Mint reports that Web18 is to launch a horizontal portal, tapping into data from the rest of the sites in its portfolio. They already have a pretty good portfolio spanning across finance, travel, sports, jobs, entertainment etc. So, it wont take too much effort in getting section specific content.
Insiders revealed that the site is likely to launch later this month and an email service will be bundled with the portal. In that case, Web18 will be headed for a direct competition with Rediff, IndiaTimes, Sify, Yahoo India etc.
I think Web 18 is unlike any other Indian portal. They have captured the market quite beautifully in recent times. Be it making their own trademark websites like ibnlive.com or acquiring vertical masters such as moneycontrol.com. More than that they have advertised all of thier products such that even if you are using any one of these websites you know each one of them.
Now this moves seems to be a very interesting and intelligent one, as Web18 will not need to advertise heavily for this horizontal portal and success of this seems obvious.
@rabi,
they have indeed developed quite a broad and interesting portfolio of websites.
Success isnt obvious because they do seem to be spending quite a bit on content syndication.