Industry Report India Round-up

This is an updated edition of this report which was last published in April 2008.

This report provides a summary of the key developments in India's B2B media industry over the past year. The report is segmented into online & mobile, exhibition and print developments.

Despite the ongoing global economic turmoil, India's overall economy has been reasonably robust. The Economist is forecasting the Indian economy to grow by 5.0% in 2009/10 and GDP growth is expected to accelerate in 2010/11 to 6.4%. Inflation remains a concern forecast at 5.1% in 2009/10 and the central government budget is expected to widen to 7.7% of GDP in this financial year 2009/10 (April to March). Although Indian exports have tumbled, the continuing strength of domestic demand has held the economy more or less on course.

According to a 2007 report from FICCI-PWC, the overall Indian media and entertainment industry is forecast to grow at CAGR of 18% through 2011 when it will be worth US$25 billion. The report currently valued it at US$10.9 billion. Internet advertising is at a relatively small US$40 million and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 43% through 2011 growing to US$238 million. India is still a market where there appears to be a strong future in print; print media is valued at US$3.2 billion and it expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% to US$5.8 billion in the same period.

The growing domestic economy - an economy which is comparatively less reliant on exports - and interesting changes in the media regulatory environment resulted in an eventful year in Indian B2B media:

A number of key Asian B2B media players are looking to India as they search for alternative growth markets. Global Sources and Alibaba.com have committed more resources to the market in India. Alibaba.com has formed a partnership with business directory publisher, Infomedia. Global Sources has licensed its China Sourcing Fair exhibition to Pico Far East, has added staff and launched its small-scale buyer events, Private Sourcing Events in India.

Foreign B2B players have also been particularly active in the exhibition sector over the past year. Reed Exhibitions announced plans to spend US$50 million on acquisitions in the Indian exhibitions sector in the coming three years. U.K.-based, IIR Exhibitions acquired INMEX, a biennial maritime event. Deutsche Messe AG and Fiera Milano agreed last year to form a joint venture in India expanding on their cooperation which had previously been more focused on China.

Foreign interest in investing in the Indian B2B media sector also appears to be healthy considering the overall state of the global economy. IndiaMart.com attracted an investment from Intel Capital. GETIT, a directory publisher, sold a stake to a venture capital firm and IDG's private equity arm continues to be active in India recently announcing plans to launch another Indian technology-focused fund expected to be worth US$300 million.

Mobile applications and services are getting more attention as the number of mobile Internet users in India hits 30 million. Specialty publisher, Cybermedia launched a free mobile news service for subscribers of its magazines and LiveMint.com, a joint venture between HT Media and the Wall Street Journal initiated a mobile service. Going forward, India will likely be an important market in Asia in terms of mobile services targeting B2B media audiences.

Regulators eased restrictions on both Indian editions of foreign magazines and foreign editions of facsimile newspapers. These regulatory changes perhaps in combination with a still growing domestic economy spurred a flurry of activity in the Indian B2B print industry. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced that over 170 Indian editions of foreign magazines had been approved.

Haymarket launched PrintWeek India, Cybermedia partnered with MIT's Technology Review, Network18 and Forbes launched an Indian edition of Forbes, Infomedia is now publishing a local edition of Entrepreneur, while the Financial Times ended a 15 year partnership with the Business Standard and launched a facsimile edition instead. New print-focused joint ventures included an Edipresse-Mediascope partnership, HT Media and the German firm Burda Media and a Deutsche Fachverlag- Indian Images Multimedia Group (IIM) joint venture.