e4m B2B Special: For your dose of technical info IT is it

Nearly a decade ago, an email traveled at snail’s pace, taking up to six hours for it to appear in your inbox. Today, infotech is one of India’s biggest growth sectors and increasingly earning new respect for the country abroad.

The Government is taking all necessary steps to make India a global infotech superpower and a front-runner in the age of information revolution. This sector is attracting significant attention as well as offers a wide gamut of publications for different readers.

Technology publications in India are active on three different frontages – print, web and industry events. exchange4media takes an in-depth look at the current technology space and the players that are playing a key role in its configuration.

Print publications

In the print segment there a number of magazines providing full-fledged technology-related information. Some of the eminent players include Cyber Media Group, IDG India, EFY Group, UBM India, 9dot9 Media and Infomedia18, among many others.

CyberMedia is the leading player in the segment, being the largest specialty media house in South Asia and among India’s top five magazine publishers. The Group publishes the maximum number of magazines such as ‘Data Quest’, ‘PC Quest’, ‘Voice & Data’, ‘Voice & Data Connect’, ‘Living Digital’, ‘DQ Channels’, and ‘DQ Week’, among others.

Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cyber Media Group, pointed out, “The IT industry in India has shown significant growth in the past decade. Our publications have seen healthy growth in the past few years. We have grown 15-20 per cent on an average.”

IDG India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG Inc, the world’s leading technology media group, publishes magazines on technology that include ‘Windows World’, ‘Channel World’, ‘PC World’, and ‘CIO’.

EFY, a 40-year old renowned media group, publishes ‘Benef IT’, ‘Information Technology’, ‘Linux for You’, ‘ePower’ and ‘Electronics for You’ in the technology segment. One of the oldest publications is growing with other mediums also. Ramesh Chopra, Editor & Publisher, EFY Group, said, “We are always on the lookout for new mediums, for ourselves as well as our patrons’ benefit. We have, therefore, launched several websites and portals. We are also publishing digital versions of our magazines.”

He further said, “EFY is also into events now. We do at least three very important annual events now – EFY Awards, Linux Asia/Open Source Conference, and EduTech (to present professional institutes at one place for those seeking admissions). Besides, we had presence in more than 35 events last year, including some foreign trade fairs.”

9dot9 Media, which acquired the Jasubhai Digital Media Group about a year ago, is active in the sector with their print products such as ‘SKOAR’, ‘Digit’ and ‘The CTO Forum’. Giving the reason for launching publications in this space, Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder, 9dot9 Media, explained, “It happened through the acquisition of Jasubhai Digital Media. The acquisition itself was opportunistic. We saw a company with a strong set of brands and a nationwide distribution and sales network that gave us as a start-up an immediate leg-up in the market.”

UBM India is a part of United Business Media Ltd, a leading global business media company. ‘CRN’ and ‘Network Computing’ are their print publications for India.

Infomedia18, a well-known group in trade publishing, is also active in the technology segment with ‘T3’ and ‘Chip’ magazines.

Apart from these, there are several other magazines that cover the IT industry. These include ‘Express Computer’, a weekly from the Indian Express Group.

The Webmaster

Besides numerous print publications, the IT sector is also very active in the cyberspace. Among the many players, the leading ones include, ciol.com, alootechie.com, Crn.in, Inomy.com, efyindia.com, expresscomputeronline.com, and Tech2.in.com (a Network18 venture). Given the growth potential of the IT sector in India, some international players are also making their presence felt, which include Indiacnet.com, Zdnetindia.com, and idgindia.com.

Ciol.com is India’s leading website focusing on infotech. The website was created with a vision to provide quality and relevant IT information to the growing Internet community.

Crn.in, which is part of UBM Business Media, brings the power of more than 100 trusted IT media brands to more than 18 million technology and business decision makers worldwide through online properties, worldwide gatherings, industry-leading magazines, training, research and expert consulting services.

Alootechie.com, which is incubated by Goosefish media venture, was launched in 2005. The website provides interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research and reference for the Indian Internet and mobile industry. “Today, AlooTechie gets about 47,000 unique visitors, 131,000 visits, and 373,000 page views per month, according to Komli ViziSense. Our daily newsletter has close to 7,000 subscribers with an average open rate of about 23 per cent,” said Rajesh Barnwal, Editor, Alootechie.com.

Tech2.in.com is a Network18 personal technology media label that unifies information delivery and brand communications across multiple mediums.

Industry Events

To enhance the business, the industry organizes several events, conferences and seminars throughout the year.

A quick look at the events, conferences and seminars in 2009

The Future

Cyber Media Group’s Pradeep Gupta noted, “As far as the IT industry in India is concerned, it’s in the pioneer age and the IT publications in the country will grow more in the next 2-3 at an average rate of 20 per cent.”

According to EFY Group’ Ramesh Chopra, “The B2B technology industry has only one direction to move, which is forward. We see technology all around us and most of us are getting addicted to it.”

“Two years from now, we should see an industry that is growing steadily and healthily. On an average, growth rates of 15-20 per cent should be possible,” opined 9dot9 Media’s Pramath Raj Sinha, adding, “We have multiple brands that go beyond the main consumer and enterprise technology space. In each of these spaces, we span print, online, events, and research/ surveys.”

Alootechie.com’s Rajesh Barnwal said, “When AlooTechie was launched, we had a clear objective that we wanted it to become the mouthpiece of the Indian online industry. Moreover, I would like to think we are well on our way to realise that.”

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