Quote:

Right now our future plan is to foray into the global market, that's the key focus. We want to create good value for our shareholders.

Introduction:

Pradeep Gupta, Chairman of the CyberMedia Group, South Asia's first and largest specialty media house, is also an entrepreneur with various business interests in the field of IT. His media businesses include publishing of leading computer magazines in India, IT portal on the Internet, market research, IT exhibitions, seminars, TV programmes, education, CD-ROM distribution and publishing. The software businesses include software exports and training. He is also an angel investor.

He pioneered IT media in India as early as 1982 when the entire computer industry was very small. He envisioned that IT in India would grow by leaps and bounds and, therefore, began niche publications in India, which introduced a totally new business paradigm in the country.

The CyberMedia Group has 12 publications (including Dataquest and PCQuest) in the IT, telecom, consumer electronics and biotech areas; and a media value chain, including the Internet (www.ciol.com), events and television. The group's media services include market research (IDC India), job board (CyberMedia Dice), content outsourcing, multimedia, and media education.

Gupta is also the Chairman of PanIIT India and a member of the IIT Delhi Advisory Council. He is an engineer from IIT Delhi (1975) and an MBA from IIM Calcutta (1977).

In conversation with exchange4media's Pallavi Goorha, Gupta talks about CyberMedia's various ventures, the journey so far and future plans.

Interview:

How has the journey been so far? What are the challenges that you have faced?
The journey has been very exciting and interesting. Being the pioneer in the B2B area and creating different brands has been a very exciting experience. The challenges have been similar to those in every business like growth, new products, cycles in the industry, competitive challenges. We have created brands across segments and grown as leaders in each. As a specialty media house, we have been part of some of the fastest growing industries in India and also expanded globally, which has been exciting and challenging as well.

What are the changes that have been made in the company after the IPO? Any other investments on the anvil?
Post-IPO, the biggest change that happened was that we decided to embark on our international strategy and globalisation. Among the five things that we have done as we were going global, was launching Global Services and Bio Spectrum Asia. Both are global products, while Global Services looks at the world market, Bio Spectrum Asia looks at the Asian market. Actually, we are the first media house in India to have launched products out of the global market. We have bought 20 per cent of Computer Shopper and have hiked our investment in online job portal CyberMedia Dice. We have also set up our entire back-end work for the content BPO for publishers abroad.

The main thrust was looking at the global market, which we have achieved. Going ahead, it is the same theme, which we will be carrying forward. For our services business we are looking at front-end acquisitions, which can now feed this. We are also looking at launching two or three publications in the media space, one of them being Voice&Data Connect, which will be launched in December.

Your magazine 'Living Digital' has gone completely interactive, the first magazine in India to do so. Please elaborate on how you went about it and the challenges you faced?
This entire community is gadget savvy and all of them are online and on mobile. Therefore, we needed to look at complete interactivity. A key part of this is the 6767LD number where readers can SMS their gadget queries and technology experts personally respond. It's not that we engage the customers and community once a month, it's an ongoing process. This particular project was launched as a combination strategy in various forms - online, mobile and print. The challenge was to reposition the product. It is important to understand the minds of the customers. We engaged consultants who talked to a lot of people and on the basis of the feedback that we received, we made those changes.

How is your portal CyberMedia Dice doing? Why has it been keeping low profile?
We were late entrants in this particular market. First thing we did was to work on the offering and make it a strong product. We are focused, and are primarily looking at IT customers. We are not looking at all kinds of jobs. We are only focusing in that particular area. In the first year, our focus was to strengthen the search engine. The second thing was to concentrate on ensuring that the IT people heard about it. Mostly we focused on IT clusters and we've had a good growth over the last 6-8 months since we launched. This year we are putting in more funds and you will see more spend on brand building, as it has been in the past 4-6 months. We are now taking the next step. We have planted our seat and now we are firming our seat and then we will be ready to jump.

Please tell us about CyberMedia Digital? What is its main role?
CyberMedia Digital is essentially in the content distribution business. We represent companies like Britannica and so on. We are essentially in CD Rom business, an area we feel strong in and distribute the products.

What is the nature of the tie-up between McGraw Hill and CyberMedia?
We had the license of 'Business Week'. Almost a year back we had informed that the deal had been put in cold storage as the Government of India hadn't given us permission. As and when the situation changes, we will again look at tying up.

You will be launching Voice&Data Connect in December. Please tell us more about the magazine. Do you think another magazine in the IT-Telecom sphere will be able to sustain itself in India?
Voice&Data Connect addresses the telecom channel and that is the focus of this particular publication. We have other products in the IT channel, but IT and telecom channels are very different. Consequently, this product is going to focus on a market that is exploding and growing at a phenomenal rate as there are many more players coming in. Principals today want to communicate, but find it difficult to do so with this fast growing community and, therefore, a case for upgradation. It's a different target group that we are targeting.

How is Global Services doing in India?
Global Services has a controlled, qualified circulation of 10,000 copies in India. The predominant circulation is international - 25,000 copies in North America and 5,000 in Western Europe. The Global Services brand has done various events internationally, for which we have got an Indian audience. The website (www.globalservicesmedia.com) is also a key resource for service providers from India. Overall, Global Services is creating the market for the service provider to now create a brand for himself internationally.

You have signed a 10-year joint venture agreement with Expomedia Group Plc to collaborate on organising international events in the information and communications technology (ICT) and life sciences area. Could you elaborate on this venture?
I think essentially events is a growing business. And, therefore, we thought let's have some international events and decided to tie up with the Expomedia Group, which is a strong exhibition company in Europe. This would enable us to organise international events in the IT and biotech areas. We will be doing our first such event in December 2006.

Are you planning on any more such joint ventures?
Our strategy right now is to look at certain acquisitions, and if there are opportunities that come our way, we will always be ready.

What are your future plans regarding the company?
Right now our future plan is to foray into the global market, that's the key focus. We want to create good value for our shareholders.

Do you have any plans to venture into the television space?
Regarding TV, we have been always doing certain programmes. We don't have any channel as such. We keep making TV software. We did 'Career Battein' on DD. We will keep producing other programmes for TV.