Microsoft offers rebates to boost its search engine use
Thursday, May 22, 2008
With its share of the Internet search market in steady decline and its pursuit of an alliance with Yahoo! in doubt, Microsoft is taking a new approach to jump-start its search engine by offering rebates to people who use it to find and buy products.
Microsoft executives said the programme, called Live Search cashback, is part of a plan to come up with new approaches to areas of the search business where they see opportunities to make inroads against Google.
The new programme focuses on searches for products to be bought online, which Microsoft executives said account for roughly a third of search queries and a majority of search advertising revenue, reported New York Times Thursday.
"This is a very big part of the $20 billion search market," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at an advertising conference. "Make no mistake, we are about having the best search, having the best results."
Some innovations in the business model of search, like Live Search cashback, "will help drive that", he said.
Live Search cashback is essentially a marketing effort by Microsoft to promote its search service, which lags far behind those of Google and Yahoo! in popularity. On Wednesday, research firm comScore reported that Google's share of all searches in the US grew again in April to 61.6 percent from 59.8 percent in March.
Google gained at the expense of Yahoo! and Microsoft, which experienced declines in search share - Yahoo! to 20.4 percent and Microsoft to 9.1 percent.
Google has put marketing dollars into some of its services, but it has managed to dominate in search while spending virtually no money to promote its search engine. The company declined to comment on the Microsoft announcement.
Microsoft said that 700 merchants offering over 10 million products have agreed to participate in the programme. They include Barnesandnoble.com, Circuit City, Foot Locker, Home Depot and Hewlett-Packard.
"It is a great opportunity for buyers who come to eBay," said Matt Ackley, eBay's vice president for Internet marketing and advertising. "And it is all about driving demand for our sellers."
In most cases, Microsoft will determine the amount of the rebate that shoppers will get. On a Samsung digital camera that costs $90 to $107, rebates range from two percent to five percent.
"Microsoft's issue is lack of consumer share," said Bryan Wiener, the chief executive of 360i, a digital marketing agency that specialises in Internet search.
"This is an interesting effort to try to motivate consumers to use Microsoft without cheapening the process.
"Will the incentives be enough?" he said. "Time will tell."
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 4:37 PM 0 comments
Labels: microsoft
Ezeego ties up with redBus
ezeego1.com, the travel meta-search site, has tied up with redBus ( www.redBus.in ), the largest consolidator of bus operators (over 270) to provide bus bookings on a real-time basis on its site. Customers can now book bus tickets on more than 3,600 bus routes across the country.
Speaking on the launch, Ms Neelu Singh, COO, ezeego1.com said, "We have always been pioneers in introducing new services and in redBus we found a unique opportunity as it would provide our customers one more option for their travel needs."
Re-affirming redBus' partnership, Charan Padmaraju, Co-founder redBus, stated that, "redBus found great synergy with ezeego for launching the bus service on their website because we noticed that there are many customers who fly to a particular destination and then take a Volvo bus to cover the last leg due to the lack of airport facilities in some towns. This partnership is to add value to such customers and help them plan their entire trip in one go."
The unique aspect of redBus service is that it allows a passenger the flexibility in terms of choosing the type of bus (A/C, Volvo, non A/C or Sleeper), seat preference and pick-up and drop points.
About Ezeego1.com
Ezeego1.com, is one of its kind virtual travel market-place that offers all travel related services. On one hand are the suppliers i.e. the airlines, hotels, tour operators, transporters, insurance companies, the forex dealers and on the other are the customers, both B2B and B2C. The portal is a Travel Meta Search Site where the consumer gets real time information and transaction capability online. It uses the best technology platform in the Indian travel industry.
Ezeego1.com offers a real time web based booking engine which is seamlessly integrated to the mid and back office. It also employs a unique Single Window platform for multiple services, so one does not have to enter and exit different systems. It is the only reservation system that offers a dynamic packaging of all services with real-time inventory.
Ezeego1.com has strong online and offline fulfilment systems, different modes of delivery and collections, which help cater to the customer in any part of India. The portal has tied up with various payment gateway options.
