi 2006. (from Content Sutra, posted by Nikhil Pahwa on 11/1/2006)
Responses:From rm — Thu 02 Nov 2006 12:02 AM there are much better sites to sulekha...web 2.0 is all about users, but sulekha took them users for granted and pumps out tons of ads on the face of user...crappiest site i ever visited
From postal portal — Thu 02 Nov 2006 04:36 AM I am surprised with this development. Sulekha has no value offering, and is a very poor quality site. I guess the VC are also getting pressurised now....
From Anil — Thu 02 Nov 2006 05:22 AM I agree with everyone that Sulekha isnt a user friendly site and not at all on the Web 2.0 platform. But at the same time they have their fingers in many pies and have recently made an ad network too which will server CPC ads across Sulekha’s online properties (and maybe have a publisher network too).
From postal portal — Thu 02 Nov 2006 05:57 AM Yes Anil, it has its fingers in many pies but is that a good thing or a bad thing? I have followed this site for some time, they take initiatives and then dont execute properly to the extent that some of the initiatives die prematurely. They started a matrimonial service that lasted less than 6 months, very recently. Since there was some traction in real estate, they started a real estate website but I dont see anything happening there. Anyway, maybe they needed money to pull all these stunts and maybe we see something worthwhile. All in all, its fuelling the online space.
Sulekha, founded and run by Satya Prabhakar, received $4.5 million in prior funding from the Indigo Monsoon Group (IMG) over a 6 year period from 2000, led by Param Parameswaran and Harish. IMG is a private investment firm focused on early stage equity investments in Indian Internet and Mobile domains. IMG has made investments in Sulekha.com (leading online community for Indians integrating social media with local commerce), Fabmall.com (the leading pure-play ecommerce company in India), Indiaplaza.com (the most popular ecommerce destination for NRIs in US) and eShakti.com (leading online India-inspired and customized apparel retailer aimed at a global audience).
November 2, 2006 — Sulekha.com, the first and largest online social media and local commerce destination for Indians, today announced Promod Haque’s global technology venture capital firm, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)’s Series A investment of $10 million in the company.
Appendix B – Competitors – India Plaza
Fabmall.com acquires US-based online shopping firm Our Bureau Bangalore , Jan. 18, 2007The Hindu Business Online
E-tailing firm Fabmall.com has acquired the US-based e-commerce company Indiaplaza.com for an undisclosed sum. With this acquisition, Fabmall.com has also re-branded itself and will henceforth be known as Indiaplaza.in in India and Indiaplaza.com in the US.
Announcing this at a press conference here, Mr K. Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer, Indiaplaza, said that the company would aggressively invest and scale up the operations to create a global online shopping brand for Indians and Indian products in India and the US. The company would soon look at tapping the UK, Australia and South Africa markets. "In the next two years, we'll spend about Rs 25 crore on our marketing activities," said Mr Param Parameswaran, Chairman, Indiaplaza.
Fabmall.com launched in 1999 is one of the first e-commerce companies set up in the country. By the end of FY'07, Indiaplaza is expecting sales revenues of $12 million-15 million and by 2009, about $60 million-70 million. "We are looking at a valuation of about $100 million by 2010," Mr Vaitheeswaran said. Indiaplaza.in has been posting 30 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth, he said. Indiaplaza.com was set up with funding from The Indigo Monsoon Group (IMG), a private investment firm investing in Indian Internet and mobile domains. IMG has also invested in Sulekha.com and eshakti.com.
Indiaplaza's shopping catalogue now has over 3.5 million items across categories including books, music, durables, Bollywood products, apparel, jewellery and appliances.
Appendix B – Competitors – India Plaza
Sify sells Indiaplaza.com, to exit non-core areasJULY 05, 2003 TIMES NEWS NETWORK
HYDERABAD: Sify has sold its online shopping mall, Indiaplaza.com, to an American investor for an undisclosed amount. The move is in line with the company’s restructuring plan, under which, it will exit all non-remunerative, inactive and non-core businesses.
According to sources, next in line are Sify Baron Net Devices and Satyam Institute of E-Business. While the former has transacted no business since the last 18 months, the latter has been dormant since inception.
