New Delhi: Net4india, an Internet solutions and service provider, on Wednesday announced the acquisition of 50 per cent stake in the Internet magazine - www. bharatsamachar. com - with an investment of $2.5 million here on Wednesday. The investment is in line with the company's focus on the SME segment and its plan to offer a wide range of Internet related services and solutions to its customers across the country.Said Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India: ``We plan to invest over $11 million in a phased manner over the next 12 months. Through bharatsamachar.com we intend to provide high quality news content to our 50,000-plus customers across the country.''
Net4India has already invested Rs 30 crore and of the proposed Rs 100 crore, around Rs 50 crore will be devoted to fostering, Rs 35 crore to technology and Rs 15 crore to marketing and brand building.
Net4India is expecting around 50 per cent of its revenues to be generated by web designing, server co-location and networking solutions; to be followed by Internet access, domain registration and web hosting, which will account for between 20 and 25 per cent; and the remaining to be contributed by net consultancy and fostering services.
According to Sawhney, ``Under the Net4Fostering project, the company will provide financial support and initial accommodation to Internet ventures and will be actively involved in nurturing the venture and taking it to a point of `cruise control'.''
Sawhney added that all its fostering projects will be Internet-related business and services. ``These will compliment and add value to our existing business and customers base.''
BharatSamachar.com's immediate plans include developing Syndicated columns on news, vies, sports, business and travel; multimedia news (constant feed to keep customers updated regularly), newsletter mailing (e-mailing headlines and snippets); and setting up offices in four regional locations for news gathering and marketing. The magazine is also planning to build a team and technology to be able to provide news on broadband in the near future.
Launched in August 1996, Bharatsamachar.com is said to have around five lakh hits a month - around 96 per cent of the traffic is coming from international Indian customers.
After Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, Net4India will be shortly creating `data centres' - for optical fibre connectivity and backbone in all centres - in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.