Exclusive: OneIndia launches Hindi portal, ThatsHindi
Local content is on rise and after Josh18 (Network 18’s Hindi portal), OneIndia has launched it’s hindi portal – ThatsHindi
ThatsHindi has regular features as any portal (Bollywood/News/Astrology etc) and they have tied up with Click.in for the regional classifieds. Interestingly, Guruji powers their search and the section that I enjoyed the most is chutkula, which has good collection of hindi jokes.
What do you think of the regional language portal? Interestingly, I see many colleagues of mine reading regional news sites (esp. marathi and telugu), but I never felt the need for a pure hindi portal.
Am I the only one?
Here are a few stats on local content:
- Only 41 per cent of India’s 30 million Internet users prefer to browse online in English
- Only 37% of the current Net users come from the top 10 metros.
- Google is the most preferred site for information search not only in English (75%) but also in other languages (74%)
[read the details of local content rise in India]
Read our earlier coverage of OneIndia’s OneBookMark service, and interview with Editor.
tags: oneindia, thatshindi, onebookmark
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Related posts:
- OneIndia launches OneBookmarks, the regional language bookmarking service
- Interview with Harikrishnan, Senior Editor OneIndia/OneBookmarks
- New portal launches: 47Feeds, HinKhoj, SanskritVoice
- Paahijen – write in english, convert in local language and share in your blog/email..
- New Launches: RedBus launches mobile bookings for bus tickets, Web18 to launch Content Portal In.com,
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]
41% of Indian surfers surf English content. There is a clear need for good Indian language content on the internet. As the demand of language content increases the need for pure language portals will only increase. Hence, Oneindia.in has gone ahead and prepared itself for the future.
Indian language blogging has been doing very well in the last 1.5 years. This shows a rise in language writers and readers.
Depending upon the size of the language reader population I think there is a need for pure language portals.
indian companies are still not able to read a normal india’s mind.
There are tons of contents when it comes to movies, tv channels, radio stations, magazines, comics…but there’s hardly any content available online.
And that’s the reason Internet is not popuplar in India. Only 3-4 % of Indians are online…and number of broadband users are so low..lets not even talk about it….
Just look what happened to channels like Star plus…they started producing content in Hindi…and look how much money they are making now
Same goes for Zee TV etc….
jago india jago….
Dear Himanshu,
The internet user base in India has gone up over the last 2 years. Yes, we all would wanted a higher growth but everything does take time when it has to do something with infrastructure.
Hopefully WiMAX will spurt the growth of internet. BSNL will be spending $1 Billion on WiMAX, 50% will be for Tier-II and Tier-III cities. One could say that Tier-II and Tier-III doesn’t have the money power to buy a PC and those who can afford now would say “unless we have internet access why should I buy?”. Somebody has to take the first step and I think the internet providers have to take the first step which I feel they have (especially BSNL). Private operators will follow.
There is a need for Indian language content on the internet. Is that space fully defined now? Possibly not, that is because of the reasons you have mentioned – penetration was low. Since I have been in this language space from 2000 I can confidently say that our channels have been changing in what we publish over the years based on user feedback. We have always been more than happy to hear what our users have to say to shape our portals.
There is language content available out there on the internet which can keep the user engaged. Can more be done, sure why not? That applies to all mediums in the media today. Since internet was the last medium to patronize languages the work to be done in this medium is maximum. Language space will be an important player in India. FMCG companies are drooling to reach out to these Tier-II/Tier-III masses. Internet will be “one of the” mediums they will want to use to reach out to Tier-II and Tier-III.