Times Internet

Last updated

Times Internet
Type Private
Industry Technology
Founded1999;24 years ago (1999)
Headquarters Gurgaon, India
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Services
Parent The Times Group
Subsidiaries See below
Website www.timesinternet.in

Times Internet is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of The Times Group, the largest media conglomerate in India. [1] Times Internet currently owns and operates 39+ digital products across news, sports, music, video, trivia, spirituality and a suite of transaction-led market-places across real estate, personal finance, education, jobs, table reservation, agri-business, etc.

Contents

Through its venture capital arm TVentures, Times Internet has invested in over 50 start-ups in the technology space such as logistics provider Delhivery, bus aggregating platform Shuttl, ed-tech platform Byju's, gaming platform MPL among others.

Times Internet reaches over 450 million monthly visitors who collectively spend over 13 billion minutes across all its products and services.

History

1999–2012: Initial years

In its initial years, Times Internet primarily focused on digital media—handling the online versions of The Times Group which is owned by Sahu Jain family. Some major print publications includes The Times of India , The Economic Times and Navbharat Times . [2]

Times Internet ventured into multiple new categories with mixed success. It entered social networking and e-commerce with Indiatimes but was unable to scale the business. [3] The company achieved success with MagicBricks, an online real estate platform launched in 2006 and iDiva, a women's lifestyle portal in 2009. [4] [5]

2012–2017: Early investments

Times Internet gradually transformed from a media-led company to a technology-led company. It became a conglomerate of multiple digital products, each operating independently within the group.

Times Internet made a series of acquisitions—buying majority stakes in MensXP in 2012, [6] CricBuzz, Coupondunia and Dineout in 2014, [7] [8] [9] Taskbucks in 2015, [10] 'The Viral Shots' and WillowTV in 2016. In 2016, it also forged a strategic alliance with Haptik, an AI-enabled chatbot service. [11] The company launched its startup accelerator, TLabs in 2012 through which it invested in upcoming digital startups like Delhivery, Pratilipi etc.

Times Internet also launched multiple new digital products—Happy Trips in 2014, [12] ET Money and NewsPoint in 2015. [13] Also in 2015, Times Internet launched Samayam, a website that provides news in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages. [14] In association with HDFC Bank, it launched 'Times Points HDFC Bank Debit Card', an exclusive co-branded debit card in 2016. [15] It also ventured into video streaming with Box TV Limited in 2012 but shut it down in 2016. [16]

As its portfolio kept growing, Times Internet built Colombia, a full stack AI led ad-tech network that united all its digital products on one central platform. Through this platform, it was able to move and monetize users across its various digital properties, based on consumer interests and needs. [17]

2017–2019: Continued investments

Times Internet continued to acquire and launch multiple new digital products across the consumer technology space. It launched ET Insure in February 2017, [18] BrainBaazi in February 2018, and ET Prime in April 2018. It acquired 'House of God' in December 2017 [19] and partnered with Tencent to invest $115 million in Gaana in February 2018. [20]

On 28 June 2018, Times Internet acquired MX Player, the world's largest video player for $140 million. [21]

On 20 February 2019, Times Internet re-launched MX Player as a video streaming platform, with over 100,000 hours of premium content across movies, TV and web shows etc. [22]

On 15 April 2019, Times Internet revamped its brand identity to reflect its new "Everything. Everyday." ethos that desires to bring people closer to their interests and aspirations every day. [23] [ non-primary source needed ]

On 24 April 2019, Times Internet participated as a lead investor in $35.5 million (Rs 2.50 billion) Series-A funding round of Mobile Premier League (MPL). [24]

Subsidiaries and products

List of digital products owned and managed by Times Internet as of May 2019. [23]

