Rediff Redesign, like we mentioned earlier was one of the most gutsy step by any content player – removing ads from homepage (and even otherwise) isn’t an easy decision – and the impact of removing those intrusive and non-contextual ads has resulted in 16% decline in revenues for quarter ending Sep 30, 2009.
Key numbers for quarter ending September 30th, 2009:
- Total Revenues – 4.19mn (India: 3.08, US: 1.11).
- Gross Margin: 66% (as opposed to 75% in Sep’08 qtr)
- Net Loss (before Income tax): 2.6mn (0.42mn in Sep’08 qtr) – details
We earlier covered how the non-intrusive experience, combined with a ‘white’ experience has actually resulted in overall increase in pageviews (surprise! surprise!) as well as total visits to the site – signs that show long term value(?).
Rediff’s big bet has been the enablement of social activity on the site – i.e sharing with friends, usage of ‘MyPage’ and ofcourse, the overall improvement in user experience.
But beyond that, the content/product strategy doesn’t’ seem to have any significant direction. What’s your take? Do you sense a ‘solid’ strategy behind Rediff’s new avatar?