Burrp gets into print, launches New Year Gig Guide
Burrp has been an interesting community play for lifestyle category business – but the sad part of the same is monetization opportunity associated with that (highly dependent on advertising, which surely isn’t the most 
optimum way to monetize the content).
Today Burrp has announced their first print foray
“..we have officially taken our very first baby steps into the world of print media.As should be expected, this is by no means over. In fact, we will be announcing some very big things and very early in the next year.” [blog]
Burrp City Guide
I believe, Burrp’s online service has reached some sort of ceiling, as they have launched the portal in all of the major cities and given their positioning, they won’t be able to monetize the way pure search players can (i.e. lead generation).
Infact, growing UUs (unique users) beyond a certain point is also quite a big deal – that’s why they have been launching new portals (movies is on the cards) in the name of lifestyle business.
Burrp Traffic (Comscore)
And that’s why a print guide (city guides for lifestyle businesses/events) will be a super good option for Burrp and given the great community that they have, they can surely be the ‘most credible’ choice for finding good restaurants and related services.
And guess what, people will pay for these city guides!
What’s your opinion?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
thats really interesting.
In fact have heard they have a slew of print products in the works as this may have just been a great testing ground for them. Also have heard they have got a TV program lined up. They may just become the next full-fledged niche lifestyle media company. Quite amazing if you see where they began from.
This looks interesting. Why stick to online when it is not producing results and may be offline magazine is the actual market for this kind of service. Looks like a good move to me.
In fact it’s a great move.Thanks there and Wish you all a Happy Christmas n New Year eve beforehand.
the whole experience of giving web presence to the user will fade away if it’s done this way. I mean the very fact that you presented info online is that print media is not so cheap when compared, but if you are making good money over there…why not.
I am not so sure.
It seems like burrp is in a hurry. They keep moving into various vertical without establishing themselves as the big player in one vertical. As you mentioned on each vertical they hit the ceiling and then they diversify. It all adds up in the cost.
With all the verticals they have been operating on, their cost of operation will be hitting the roof. It would be interesting to see how they will bring return on investments for their VCs.
I applaud their effort but it seems they are too fast on the move for their own good.
@Neeraj Singh: Nice speculation. But let’s just leave it at that. Though I sparingly use the burrp! sites, one thing is for sure that they have remained true to their focus on the lifestyle segment. Also, I do think they ARE the leaders in both their TV and local review domains. Time will tell who is right – maybe I am just naive.
If I correctly understand, this one is as part of Infomedia Guides and not an independent publication. AM I right?
Yes, you are right Abhaya..