ProductDescriptionNote
Ahmedabad MirrorNews portal focused on AhmedabadNews
Bangalore Mirror News portal focused on Bengaluru
Ei Samay News portal in Bengali
ET (The Economic Times)Business and financial news platform
ETimesEntertainment news portal
IndiatimesNews and infotainment platform
Maharashtra Times News portal in Marathi
Miss KyraEntertainment, lifestyle, and fashion news portal
Navbharat Times News portal in Hindi
NavGujarat Samay News portal in Gujarati
NewsPointNews aggregation portal
Pune Mirror News portal focused on Pune
TOI (Times of India) News portal in English
Vijay Karnataka News portal in Kannada
SamayamInfotainment and News portal in Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil
AstrospeakAstrology and horoscope service
TimesProperty News Portal for real estate industry
BaaziNowLive video and gaming platform
CouponDuniaDeals discovery platform
CricBuzz Cricket infotainment platform
CricPlayCricket Fantasy Appextinct
DatabackData savings service
Dineout Table reservation service
ET Money Personal money management service
Gaana Music streaming platform
MX Player Video player and streaming platform
Get Me a Shop Offline to online eCommerce service
Happy Trips Travel guide and information portal
iDiva Women's lifestyle portal
MagicBricks Real estate listings and information portal
MensXP Men's lifestyle portal
Speaking Tree Spirituality platform and network
TaskbucksReward based discovery platform
TechGigTechnology platform and community
Times CardLifestyle focused credit cards
Times Jobs Jobs listings portal
Times Now A TV news channel operates in India
Times PrimeDigital subscriptions platform
Whats HotLocal guide to your city
Willow A TV channel, broadcast cricket
GradeupExam Preparation App
Times XP Hindi New Video Platform for Hindi News

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibibo</span> Online travel organisation, subsidiary of MakeMyTrip Limited

Ibibo Group is an online Indian travel organisation founded in January 2007 by Ashish Kashyap. The company is a subsidiary of MakeMyTrip (MMT) Limited, which owns a 100% stake in Ibibo Group.

Zomato is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company. It was founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options from partner restaurants in more than 1,000 Indian cities and towns, as of 2022–23. Zomato rivals Swiggy in food delivery and hyper local space.

Jabong.com was an Indian fashion and lifestyle e-commerce portal founded by Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Kumar Jain. In July, 2016 Flipkart acquired Jabong through its unit Myntra for about $70 million. In February 2020, Flipkart formally shut down Jabong to shift focus completely on its premium clothing platform Myntra. The portal sold apparel, footwear, fashion accessories, beauty products, fragrances, home accessories and other fashion and lifestyle products. The company's headquarter was in Gurugram, NCR, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paytm</span> Indian financial technology company

Paytm is an Indian multinational financial technology company, that specializes in digital payments and financial services, based in Noida. It was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma under One97 Communications. The company offers mobile payment services to consumers and enables merchants to receive payments through its QR code, Payment Soundbox, Android based-point of sale machine and online payment gateway offerings. In partnership with financial institutions, Paytm offers financial services such as microloans and buy now, pay later to its consumers and merchants. Apart from bill payments and money transfer, the company also provides ticketing services, retail brokerage products and online games.

Nykaa is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Mumbai. It sells beauty, wellness and fashion products through its website, mobile app, and over 100 physical stores. In 2020, it became the first Indian unicorn startup headed by a woman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vedantu</span> Indian Educational technology company

Vedantu is an Indian multinational online tutoring platform launched in 2014 based in Bengaluru, India. It primarily provides services to students from grades 4 to 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohit Chadda</span>

Rohit Chadda is an Indian investment banker and entrepreneur, who serves as the CEO of the digital business at Essel Group. He was the co-founder of online food ordering platform Foodpanda. He is also the founder of omni-channel digital payments platform PayLo. He has been attributed for the turnaround of Zee Digital by bringing the digital business to the second position on ComScore from ninth position making Zee the second largest digital media group in India. He has been featured among Top Tech CEOs of the decade (2010-2020) in India and was featured among Fortune 40 under 40 in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PayU</span> Fintech company that provides payment solutions to online merchants.

PayU is a Netherlands-based payment service provider to online merchants. The company was founded in 2002, and is headquartered in Hoofddorp. It allows online businesses to accept and process payments through payment methods that can be integrated with web and mobile applications. As of 2018, the service is available in 17 countries. The firm is owned by the Naspers Group, which also owns a stake in one of its sister companies, Tencent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whatfix</span>

Whatfix is a SaaS based digital adoption platform that provides organizations with a no-code editor to create in-app guidance and self-help support on any application that looks 100% native. The platform enables companies to create interactive walkthroughs, product tours, user onboarding checklists, smart tips, field validation, self-help wikis, hotspots, and more. Its advanced product analytics empower organizations with the data to understand how users are engaging with their applications and software products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furlenco</span> Online furniture rental platform

Furlenco is an Indian online furniture rental platform that was incorporated in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haptik</span> Indian enterprise conversational AI platform

Haptik is an Indian enterprise conversational AI platform founded in August 2013, and acquired by Reliance Industries Limited in 2019. The company develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users to converse with applications and electronic devices in free-format, natural language, using speech or text. The company has been accorded numerous accolades including the Frost & Sullivan Award, NASSCOM's Al Game Changer Award, and serves Fortune 500 brands globally in industries such as financial, insurance, healthcare, technology and communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeta (company)</span> Next-gen Banking Tech & Card Issuer Processor

Zeta is a next-gen banking tech company by founders Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. The company provides credit and debit card issuer processing, BNPL, core banking and "mobile experiences". Zeta provides its products to banks and fintechs globally.

