HT Media buys out DesiMartini.com

The media group has bought the Indian social networking site for an unspecified amount

Firefly eVentures Ltd, the online subsidiary of HT Media Ltd, has acquired the Indian social networking site, Desimartini.com, for a figure it quotes as “less than $10 million”. Desimartini.com claims to have a membership base of 2.5 lakh and does 2.5 million page views monthly.

Vivek Pahwa

Vivek Pahwa, co-founder of Desimartini, says, “It’s a 100 per cent buyout. HT Media is a media company and they have the means to promote the product through their network.” Dhruv Gupta, also a co-founder of the website, will now head the operations of Desimartini, while Pahwa will remain with the company for only a few months.

HT Media plans to launch online portals in categories such as jobs, matrimonials, classifieds, e-commerce, real estate, gaming and auto. “We are already into print, events and we have a business paper. So, we have plans to expand online as well. Social networking will be one aspect of it,” says Amit Garg, business head, Internet, HT Media.

In response to whether the company is looking at some strategic tieups to promote its online properties to come, Garg says, “In the case of Fever, we tied up with Virgin. For ‘Mint’, we partnered with ‘The Wall Street Journal’. Thus, wherever we find expertise that can back us in terms of design and technology... we are open to partnerships.”

HT Media plans to create its own niche in a localised way with Desimartini.com. Garg says, “Monetisation will be the second step, but our first goal is to build consumer relationships and a large user base. If we can get the users, advertisers will follow.”

Desimartini.com was launched by Pahwa Knowledge Based Services, which also owns the marriage portal, SecondShaadi.com. Pahwa says the company plans to launch a TV ad campaign soon for the portal.

Pahwa Knowledge Based Services has also seed-funded a search engine called Antya.com, which is a web discovery engine that helps people search for specific websites on a particular topic, says Pahwa. Antya.com will also offer regular search service like Google and will be launched in beta mode in a few weeks.

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