Sify’s board of directors, scheduled to meet on July 15, is expected to ratify the recommendation for the closure of these two companies and the hiving off of Indiaplaza.com. Sify managing director R Ramaraj confirmed the Indiaplaza.com sale. The company has on Friday also made a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the same. However, Mr Ramaraj refused to divulge either the name of Indiaplaza.com’s buyer or the value of the deal, citing a non-disclosure agreement. “It is an American company that usually invests in such ventures,” he said.
Incorporated in the US, Indiaplaza.com owns and operates online shopping malls in the US, UK and India. During fiscal ’02, the company recorded sales of $3m and suffered a net loss of $1m.
Sify had acquired Indiaplaza.com in July ’00 through a stock-swap, under which, it issued an aggregate of 113,798 ADS to the former equity holders of the portal, according to the filing to the SEC on Friday.
However, Sify’s experience from the acquisition of online properties has not been encouraging. According to the filing, while it had to write off all of the goodwill related to some such acquisitions, including IndiaWorld Communications and Indiaplaza.com, in fiscal ’02, during fiscal ’03, it recorded an impairment charge of $5.2m.
On moves to cut its exposure in various verticals, Mr Ramaraj said infrastructure and retail net services, which contribute about 50% of revenues, will be Sify’s major areas of focus.
A similar fate is in store for Sify’s other subsidiaries like Sify Plasticcommerce, which operated the satyamplastics.com portal. At one point of time Sify had up to 14 subsidiaries, many of which had been floundering. Sify e-learning and SafeScrypt, which has a tie-up with VeriSign, are the only profitable subsidiaries.
• Advertisers Report – Automated and available online, the Advertisers report show current and past months of advertising statistics for paid, upgraded Advertisers.
• Statistics available are Listing Views, Banner Ad Views, Website Clicks, Banner Ad Clicks, and Coupon Clicks
Appendix C – Advertisers Report and Press Room
Press Room published on CopperPages.com Front-End
Categorize all data according to CPP system, some via Find-Replace, many one-by-one and manually
Appendix C - Data Sourcing and Cleaning
- Gather sites for Screen Scraping, audit data for accuracy
- Order copies of Newspapers
Send info to IndiaData is Input Manually or Automatically
Download copies of existing data from CPP and join with new data, rank all data from 1-3 in terms of quality based on source
Run through De-Dupe software using 1st Parameter (95% Address, 95% Name match)
Automatically delete duplicates
Re-Run through De-Dupe software using combos of other Parameters (80% Address, 80% Name, 99% Phone, etc.)
Manually review duplicates and flag for updating or deletion
Repeat cycle until no more dupes can be found
Fill in missing Zipcodes, Cities, States, and required fields, delete those with no phone or address
Optional: Run through De-Dupe based on matching Biz Names, review results for Multiple Locations, assign same Directory ID to franchises or branches
Publish data to CPP, overwriting existing CPP data with copies that have “U” and adding new listings.
2 weeks 2 weeks
1 day 1 day 0.5 day
250/hr0.5 day 0.5 day
Most time-consuming
From 1-4 months 500/hr 250/hr
1-2 days
Optional: Have call center verify data and categorization, perhaps only those with low ranking in terms of source
15/hour
NOTE: 20,000 listings can take 1-3 months
2-4 weeks
• The following are statistics presented by the Yellow Pages Association of North America (www.yppa.com) in a summary of 2004-2005 research and findings:
• The Yellow Pages industry is valued at more than $26 billion worldwide and $14 billion in the U.S. There are over 7,000 yellow page directories in North America, used by 9 out of 10 adults, of which 86% follow-up with a phone call or visit.
•Research shows a 14-to-1 return on investment in Yellow Pages advertisement.
• Yellow Pages users spend an average of 25 percent more than the average consumer.
• According to Knowledge Networks / Statistical Research Inc. (KN/SRI), an independent research firm, 76% of all U.S. adults refer to the Yellow Pages monthly, and 88% of those who use the Yellow Pages ultimately make or are likely to make a purchase. (Compare to 7% ROI in Print and TV, Yellow Pages traffic is worth 12 times more!)
• Research also shows the average Yellow Pages user looks at more than five ads when scanning the directory, with a higher advertisement review rate than any other media.
• According to an AdAge report in July 2004, online Yellow Pages beat Search Engines locally in use.
