WEB MAGIC

New Delhi, June 9: Rediff.com is planning to invest Rs 226 crore on new products such as online games and blog sites. The gaming site will include puzzles, arcade and strategy games.

“Rediff Games will also allow users to chat with friends and create 3D avatars,” said Manish Agarwal, vice-president — marketing, Rediff.com. The company is working on the project in-house instead of making acquisitions, Agarwal added.

“Our Internet business model is such that after setting up the basic platform we can keep growing with only small additions to manpower. We recruited only 19 people in 2006-07 to take the headcount to 293. However, our revenue per employee is about $100,000, roughly double of Infosys’s $50,000,” said Agarwal.

Rediff.com, which has 53.6 million registered users, will also launch a blog showcase. “This will allow bloggers from all over the world to post feeds and get voted as the best blog or best post,” he said.

The firm is also promoting its question-and-answer product, Q&A, as a solution for other companies to replicate the model with its technology.

“Q&A is a collaborative platform where Rediff users answer queries on various subjects posted online,” said Agarwal.

Rediff also launched a platform called Predict and Win during the Cricket World Cup. It generated odds and users had to predict the outcome of the events.

“The platform will be adapted for other sporting events,” said Agarwal.

On Rediff's mobile services, Agarwal said, “It remains an important part of our strategy. We are developing ‘Web service fronts’ for both GSM and CDMA mobile operators. We aim to offer all services on the mobile.”

Agarwal said ringtone search is a “big component” of Rediff's mobile services.

The company has 60,000 ringtones in its database, he added. The company, which was launched in 1996, is upbeat about its search and mobile services.