BCCL(i.e. Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. or Times of India group) has picked up stake in Naaptol, the social shopping comparison portal. As I mentioned in my earlier review, Naaptol’s major USP, apart from very neat UI is it’s affiliate network – which comprises of online and offline stores.
Shopping comparison sites are in-vogue and there are few interesting platform products launched in the last few months – ReviewGist, QuarkRank, Rediff’s own product comparison portal.
BCCL earlier picked up stake in Taxshax and TravelChacha.
Do you use comparison portals for closing the transaction (i.e. buy products and not just leave after the comparison?)
it really depends on the product. i would close a deal for travel and finance but not for electronics and other goods. i would prefer a local vendor so that after sales service is not a problem.
I would buy a flight / railway ticket, apply for a loan/ credit card, buy products that cost less than thousand bucks. Surely not a LCD, a Digicam, a home theatre, a laptop etc. For these products, I definately use comparison sites to educate myself but not to conclude the purchase.
Also, I don’t know who to believe amongst these comparison sites. Earlier I did a comparitive study of five products to check the price offerings on four leading comparison sites (including naaptol) and was shocked to find the price variations in the range of +/- Rs. 10000 for some products.
Is it one of those treaty deals? Advertising on ToI properties in return of stake?
Oh well..all BCCL deals are ‘like that’ only (as far as I know)
Does that really help a lot? I wonder what startups need more – money for further development and improvement OR more advertising? Hmmm…guess both. Maybe they have funds for other requirements.
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