1. 1 Case Study: DirectI Blogging Service By Gryffindors Anirudh Kumar Parag Dhanuka Prayag Panchwadkar

4. Securing “Marquee Bloggers”

6. Additional Product Features

8. Affiliate Marketing

9. Free-mium Model

10. Widgets Marketplace2

11. SWOT Analysis 3

12. Competitor Analysis 4

13. Network effects 5

16. Securing “Marquee Bloggers”

18. Additional Product Features

20. Affiliate Marketing

21. Free-mium Model

22. Widgets Marketplace6

26. Many new education portals / services launched . Ex. Meritnation.com In India, one needs to tap into the “community effect” to make any online venture a success. All of the above examples have become successful by generating positive network effects. Source: JuxtConsult; I-Cube 2008; Team Analysis 7

28. Achieve the “community effect” among an initial set of bloggers in each user group, which will encourage others with similar interests to blog

30. Target communities whose users would ideally take to blogging, such as people trying to lose weight / keep fit, etc.

31. Attract people to write quality content, by promoting product design features that enable online community building8

34. If buy-in can be obtained from a few large school chains, a large number of students can be incentivized to blog, which will further incentivize other schools’ children to create blogger communitiesSchool / College Blogging Entrance Examinations Schools / Colleges MBA Coaching Institutes Students / Education Source: JuxtConsult 2008; Team Analysis 9

36. Firms such as SOTC can give users “blogging coupons” to get started on Directi blogs

38. Great Cross Branding Opportunity for Art of LivingHealth / Spirituality Enthusiasts Art of Living Spiritual Ideas / Practices Source: Indiaprwire.com; Web Sources; Team Analysis 10

39. Leveraging the Community Effect - Securing “Marquee Bloggers” 11

40. Securing “Marquee Bloggers” – Examples Securing “Marquee Users” along with helping create suggested sub-communities of bloggers should make sure that we leverage the “Community Effect” opportunity with great success 12

41. Promotable Product Attribute 1 : Accessibility 13

42. Promotable Product Attribute 2: Localization 14

43. Promotable Product Attribute 3:Social Network 15

44. Promotable Product Attribute 4: Avenues of Monetization 16

45. Promotable Product Attribute 5: Power features 17

48. Directi gets a share of the transaction amountBloggers The Directi marketplace has two parts – (1) The User Marketplace: A transaction platform for bloggers and developers where bloggers can ask for specific blog designs or blog setup help, and (2) The Corporate Marketplace, where firms employ developers to develop sponsored themes and widgets offered free to bloggers Source: Team Analysis

49. Promotable Product Attribute 6: More than just a blog 19

52. Securing “Marquee Bloggers”

54. Additional Product Features

56. Affiliate Marketing

57. Free-mium Model

58. Widgets Marketplace20

59. Promotions (Viral Marketing) 21

60. 22 Business Development through Affiliations

61. Promotions (Advertisements) 23

62. Revenues from Ads Based on the above calculations any acquisition cost below $6.61 is justified. Hence we should promote our brand with display, SEM and radio advertisement being the priority order 24

65. Securing “Marquee Bloggers”

67. Additional Product Features

69. Affiliate Marketing

70. Free-mium Model

71. Widgets Marketplace25

72. How will Directi Earn revenues ? 26

73. Monetization (Advertisement)

74. Monetization (Freemium Model) Based on the above numbers 1000 additional active bloggers should bring us an extra $416 / Year 28

76. There is an incentive to generate better written content as more money can be made than with Skenzo or Adsense

77. Bloggers get paid a higher percentage per click than with traditional Adsense ads

78. Bloggers blog about a particular product / service

79. They leverage their readership to get more user clicks

80. Directi ties up with various companies & creates a network of affiliates who want to advertise more effectively

81. This system allows better ROI on the advertisers’ moneyThe Internal Affiliate System (IAS) can be an extremely useful model for Directi as not only does it generate revenue (commissions from advertisers), it also ensures that good content and hence more readership is generated for the platform 29

82. Optimistic Estimates with a simple freemium model and an integration with AdSense result in an NPV Of $46.35M $ Million NPV = $46.35 Mn CAGR 74.80% CAGR 120.40%

83. Pessimistic Estimates with basic monetization platform suggest an NPV of $3.99M - Project seems viable even in worst case scenario $ Million NPV = $3.99 Mn CAGR 49.60% CAGR 104.60%

84. Conclusion There exist significant gaps in the feature sets needed for Indian bloggers & what exist in today's platforms which can be plugged with a targeted feature set. Community effects need to be leveraged in order to achieve substantial network effects & propagate the acceptance & spread of blogging in India. Financial projections suggest that using the monetization tools elaborated, Directi should expect to derive significant value from this project. 32

85. Thank You 33