• New research from The Kelsey Group and ConStat, Inc. indicates that Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) is gaining ground among small and medium-sized business (SMB) advertisers. According to the Local Commerce Monitor, an ongoing study of SMB advertisers co-sponsored by the two firms, 24 percent of SMBs are using IYP as part of their advertising and promotion mix - a 60 percent increase over last year.
Appendix D – Yellow Pages Facts & Statistics
Appendix D – Yellow Pages Facts & Statistics – cont’d
• 68 mln of US Internet users performed an yellow pages search online in July 2006. This represents a 46% increase versus year ago. When analyzing the total share of yellow pages searches, which by their nature have local intent, comScore’s data reveals that Yahoo! Sites and Verizon SuperPages garnered the largest share, with 23.9% and 20.1%, respectively. Google Sites ranked third in IYP searches, capturing 12.5%, followed by Yellowpages.com with 12.0%.
• Gwinnett Business Journal, Dec 2005: Those trusty, dusty yellow pages ought to be green. With a whopping profit margin of about 50 percent, Southwestern Bell Communications' (SBC) print Yellow Pages™ logged a $2 billion profit on $3.8 billion in revenue in 2004, while BellSouth's Real Yellow Pages™ earned $954 million on $2 billion. The print yellow pages industry led all other advertising venues and is expected to do so for at least the next five years.
• According to The Kelsey Group’s annual forecast, global local search and online classified advertising revenues will grow from $15.7 billion in 2005 to $31.1 billion in 2010. The local search segment will grow from $3.4 billion in 2005 to $13 billion in 2010, with online classifieds
growing from $12.3 billion to $18.1 billion during the same period.
Appendix D – Yellow Pages Facts & Statistics – cont’d
• The worldwide Yellow Pages industry (incl. local search) is valued in excess of $100 Billion, according to “Global Yellow Pages™ 2005: The Kelsey Group’s Outlook & Forecast.”
• According to the 2004 Kelsey Group report, the top ten nations (US, Japan, UK, Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) accounted for 85.9% of the global market. The US alone, with revenue of US$15.49 billion, accounted for 50.9% of the global yellow pages advertising market in 2004. Australia was supposedly the fastest growing market (with revenue up by 11.2%), followed by France (up 7.1%) and by New Zealand and Peru (6.8% each).
• In 2003 Kelsey suggested that the industry "remains tremendously profitable", generating an estimated US$10 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on US$25.4 billion revenue. In Canada the Yellow Pages Group boasts profit margins of nearly 58%.
Appendix D – NRI Facts & Statistics
• Approximately 2 million Indians currently live in the United States. The overall growth rate between 1990 and 2000 was 87.4%, the highest of any group in the Asian-American landscape.
• 85% of this population is exposed to some form of Indian media or entertainment.
• The average household income of Indian-Americans is $65,381, which represents the highest and purchasing power of any minority group in the United States.
• 67% of NRIs own their own home, less than 1% receives public assistance.
• 70% of NRIs have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, which is higher than any other immigrant population in America’s history.
• More than 95% of NRIs and 78% of Indian Americans can speak a language other than English at home.
• The UK consists of the second largest NRI population in the world with about 1.3 million Indians. The United Kingdom issues over 250,000 visas a year to Indian citizens traveling to the UK and as many as 500,000 Indian citizens visit India each year, according to UK High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur.
• Australia is home to over 400,000 NRIs, which represents a wealthy yet highly underserved population. In addition, over 100,000 Indians visit Australia each year as tourists.
