Two of India’s leading Internet portals Rediff.com and Yahoo! India have inked a strategic pact to jointly promote online shopping and mobile content across both the portals. Under the terms of the agreement, Rediff.com will power the Yahoo! India shopping channel while Yahoo! India will showcase their prime content like ringtones, polyphonic tunes, wallpapers and java games among others on the Rediff.com website, where Rediff.com users shall be able to download this content through the Yahoo! India shortcode: 8243. This content will be in addition to Rediff Mobile premium content currently available on the Rediff shortcode 7333.

Rediff.com and Yahoo! India have been two of the very few to have survived the Indian dotcom bloodbath. According to most industry experts, this was possible because both the portals were smart enough to realize in time that their business model should envisage much beyond a simple online mode of delivery. Over time, Rediff.com has been able to successfully monetize its strength in consumer e-commerce, while Yahoo! India reveled in its ability to deliver innovative mobile content. The result is that today both of them command over 30 million registered users in India. Taken in this light, the current association would enable both players to successfully leverage the strengths of each other to reach out to a far wider audience.

The synergy between the two works out seamlessly by the fact that Yahoo! shoppers will now have access to the Rediff Marketplace which has over 100 shops across 30 product categories reaching across to 800 locations in India. The alliance also makes sound business sense as it would allow them to take on Indiatimes head on.

Rajneesh De in Mumbai

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