About redBus
redBus ( www.redBus.in) is India's first and largest online bus tickets company. It has a national presence, with its headquarters at Bangalore. redBus can be accessed on www.redBus.in or at any of their 9 call centers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Vijayawada or Vizag.
Customers get the advantage of choosing their seats online, getting tickets home delivered for over 270 bus operators and over 3600 routes in the country.
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 4:30 PM 0 comments
Labels: Ezeego1.com, redBus.in
Airtel launches smart phone with HTC Corporation
India's largest private mobile service provider Airtel Thursday announced its tie-up with Taiwan-based phone company HTC Corporation to offer a new smart phone which will have PC-like functionality.
The phone - HTC Touch Diamond - is priced at Rs.27,500 and will have a wide range of features like large scale mobile broadband application for seamless Internet browsing, Youtube application for watching video content and access to Airtel live for entertainment.
HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou told reporters here that its mobile phone has extremely rich features and "the users will feel the difference".
Currently, HTC has nine smart phones in the Indian market priced between Rs.11,500 to Rs.35,000. Globally, the company sells about 10 million hand sets annually.
The HTC Corporation plans to sell 1 million smart phones in India by 2009. The company has plans for two more India-specific models within the next six months, a company official said.
"The price would be less than Rs.10,000," said the official.
According to HTC, it sells its hand sets in India either as a stand-alone product or through an association with mobile operators.
Earlier, HTC had announced a tie-up with Reliance Communications for the sales of its CDMA hand sets in the country.
"We see India as the fastest growing market in Asia. Our sales in India in the second half of 2007 went up by nearly 300 percent," said the official.
Indo-Asian News Service
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 4:26 PM 0 comments
Labels: Bharti Airtel, HTC Corporation
Travelguru Rolls Out 'Travelguru Holidays' Stores
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
With the goal of making its market-leading range of hotels and holiday options available to a wider audience, Travelguru recently launched its first retail store, Travelguru Holidays, in Mumbai at Nirmal Lifestyle - Mumbai's popular mall in Mulund (West). Subsequently Travelguru Holidays has opened in Pune, Bangalore, Indore, Ahmedabad and Ludhiana .These one-stop travel shops meet all the travel needs of the customer at one go including hotels, holiday packages, flights and car rentals.
Speaking on the occasion, Amit Kapoor, AVP - Business Development, Travelguru said, "The primary goal of Travelguru Holidays is to reach out to customers who prefer to completely tailor their packages to their needs. We intend to bring the unique Travelguru experience, including India's largest range of hotels and holiday options, to these customers. It helps do two things -
-- Guide the customer through a differentiated holiday booking experience.
-- We build customer confidence in the products especially as high booking amounts are involved.
The experience and knowledge of our retail staff will give customers the ability to maximize their benefit from our network of over 72000 hotels globally."
"Since the inception of Travelguru Holidays we have witnessed a huge demand for domestic as well as international holidays. We intend to extend the Travelguru experience to all major and tier II cities by September end. The USP of our retail outlets is the vast reach along with the facility for real-time booking of all our hotels and flights. We find that our customers love the fact that they can immediately get their travel confirmation vouchers in hand." added Mr. Kapoor.
About Travelguru
Travelguru - India's largest hotel network - offers access to over 4000 hotels in India and over 72,000 hotels worldwide. It offers travelers the opportunity to plan and purchase their travel in a transparent, easy and customizable manner with instant bookings and confirmations. Strategic partnerships and deep supplier relationships give Travelguru the edge as an aggregator of travel services. Sorting hotels by user reviews and several other criteria are some of the distinctive value-added services. In December, 2007 Travelguru fully acquired Desiya.com - a company focused on hotel aggregation, distribution and technology to further strengthen the leadership position in hotel distribution. Travelguru facilitates a wide range of travel options and recommendations for domestic as well as international travelers. The Travelguru hotel advisors guide you to the most convenient place to stay including rates, amenities, landmarks and so on across India. It promotes properties from budget to luxury, single room to serviced apartment, business accommodation to leisure houseboat.
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 8:39 AM 0 comments
Labels: Travelguru
ASSOCHAM Announces 4th Global Telecom Summit 2008
After the successful edition of International Conference on Broadband - 2007 " Connecting the Unconnected, ASSOCHAM in partnership with the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India is organizing "4th ASSOCHAM Global Telecom Summit" on Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th May, 2008 in Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi.
