www.indiawiz.com

How many news sites do our country India needs? I can easily count atleast 20 which are out there, and probably 100s other which I cannot name, but know exist. Today’s headline is that Reuters is jumping into advertising supported internet domain website portal business inIndia with their new site Reuters.co.in specifically designed for Indian audience. The English-language sites will carry text-based news, video and blogs with news from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. I do understand that Reuters is probably the biggest news reporting agency in the world, what I cannot understand is why they would target Indian audience and have an advertising based model. Is it that news agencies are also feeling the pinch of lower revenues, or that they think that there are TOP $$ to be made online and are now jumping to compete with their syndicates and other websites in this domain?

“We have built Reuters India to be the premier online and mobile news destination for the rapidly growing audience of South Asian business professionals,” said Reuters India general manager SN Bhaduri. Just few months back AOL entered

India market and also did Nokia with their news based websites and portals. We all also know that Viacom entered via Network 18 (previously TV 18) and now Reuters. Whose next, may be CNN, ABC, MSN, FOX, I guess everyone wants to enterIndia and think there is a huge amount of money to be made from online ad spend. I guess, they need a reality check.What I learnt from Business Standard article and this is to quote Business Standard: “London-based Reuters, the world’s biggest publicly traded provider of financial news and information, is two years into a three-year programme designed to spur sales by investing in content, services and new markets such as India andChina. The plan, called Core Plus, follows three years of cost cuts that included selling or closing more than 80 units. “Hmmm, so this is a plan to cut costs and increase profits, but how? Does this mean,India has a better ROI for investors and businessmen? There are better sales and revenues from India? One thing I have been thinking about, which may or may not hold true, does anyone think that these International companies are draining money out of India slowly, its just like pre-independence days, when foreigners would come and rob our kings of money and take back to their countries, I mean, these companies have stockholders and investors who are mostly non-Indians, right? So any profits these companies make from India, are landing in foreigners pockets, am I correct in my assumption?
 -Indian Wizard