Industry Report - India B2B Market Update

In 2006, BSG estimates that the combined revenues from business-to-business events, publishing and online services were approximately US$155 million with publishing accounting for US$58 million, exhibitions US$87 million and online accounting for US$10 million.

Of the US$58 million generated from B2B publishing, approximately US$29 million was generated from general business magazines. Advertising dollars in India remain heavily focused on TV (41%) and general print (49%). Total advertising expenditures were estimated to be US$3.7 billion in 2006.

India has 300 daily newspapers and despite a highly competitive environment, overall circulation increased 13% last year. The Economic Times continues to be the number one business newspaper by wide margin, while Business World is the top business magazine in India.

In 2006, there was a steady flow of newly launched business titles. According to the Indian Media Observer, 42 new magazines and newspapers were launched in the first seven months of 2006. The majority of those titles were non-English publications.

In the last year, a number of foreign publishers either expanded operations or launched new operations altogether. The Wall Street Journal formed a joint venture with the Hindustan Times. Reed Business Information teamed up with Infomedia India. Independent News and Media announced a joint venture with Jagran Prakashan Limited.

Media-focused private equity deals expanded rapidly in 2006. Overall private equity investment in India tripled in 2006 reaching US$7.46 billion - up from US$2.26 billion the year before. One of the larger deals was Blackstone's US$275 million investment in Hyderabad-based print and media firm, Ushodaya Enterprises.

The events business in India continues to be constrained largely by its relatively limited infrastructure. Although, in the past two years, two new exhibition centres have opened - the first phase of the new Bangalore International Exhibition Centre in 2006 and India Expo Centre Expo XXI in 2005. As a result, the gross indoor space available increased by 19% rising from 213,000m2 to 253,000m2.

BSG research shows that just over 380,000 m2 of net space was sold in 2005 in India making the market around 9% the size of China's. The Indian exhibition industry was worth around $64 million in terms of revenues earned by organizers.

B2B online businesses in India generated an estimated US$10 million in revenues in 2006. This figure is very small when compared with other markets and considering the potential size of the Indian market. CyberMedia, a key player in this small market, earned just US$1.1 million from their online operations which was just over 6% of revenues.

BSG maintains a ranking of the top 50 B2B websites in Asia using data from Alexa.com. Only five of the top fifty are Indian-based businesses. They are Indiamart.com, TradeIndia.com, Ciol.com, Go4worldbusiness.com and Indianexporters.com. Four of those five are supplier sourcing websites. The fifth, Ciol.com, is an information portal for IT professionals.