MSN revamps India site; integrates Facebook and Twitter

After revamping its sites across other markets such as the US and the UK, Microsoft has finally unveiled the redesigned version of MSN in India

Software giant Microsoft, which revamped the US version of its horizontal portal MSN.com in November 2009, has soft launched the redesigned version of its India site (MSN.co.in) on June 30.

The homepage and the internal pages have new user interfaces and navigation. The new homepage looks cleaner and has more large visuals as compared to its previous version.

The most interesting aspect of the revamp is the integration of MSN with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The company has created a dedicated section for social media sites on the homepage itself. With this, users will be able to log in, check and update Facebook and Twitter statuses (on real time basis) from the MSN homepage.

Speaking to afaqs!, Sanjay Trehan, head, MSN (India), says, "Social media and visual richness will become the key pillars of the MSN content strategy."

He adds, "The step to offer Facebook and Twitter access inside MSN India homepage indicates our intention to become a single stop online destination."

Other than facilitating users to access Facebook and Twitter updates from the MSN India homepage, the company also plans to integrate more of its content with the social media platforms.

Among various content verticals, Trehan says, "As part of the new content strategy, we will focus more on entertainment, lifestyle, money and education related content or verticals."

The revamped site has the same advertising slots on its homepage. A masthead banner and an expandable rectangular banner ad are being continued on the homepage.

Though Trehan declines to comment on the advertising prices, afaqs! has learnt from various sources that MSN may increase its ad rates. It is expected that MSN will increase the pricing of the masthead and rectangular banner ads on the homepage by 30 per cent, while the price of ad inventory available in the inside pages will be increased by up to 20 per cent.

MSN India sells homepage and inside pages ad inventory on fixed price and cost per thousand ad impressions (CPM) basis respectively.

Unlike Yahoo! and Rediff.com, which revamped their Indian versions in 2009 and carried out multi-media campaigns to tell users about their redesigned sites, MSN India has no plans to use traditional media to publicise its new avatar. Trehan indicates that mainly online advertising, including banner and search marketing, will be employed to inform users about the new features.