Dotcom Marketing in India

The Dotcom Marketing Mania

By the late 1990s, there were hundreds of dotcoms in India each vying for the surfer. There was a difference between the ads of FMCGs and the dotcoms. While FMCGs were branded to ‘Come and check my site out first!' And the branding of dotcoms seemed to be difficult as everyone was trying to do the same. Most of the dotcoms seemed to have the necessary technology and the financial muscle (Refer Table II for ad spends of major dotcoms). What seemed to be needed most was differentiation. To achieve this, the dotcom companies depended heavily on advertisements.

TABLE II
AD SPEND BY PORTALS IN 1999

Portal	Ad Spend in Rs million
Rediff	130.8
Indiatimes	107.1
Indiainfoline	48.4
Indiamarkets	44.4
Indiainfo	42.9

Source: Business Today, June 7, 2000.

The print media seemed to have made the most of the dotcom boom as huge amounts were pumped into advertising. According to a report, Rs 12 billion was spent on print media advertising during 1998-99. Shunu Sen, Director, ORGMARG, said, "Since the Internet is still nascent in India and e-commerce through conventional media. Once they get the traffic, they will focus their advertising budget on the Net itself. But till then it will be boom time of the traditional media." On the other hand, only companies with good financial stability were using the electronic media for advertising. Besides the cost, it worked only if a certain level of brand awareness already existed. Some dotcoms also opted for contests and other promotional campaigns. Many analysts wondered if all this frenzy made sense. Some described the dotcom advertising as 'mediocre'.

Others felt that most of it was "Hello! I am a dotcom" kind of advertising. Some of ad lines were: "Free E-Mail" (Zeenext): "India's most happening chat site" (123 India.com), "Its all about money, honey" (5paisa.com).

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Case Details

Case Code : ITSY006
Themes: e-Business
Case Length : 08 Pages
Period : 1990-2001
Organization : Equus Advertising, Hungama.com
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Information Technology (Electronic Commerce)

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