The Summit aims to understand the emergence of new growth drivers that are revolutionizing the telecom sector in India and around the world. This Global Summit will offer an opportunity to telecom experts to exchange views on a host of issues concerning telecom industry such as the challenges for growth of telecom industry. The Summit focuses on "The Era of Next Generation Wireless Revolution: Business Models for Sustainable Growth."
Hon'ble Minister for Communications & IT, Shri A. Raja, will be the Chief Guest on the Inaugural day of the Summit and Hon'ble Minister of State for Communications & IT, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest on second day of the Summit.
Some of the keynote presentations and panel discussions that will be led by the best industry- renowned speakers on both the days:
May 23, 2008
-- Mr. Michael Kuehner, Country Head, Nokia Siemens Network
-- Mr. R. Sivakumar, MD South Asia, Intel Corporation
-- Mr. Harit Nagpal, CMO, Vodafone India
-- Mr. Naresh Ajwani, President, Sify
-- Mr. Prakash Bajpai, President, Reliance Communications
-- Mr. Ajay Gulati, Director, CISCO
May 24, 2008
-- Mr. Uday Gharpure, COO, L&T Infotech
-- Mr. Akhil Gupta, Country Head, Blackstone India
-- Mr. Subhendu Mohanty, Country Head- Home & Network Mobility Business, Motorola, India
-- Mr. Andreas Vourloumis, Lehman Brothers
-- Prof. David Salant, Columbia University
-- Mr. Manoj Dawane, CEO Mauj Mobile
The topics to be addressed at the Summit are as follows:
-- Service Provider Track
-- Telecom Silicon Track
-- Infrastructure /Equipment/Network Track
-- QOS & Security Track
-- M& A's/Consolidation and Investment Track
-- Application and Value Added Track
-- Regulatory and Economist Track
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 8:38 AM 0 comments
Labels: ASSOCHAM
Ctrl S signs MoU with IBM for data centre marketing
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Ctrl S Data Centers Ltd, pioneer in Tier IV data center in India, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IBM for marketing data centres across India.
The MoU with IBM will give Ctrl S a national footprint, enabling the company to provide state-of-the-art data centre services to a wider customer base, said a statement issued here.
The customers of Ctrl S will now enjoy the benefits of having a single point of contact for all their data centre needs.
"We are committed to providing the country with data centre services of global standards and this strategic tie-up with IBM reinforces our vision to provide top class solutions to companies across the country," said Reddy, CMD of Ctrl S.
"We are positive of this partnership with Ctrl S where we can bring the best of innovation and highly secured data centre solutions," said Mukul Mathur, director (channels and marketing) of IBM India/South Asia.
Ctrl S Data Centers Ltd is promoted by the Rs.5 billion Pioneer Group along with IDBI and Och-Ziff, a New-York based global fund.
The group has interests in IT and property development, and has existing relationships with 20 of the top 100 organisations in India.
Ctrl S handles the Internet data centre business. The data centre serves large multinational customers that use the Internet as the predominant delivery medium.
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 3:47 PM 0 comments
Labels: Ctrl S
L&T bags electrical projects worth Rs.6.35 bn in Gulf
Indian construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has bagged four electrical projects worth Rs.6.35 billion (over $145 million) from the UAE and Oman in the Gulf region, the firm announced Tuesday.
Giving details of the projects, the company said two of these orders valued at Rs.5.21 billion were granted by Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) for the construction and erection of five power sub-stations, including the laying of cables for power supply.
The project also includes the construction of civil buildings, complete with utilities such as air-conditioning, lighting and fire protection systems. The time frame for these projects has been put at 18 months from the day of execution.
Apart from these orders, L&T's subsidiary L&T (Oman) LLC at Muscat has bagged two orders valued at Rs.1.14 billion.
While one order is from the Oman Electricity and Transmission Company, the other is from the Muscat Electricity Distribution Company. Both the projects comprise the setting up and commissioning of power transformers and associated civil works within 10-13 months.
Posted by Gaurav Shukla 3:46 PM 0 comments
Labels: Larsen and Toubro