Appendix E – Where We Advertise
•India Abroad – Nationwide
•Little India – Nationwide
•Indian Express – Nationwide
•Divya Bhaskar – Nationwide
•DesiTalk Chicago and New York/New Jersey
•Voice of Asia – Texas
•India Tribune – Chicago
•Indian Reporter – Chicago
•Tiranga – New York
•Gujarat Darpan – New York
•South Asian Insider – New York
•India Currents - California
We are advertising heavily:
TV: AVS (Asian Variety Program) in NY/NJ/PA/CT and national Pakistan-India Cricket Match coverage
Internet: Sponsored Listings in over 350+ keywords on Yahoo, MSN, Google, & other Search Engines
Direct Marketing: Over 200,000+ flyers already distributed
Print: Publication of Press Release and Advertisements in over 30 publications (partial list):
CPP listed at the top
NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE OUTLETS
India Abroad (Ntnl) Sher-E-Punjab (Ntnl) Silicon India (Ntnl) India Reporter (IL) India Journal India Currents
India Today (Ntnl) Silicon India (Ntnl) Hollywood Bollywood (E. Coast)
INDUS Business Jrnl (MA)
Patrika Ego
News India Times (Ntnl) Urdu Times (Ntnl) India in NY India in New England Pakistan Link Biz India
Weekly Bangla Patrika (Ntnl)
Pakistan Post (Ntnl) The Urban Indian (E. Coast)
Lokvani (MA) Kerala Express Voice of America
Desi Talk (E. Coast) Thikana (Ntnl) AZAD New York India West (W. Coast) Masala Pakistan Voice
Hinduism Today (Ntnl) Divya Bhaskar (Ntnl) New York AWAM India Times (W. Coast) Istyle Pakistan Today
Gujurat Samachar (Ntnl) Namaskar (Ntnl) South Asian Insider (E. Coast)
URDU Times Silliconeer Bibi Magazine
Indian Express (Ntnl) Gujurat Times (Ntnl) India Tribune (IL) Muslims Weekly India Express Anokhi Vibe
Sandesh (Ntnl) Ajit Weekly (Ntnl) Spotlight (IL) Weekly News Pakistan India Herald Mehfil
Siliconeer (Ntnl) Little India (Ntnl) India Post (IL) Indo American Diya Magazine Samar Magazine
TV & RADIO OUTLETS
Zee TV (Ntnl) MTV India (Ntnl) Music Of India Radio (E. Coast)
Aap ka Manoranjan (MA)
ImaginAsian (DC)
Namaste Bombay
TV Asia (Ntnl) Sneha Telugu TV (Ntnl)
Eye on Asia (E Coast) Man Ki Pasand (IL) Dhamaka Radio (TX)
Vision of Asia
American Desi (Ntnl) Anil Ki Awaaz Radio (Ntnl)
Namaste America (E. Coast)
Bharat Darshan (IL) 4Visions Radio (TX)
Pakistan Zindabad
B4U (Ntnl) AVS (Ntnl) Vdesi (E. Coast) Chitrahar (IL) India Waves TV Showbiz
Sony TV (Ntnl) Radio Punjab (Ntnl) Wah India (MI) 88' Geetmala Radio (TN)
ITV IPTV
Appendix F – Partial List of South Asian Media in the US
Appendix G – Only 4 B2C Verticals will Survive, B2B is TBD
Matrimonials
Features
• Matching / Profiles
• Horoscopes
• Offline Events
Players:
• Shaadi.com
• BharatMatrimony
• IndianDating.com
• JeevanSathi.com
• Sulekha.com
Bollywood
Features
• Music
• Ringtones
• Downloadable DVDs
• Gaming
• Movie Showtimes
• Bollywood Events
• Bollywd Ticketing
• Booking of Talent
Actors
Models
Comedians
DJs
Players:
Raaga.com
Smashits.com
DesiParty.com
NowRunning.com
IndiaFM.com
TeenPatti.com
Sulekha.com
Travel
Features
• Airline Tickets
• Hotels
• Car, Other Rentals
• Tourist Packages
Players: MakeMyTrip.com Yatra.com
ClearTrip.com Travelocity.com
Sulekha.com
B2B
Features
• Import Export
• Outsourcing
Technology
Legal
Advertising
Accounting
• Call Centers
Customer Srvce
Data Entry
Sales
Players: IndiaMart.com
OffshoreExperts.com
AliBaba.com
Elance.com
RentaCoder.com
Directory
Features
• Yellow Pages – NRI
• YPages – Cross Border
Medical Care
• Classifieds
• Career Classifieds
• Ecommerce – NRI
• Ecmmrce – Cross Border
• All Events – NRI
• Events – Cross Border
• Charitable Donations
• All Ticketing
• Online Courses
Hindi
Cultural Immersion
Players:
Sulekha.com CopperPages.com
Community/News
Features
• News
• Blogs
• Message Boards
Players:
Sulekha.com
Samachar.com
NewsIndiaTimes
Rediff.com
Appendix G – Cross-Border Outsourcing Directory
Yellow Pages Search Engines
Listings of retail and websites
Searchable by categorization to nth degree
RFP will be more important
Display in customized format
Content and Website listings
More advanced than Yellow Pages search with many players using different algorithims
Limitations and Strengths different from Yellow Pages (+Ranking, +New content, -not comprehensive in results after 15th page, -not searchable by categorization, not displayed in customized format
User domain knowledge and participation (Wikipedia, tagging, forums, blogging)
Appendix G – Outsourcing Directory: Offshorexperts
See next slide for results of “Sales & Marketing Outsourcing”
Too much content on home page, we will just do listings and data, not content which can be gotten via Google searches. Content is subjective and a user might need several articles on a subject to be well-informed, trying to offer a few articles is pointless.
