aol.in: Lots of local content, basic suite of services

AOL launches its India portal with a mix of e-mail, messenger and news. A closer look at the portal

AOL.in became the new online address in town as the much-awaited portal was unveiled on Thursday. While the layout of the page is similar to AOL.com, the company has started off with a basic set of services – e-mail, AIM messenger, mobile and videos.

Putting doubts to rest, the portal proves that AOL can also play the localisation game. So, we have AOL India News and CityGuide besides the mandatory Bollywood and cricket fare. There’s room for international content, too, with Hollywood and international music channels.

The news channel features a collection of videos and also makes way for citizen journalism by seeking stories from readers. Besides the usual mobile VAS, AOL has a WAP portal with access to mail and messenger.

aol.in: Lots of local content, basic suite of services

AOL India home page

The messenger is also available through a short code, 51515. In other words, users can chat through SMS. The city guide covers the six metros and is currently driven by listings, with a couple of videos thrown in.

The Gurus channel is a bit of a surprise because of strong local content as well as the format. It has videos of career, fitness, yoga and relationship advisors. The only catch is that there doesn’t seem to be provision for asking questions. The much talked about teen channel fails to make an appearance, but there are channels for kids and education.

The portal compares well with the existing players in India. After all, AOL has spent five years preparing for its entry. The Bangalore Service Centre was established by AOL in 2002 for building its services in India. This was followed by a Software Development Centre in 2004, and, in 2005, a Knowledge Centre focused on business analysis, search and technology. The company now has about 2,000 employees in the country.

PG Ponnapa, formerly CEO of the Internet services company, n-Logue Communications, has been appointed VP and GM of AOL Interactive Media in India.

“AOL.in is our first portal launch outside of North America and Europe, and it shows how committed we are to this market for the long term,” said Maneesh Dhir, AOL’s executive vice-president, international, in a statement.

As Dhir puts it, AOL is here to stay in India and will stir up the portal pot in the country.

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