• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Go4i pact with Nicholas Piramal on the anvil

P. T. Jyothi Datta

NEW DELHI, May 22

INDIA-SPECIFIC portal, go4i.com, as part of its strategy to grow through building alliances, is in the final stages of finalising its health portal, with pharmaceutical company Nicholas Piramal.

Go4i has struck up country-wide alliances with HDFC, IT education and services organisation _ NIIT and head-hunters Stanton Chase International.

Mr. Piyush Gupta, CEO of go4i.com, told Business Line they had recently signed an MoU with Nicholas Piramal towards hosting a medical portal. He said the finer details of the site would be formalised in about two weeks, but the portal is slated to be lau nched only around September, this year. However, he added that the portal would be a 50:50 joint venture.

Incorporated in February 2000, go4i is a joint-venture between Chase Capital Partners and the Hindustan Times Ltd, with strategic investments from HDFC and HDFC Bank. Having capitalised $30 millions in its initial round of funding, the second round of fu nding is expected around the third or fourth quarter of the year and would depend on how the health portal shapes-up, according to Mr. Gupta.

In its portal with HDFC, go4i is not a majority stake-holder and holds an equity of 30 per cent. Capitalised at $30 millions, the URL of this site is yet to be finalised. However, it would seek to build on the HDFC brand-name, he said.

As part of its alliance with NIIT, students learning at the institute will be trained on the go4i site when it comes to learning about the internet and surfing. This, Mr. Gupta said, would help in attracting the sticky eye-balls of the fresher-on-the-net .

With several India-specific portals on the Net, go4i looks to market itself through ``below-the-line activity, alliances and brand-building exercises as opposed to hype-marketing''. And with the Net subscriber-base looking to increase from the existing a bout five million to about 25 million in the next three years, he felt that ``a credible offering would get the site a piece of the pie''.

Part of the reason why the reference to India was reduced to an `i' was because ``there was too much India on the Net'' and the company wanted to retain a flexibility so that `i' could indicate India/information or the internet, he points out.

While the portal would also support e-tailing, through alliances, this would not be a thrust area, he said. Growth would essentially be fuelled through tie-ups with other sites, content syndicating to other sites and sourcing of content from other sites.

Its alliance with Stanton Chase _ go4careers.com, is a 51:49 joint venture, with go4i being the majority stake-holder.

The vertical portal facilitates online recruitment of users besides undertaking a physical search to try and provide the user with the best possible employment results.