IT@TT - Online

From content to service provider

Cyber India Online rates itself as India's top IT Website. Archana Jayakar of it@tt met with E Abraham Mathew, CEO, to find out more about the site and its various facets. Excerpts.

IT@TT: Could you share with our readers about how CIOL came to be?

E Abraham Mathew: CIOL is part of a larger IT media group called Cyber Media India, started in December 1982. We have been the pioneers of IT computing magazines in India. (As) an IT industry group we have introduced several products over the years. In August 1996 we started Cyber India Online, popularly known as CIOL.com. When we started, we were amongst the first 10 professionally managed sites in India. Because of which we definitely derived the first mover advantage which we are still leveraging. Over the last five years, we have picked up a very loyal community. This has taken us to the number one position that we are in today. We have also evolved from just being content to providing services. We have seen the market and over a period of time, incorporated what the industry requires. Because we have a clear knowledge about the industry and what the IT community requires from an IT Portal we have been able to deliver..

IT@TT: CIOL was one of the first sites with other language editions. Could you tell us why you decided to focus on Hindi and Tamil?

EAM: In India you know there are so many languages. Most people in India do not speak in English. If computing has to reach deep down into the villages of India then we need to talk to them in the languages they are familiar with. We realised this pretty early and decided that we have to give our contribution to increasing the penetration of IT in India. We have started two editions -- the first in Hindi and second Tamil. Hindi in India is the most popular language. And if u look at the statistics Tamil comes either in the second or third place.

IT@TT: Can u tell us about your e-Biz channel?

EAM: E-Biz channel is dedicated to building e-enterprise. Over the last 12-18 months there has been a massive shift from being purely a brick-and-mortar enterprise to being a brick-and-mortar plus Internet-enabled one. Our e-biz channel helps enterprise users transition. We have got about six different sections and has become immensely popular amongst the enterprise users.

IT@TT: CIOL’s e Zoom XS delivers news to other websites. What are its special features?

EAM: CIOL’s eZoom is a service we have started to disseminate our content to other websites in India and abroad. Not everybody has to come to CIOL and read about the Indian IT industry or what’s happening in India as far as computers are concerned. So we thought that if we partnered with few other sites, we can help increase the penetration of IT information. So we started our leasing service in which we have certain strategic alliances with a few sites who also carry our content.

IT@TT: Cyber Media is into whole lot of media area. How do you see the Internet as a unique media resource?

EAM: In the Cyber group what we recognise and respect is the need for different media to address the information dissemination requirements. In other words print is important. TV is also important. And so is the Internet. No one media can serve the entire gamut of requirements of the population. As a group we recognise the fact that each media has its advantages and disadvantages. We believe that we need to be the best in each of the media that we are in. Although Internet is a relatively new medium; it's less than 10 years old in the country, we have made an entrance very early. Since then we have built up a very strong relationship with our customers, which has resulted in our position as number one.

IT@TT: Tell us about your tie up with Fabmart?

EAM: We have a complete range of IT products and services which we are offering through our site CIOLshop. Our back-end and logistics are handled by Fabmart. We have a strategic relationship with them wherein we have created the storefront but the actual transaction happens on Fabmart. However, it is not a replica of Fabmart. We are focusing clearly on IT and we know the IT community well enough to be able to provide what it require. Offers are exclusively for CIOL shop.

IT@TT: Can you tell us something about other products and services of CIOL?

EAM: Traditionally we have been very strong as far as content is concerned. Being a media company we know the content very well and that’s something, which we should be doing in excellent manner. Starting about six months back we decided that we will offer more than content to our customers. So we decided that we need to offer more services. CIOL Shop is one of our services.

We also have a career service, which is called CIOL Jobs in which we provide a lot of career related services. We also provide online help called Tech Expert, which provides support within 24 hours. Another service is Global IT Outsourcing. People who need to out-source IT projects can come to our outsourcing channel and then register either as a buyer or as a provider. There is a market place, which we have enabled through this outsourcing channel. Similarly like this there are other services, which we have introduced.

IT@TT: What is CIOL's the revenue model?

EAM: The most prominent one is of course advertising. Apart from that, our career services form a major part of our revenue model. Sponsorship of our various sites is another revenue model. We get revenue from shopping which includes both transaction revenues and membership revenues. Revenues are made from our outsourcing channel. These are all strong revenue sources. From a situation of being 100% dependent on advertising revenue, today we have different streams which contribute to the kitty.

IT@TT: Could you name five websites you like the most

EAM: (Smiles). My top choices are those of the CIOL Network!

Interviewed By Archana Jayakar
[email protected]

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