Appendix G – Outsourcing Directory: Offshorexperts
1157 listings, too many results, should have more advanced searched criteria, not sorted by region or even country
Very uninformative display, must link to each company’s page to get proper detail, should be displayed in customizable chart format and have more specific service lists
Appendix G – Outsourcing Directory: Offshorexperts
This information should have been available on the previous page and is too general, one must drill into their website or call them
Appendix G – Outsourcing Directory: Offshorexperts
Although this is somewhat detailed, there is a lot of information that can be collected uniformly from each vendor and then displayed in a customizable comparison chart back to the user. For example, when bidding for a telemarketing project, specific questions might include:
1) Voice Broadcast or Live?
2) VOIP lines or live phone lines?
3) Recorded calls for audit?
4) Dedicated staff or rotated?
5) Minimum job size required?
6) Estimated completion time
7) Previous jobs completed that were similar
8) Commission based or fixed fee?
9) Size of facility and team
10) Years in business
11) Free trial available?
Appendix G – Outsourcing Directory: Offshorexperts
Appendix G – Import/Export Directory: IndiaMart
Appendix G – Import/Export Directory: IndiaMart
Appendix G – Import/Export Directory: IndiaMart
IndiaMART registers 63% growth in nine-month revenues; 73% in 3rd quarterNew Delhi, 15th February 2006 - India's leading online B2B marketplace, recorded a 63% growth (from Rs 760.40 lacs to Rs 1242.53 lacs) in cumulative revenues for 9 months ending 31 Dec 2005 compared to the corresponding period last year. The EBDIT grew in the same proportion (63.7%) to gross at Rs 488.70 lacs as against Rs 298.40 lacs last year. The PAT for the same period grew by 65% (from Rs 292.20 lacs to Rs 176.26 lacs) over the last year.
The quarterly figures (Oct-Dec 05) showed a 73% growth in revenues (from Rs. 280.65 Lacs to Rs. 486.65 Lacs) with a 75% rise in EBDIT (from Rs 96.81 Lacs to Rs. 169.79 Lacs) and 45% growth in PAT over the same period last year.
The increased revenues and profits were largely driven by a 50% increase in the number of new clients building online catalogs at the IndiaMART network, accompanied by a good deal of existing customers upgrading to more comprehensive catalogs. Advertising on the network, that account for 15-20% of the total earnings, also witnessed a growth of 80%. IndiaMART, India’s largest online B2B marketplace offers online business promotion and matchmaking services to Indian businesses in global markets. The marketplace also offers a host of online advertising opportunities, ecommerce solutions, tenders, trade leads and email solutions.
“We are now working towards translating our success in B2B from ‘India-to-world’ model to ‘world-to-world’ model. We are committed to continuously increase and improve our offerings to our online visitors and clients” , said Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of IndiaMART. He further added that the ISO Certification attained by IndiaMART has certainly enhanced its credibility, and has added pace to the company's growth rate.
The IndiaMART network commands a visitor base of 8 million unique business visitors globally that translate into 45 million effective page-views on the portal every month. The network generated a business worth approximately Rs. 5,000 crores for its 9,000+ clients and 3,00,000 member companies in the last financial year.
A key milestone achieved during the last year was the launch of ABCpayments, an online payment gateway service facilitating authentic and secure online transactions between buyers and sellers from across the globe. ABC Payments has tied up with business partners like CITIBANK, ICICI, UTI, and Bank of Punjab, HDFC and IDBI, to offer a single platform offering multiple online payment options
Appendix G – Import/Export Directory: IndiaMart
Appendix G – Hispanic Printed Directories
A Hispanic Yellow Pages of America now reaches over 1 million Hispanic households in the United States With the acquisition of 13 northwestern Hispanic directories, HYPA now reaches the Hispanic market in 9 states
Chicago, IL - January 11, 2007 - Hispanic Yellow Pages of America (HYPA) announced the completion of its acquisition of Travel Media Northwest Inc. (TMNW), and Hispanic Impact Media Inc. (HIM), who, as partners, are the leading Spanish-language yellow page publisher in the Oregon-Washington-Idaho and Utah region. With this acquisition, HYPA is set to reach over one million Hispanic households in the U.S.