Lybrate is a mobile healthcare technology company that developed an online platform to connect doctors and patients. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Delhi, India. The service allows patients to connect with the doctor online through a video call or schedule an appointment and can get info about medication.

Livspace, is a home interior and renovation company headquartered in Singapore. It provides interior design and renovation services in Singapore and India. The company was founded in 2014 by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma and has raised funding of $450 million.

MX Player is an Indian video streaming and video on demand platform, developed by MX Media & Entertainment platform currently operates on an ad-supported model. This video streaming app has a streaming library of over 150,000 hours in 11 languages. It is available on iOS, Android and the web.

Swiggy is an Indian online food ordering and delivery platform. Founded in 2014, Swiggy is headquartered in Bangalore and operates in more than 500 Indian cities as of September 2021. Besides food delivery, the platform also provides on-demand grocery deliveries under the name Instamart, and same-day package delivery service called Swiggy Genie.

Founded in 1998, Pine Labs is an Indian company that provides financing and retail transaction technology. it is a unicorn startup, with a valuation of over US$5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ShareChat</span> Indian social networking service

ShareChat is an Indian social networking service platform, owned by Bangalore-based Mohalla Tech. It was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan, and incorporated on 8 January 2015. ShareChat app has over 350 million monthly active users across 15 Indian languages. The current valuation of the company is $5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medlife</span> Indian online medical provider

Medlife was an Indian online platform, which provided pharmacy, diagnostics, and e-consultation in India. It was founded in 2014 by Prashant Singh and Tushar Kumar. The company had a central laboratory based in Bangalore and operated in 29 states. In 2021, PharmEasy acquired Medlife, and merged Medlife's operations into its own platform.

Mohalla Tech is an Indian technology company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Mohalla Tech developed applications such as ShareChat, Moj and Moj Lite + (TakaTak). It acquired MX TakaTak, a short video platform in February 2022. The current valuation of the company is $5 billion.

References

  1. "Biggest names in music rock Gaana show". India Post. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  2. "Times Internet's Gautam Sinha On Turning A Legacy Media Company into A Conglomerate Of 37 Digital Startups – Inc42 Media". Inc42 Media. 26 December 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  3. "Times Internet Scaling Down E-commerce Operations".
  4. "Magicbricks.com awarded the best online realty portal" . Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  5. "iDiva.com wins 2 million hearts in 6 months". The Economic Times. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  6. "Times Internet acquires men's lifestyle portal MensXP". The Economic Times. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  7. "Times Internet acquires Cricbuzz". Cricbuzz. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  8. "Tech in Asia – Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  9. indiainfoline.com. "Times Internet acquires majority stake in Coupondunia" . Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  10. "Times Internet acquires majority stake in Taskbucks for $15M". VCCircle. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  11. "Haptik, an India-based mobile concierge service, raises $11.2M from Times Internet – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  12. "Times Internet launches travel portal, HappyTrips.com". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  13. "ET Money's big billion feat". The Economic Times. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  14. "Times Internet launches Samayam – digital news & infotainment brand in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam – Exchange4media". Exchange4media. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  15. indiainfoline.com. "Times Internet associates with HDFC Bank to launch 'Times Points HDFC Bank Debit Card'" . Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  16. "Times Internet acquires MX Player. For $200 million – The Ken". The Ken. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  17. "Times Internet's Gautam Sinha On Turning A Legacy Media Company into A Conglomerate Of 37 Digital Startups – Inc42 Media". Inc42 Media. 26 December 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  18. "Times Internet launches ETinsure.com to simplifyinsurance buying, claims". The Economic Times. 4 February 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  19. "Times Internet Acquires Spiritual Content Startup House Of God; Enters The Country's $40 Bn Religious Market". Inc42 Media. 18 December 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  20. "Tencent Is Said to Lead $115 Million Deal in India's Gaana". Bloomberg.com. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  21. "India's Times Internet buys popular video app MX Player for $140M to get into streaming – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  22. "Times Internet to launch new avatar of MX Player on February 20". www.afaqs.com. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  23. 1 2 "Times Internet: Everything. Everyday". timesinternet.in. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  24. www.ETtech.com. "MPL secures Rs 250 cr from Go-Jek arm, Sequoia India & Times Internet – ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.