MSN India has partnered with AskLaila and MSN’s India site is hosting the asklaila portal as a microsite (city section) : http://msn.asklaila.com
Unlike the regular partnerships (which is API based) , this is a pure microsite deal which is surely a big win for asklaila.
Infact, the microsite looks more of asklaila and less of MSN (except for the header and footer!)- that too without the search box! (has more of a browse feel for cities than search).
The questions is Who you will use MSN sites ?
@Sumant
Exactly , I have the same question?:)
Ashish, would you know how do these kind of partnerships (the various models) work commercially for both the involved parties?
@Anand
MSN makes money from Advtgrs, AskLaila makes money by acting as CD for MSN which pays for Asklaila.
You can ask even Asklaila can host ads, but here is Brand matters the MSN and its wider advtgrs base which asklaila dont have.
Distribution plays IMP role to evolve for Startups.
For Eg: Dos distributed to IBM which became word wide explosion,
Google for Y!, youtube widgetization and for Indian: Its Novatium partnered with MTNL for distribution, the same is for AskLaila too
As MSN is unable to tap search market, its even harder for them to tap local which is becoming hard for even Google.
So asklaila has chance to win here
.
Correct me if i am wrong from above
Asklaila management team has worked at MS.
So this partnership might be because of those links..
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Fabulous win for AskLaila. I think the win goes beyond just traffic. AskLaila are going to shout from the rooftops that they managed to get a tie up with MSN – to non early adopter consumers and investors (hey, if we managed to get Microsoft as a partner, we must be good!).
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog
MSN’s city guides (the one for Hyderabad at least) were never too impressive. We need to see how things change now.
Nobody uses MSN in India. These high paid ex-MSFT guys are just being grateful to their old employer