HYPA's growth mimics that of the Hispanic market. According to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies the Hispanic advertising industry is outpacing all other sectors of advertising growing 4 times faster and is now a more than $4 billion industry.
HYPA currently publishes Spanish yellow page directories in Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. With the addition of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah, HYPA will reach more than a million Hispanic households with a total buying power of over $13 billion. HYPA's directories go beyond traditional yellow page offerings by providing in depth community information and other vital information via supplementary Spanish directory products in order to help enrich the lives of Hispanics in the U.S.
"Travel Media Northwest and Hispanic Media have a solid customer base, a great reputation in the market, and an outstanding operation that extends our national market presence throughout the Northwest, Midwest and Southwestern United States,” says Michael Reagan, HYPA's EVP & GM.
For more information on HYPA visit www.TusAmarillas.com / www.hypa.info.
About Hispania Capital Partners Hispania Capital Partners is a Chicago-based private equity fund focusing on investment opportunities in later-stage companies serving the U.S. Hispanic market in the numerous areas including print, broadcasting, business services, financial sector, information technology, and food manufacturing and distribution. http://www.hispaniapartners.com.
**For national sales information contacts Adam Trynoski with National Solutions, Inc. [email protected] or call (850) 729-1141 x301.
Media Contacts National Solutions Adam Trynoski 850-729-1141 x301 [email protected]
• StarMedia Women's Channel Relaunch Part of Broader Strategy › › › ClickZ News By Kate Kaye | August 2, 2006
It may not be competing for the same audience as the likes of iVillage or ClubMom, but with the relaunch of its women's section, Spanish language portal StarMedia wouldn't mind grabbing some of their ad dollars.
"The U.S. is the most important country for us in terms of advertising revenue," stressed StarMedia VP of Operations Juan Jose Nunez.
The portal publisher has expanded its StarMedia Mujer channel, building out its editorial content in the hopes of giving Spanish speakers in the U.S., Mexico and other Latin American countries more reason to stay on the site -- and more reason for advertisers to reach women there.
Advertisers including Tyson, Jeep, Kraft and AstraZeneca's Nexium are running ads in the StarMedia Mujer section. Spanish-language microsites for Nexium and Kraft Foods's ComidaKraft.com, hosted by Starmedia, link from ads in the women's channel. Tyson is running a spot linking to its own Spanish-language site, and
Jeep is running a banner linking to an English-language site promoting the 2007 Jeep Compass. According to Nunez, three or four new advertisers are expected to buy media in the new women's channel in the coming weeks. Rich media formats, sponsorships, watermarks and editorially-integrated ads are available on the site.
StarMedia has enhanced content areas throughout the women's section, particularly in Fashion and Beauty and Diet and Nutrition. To accommodate the need for more content, Nunez noted that the company has boosted its editorial staff, based in Spain, to four people. StarMedia Mujer features content areas including Family, Sexuality, Relationships, Home, Horoscopes and Forums.
The relaunched channel also offers a new sub-section called "Tu Espacio," or "Your Space," which includes in-depth content regarding family, work and travel and leisure. StarMedia also provides services such as chat, e-mail, games, e-cards and classifieds across the portal. The firm also launched its online digital Latin music service VOY Music about four months ago.
StarMedia, which is wholly-owned by France Telecom Group's online division, Wanadoo, derives the largest portion of its ad revenue from auto and entertainment advertisers, according to Nunez. He expects to see more dollars from sports and technology advertisers in the near future, he said.
Site visitors from Mexico and the U.S. comprise the largest portion of the portal's user base, Nunez told ClickZ News. Mexico accounts for around 20 percent of its audience, and the U.S. makes up around 15 percent. "The market is much bigger than the rest of the countries," he added. "That's the reason why we're focused on those markets." Other visitors reside in Peru, Argentina, Columbia and Chile. StarMedia often targets ads to users living in the U.S. or Mexico, or specific zip and area codes.
StarMedia ranks fourth in Web traffic among major Spanish-language sites, according to Hitwise. The Web measurement firm found Univision garnered .04 percent of the weekly market share of total Web visits for the week ending July 29. Yahoo Telemundo came in second with .009 percent, Terra Networks third with .004 percent, StarMedia fourth with .001 percent, and AOL Latino fifth with .00008 percent.
The portal must balance its need to go head-to-head with other Spanish-language sites with its broader goal of growing the Hispanic market in the U.S, explained Nunez. Indeed, he sits on the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Hispanic Committee, along with several representatives of StarMedia's competitors. "We're going for the same audience," admitted Nunez. "We have to work together to increase the U.S. Hispanic market."
• StarMedia, VOY Music Launch Latin Digital Music Service
Miami - StarMedia, a unit of broadband provider Wanadoo that serves 20 million Spanish-speaking subscribers, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Latin digital music service provider VOY Music. The companies jointly launched StarMedia Radios, a Latin digital music service that will be powered by VOY and offer 26 online Spanish-language radio stations.
Appendix G – Hispanic Online Directories
Univision.com is a comprehensive content- and service-rich Spanish-language Internet service catering to the 33 million Hispanic Americans who represent the country's fastest growing online community. Univision.com includes three distinct, but closely integrated components: an Internet portal featuring four branded information channels, including original and exclusive news, entertainment, sports, and life resources; a branded shopping channel offering a full range of tailored e-commerce merchandising; and facilitated access to this material through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which can also be obtained through low-cost, financed pre-packaged PCs. Leveraging the power of the Univision Television Network, America's leading Spanish-language broadcaster, Univision.com provides Hispanics with an unparalleled online forum that entertains, educates and empowers the U.S. Hispanic community.
Appendix G – Hispanic Online Directories
Form 10-Q for LOOPNET, INC. 31-Oct-2006 Quarterly Report
We are a leading online marketplace for commercial real estate in the United States, based on the number of monthly unique visitors to our marketplace, which averaged approximately 500,000 unique visitors per month during 2005, and approximately 880,000 per month during the third quarter of 2006, as reported by comScore Media Metrix. comScore Media Metrix defines a unique visitor as an individual who visited any content of a website, a category, a channel, or an application. Our online marketplace, available at www.LoopNet.com, enables commercial real estate agents, working on behalf of property owners and landlords, to list properties for sale or for lease and submit detailed information on property listings including qualitative descriptions, financial and tenant information, photographs and key property characteristics in order to find a buyer or tenant. We offer two types of memberships on the LoopNet online marketplace. Basic membership is available free-of-charge, and enables members to experience some of the benefits of the LoopNet offering, with limited functionality. LoopNet premium membership is available for a monthly subscription fee and provides enhanced marketing exposure for property listings and full access to LoopNet property listings, as well as numerous other features. The minimum term of a premium membership subscription is one month.
We believe that the key metrics that are material to an analysis of our business are the number of our registered members, the number of our premium members, the rate of conversion of our basic members to premium members, and the cancellation rate of our premium members. We also believe that the number of listings on our marketplace is a key metric, as it affects the attractiveness of our website to current and potential customers. Our total membership has grown from approximately 449,000 members as of December 31, 2003 to over 1.1 million members as of December 31, 2005 and approximately 1.6 million members as of September 30, 2006. Our base of premium members has grown from over 21,000 premium members as of December 31, 2003 to over 57,000 premium members as of December 31, 2005 and over 76,000 premium members as of September 30, 2006. Historically, our average monthly rate of conversion of basic members to premium members has been approximately five percent, and our average monthly cancellation rate for premium members has ranged between three and five percent. Premium membership fees have driven the majority of our growth in revenues since 2001 and were the source of approximately 80% of our revenues in 2005 and in the nine months ended September 30, 2006. The number of listings on our marketplace has grown from approximately 224,000 as of December 31, 2003 to approximately 335,000 as of December 31, 2005 and approximately 430,000 as of September 30, 2006.
We derive the substantial majority of our revenues from customers that pay monthly fees for a suite of services to market and search for commercial real estate and operating businesses. Our fee for our LoopNet premium membership averaged $45.40 per month during the third quarter of 2006.