Title: Global Hindu Electronic Networks
1Global Hindu Electronic Networks
- Introducing Worlds First and Only Comprehensive
Hindu Mass Media Company
2GHEN Vision
- To propagate the ancient Hindu vision of
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - Entire Universe is one
family using state of the art communications
tools - To facilitate the Hindu ideal, Taamaso Ma
Jyotirgamaya, Lead me from Darkness to Light - To combine a Great Cause with Smart Business
practices
3GHEN Mission
- Be the first Hindu mass media company and
e-Commerce portal in the world - Create dynamic and growing religious and
lifestyle content targeted towards every
demographic subgroup blended with Hindu focused
merchandise. - Use state-of-the-art technology to build an
active and engaged online Hindu community that is
a well focused hub for information and commerce - GHEN will be the premier information provider for
all Hindu dharma and India (Bharat) related
information in the world
4What is GHEN
- Started with mailing lists in 1989, first web
site in 1994 - A well planned focused hub of Hindu and India
related information and commerce - The only mainstream, active, Hindu online
community - Recognized as an undisputed leader in its class
- Started as a non-profit project of Hindu Students
Council, now a for-profit company, being
incorporated - Focus on issues that are most important to Hindus
and provide interactive services, peer support
and provide end users with online access to
experts - Growth through collaboration with content and
technology partners
5GHEN Active Sites Portal Sites
- HinduNet.org (April 1994)
- Main hub of all the Hindu content, events, news,
community features etc. - HinduKids.org (May 1999)
- A portal for Hindu kids
- HinduWomen.org (November 1999)
- A portal for Hindu women
- HinduWeb.org (May 1999)
- Free Hindu websites for individuals and
organizations (over 770 reserved, over 300
active) - Free Web based e-mail
- HinduLinks.org (May 1999)
- Reviewed links to other Hindu sites, about 1100
reviewed, over 500 to be added
6GHEN Active Sites Interest Areas
- HinduBooks.org (Formal, May 1999)
- Complete Text of over 75 Hindu books online with
15 more in the pipeline - Bhajans.org (1998, Domain May 1999)
- Hindu spiritual music
- Vivaaha.org (August 1999)
- Personals and Wedding with info on Hindu marriage
ceremony - MandirNet.org (June 1996, Domain May 1999)
- Directory of Hindu temples, history, archeology,
events, news, announcements from around the world
7GHEN Active Sites India Related
- FreeIndia.org (August 1997)
- Basic information, history, independence
movement, biographies, Amar Chitra Katha()
comics - BharatDaily.org (December 1999)
- News and current affairs
- BrightIndia.org (GHEN Site April 2000)
- E-zine for a resurgent India
- Panchjanya.com (September 1999)
- Second largest circulating weekly newspaper in
Hindi() Contract Ended, July 2000
8GHEN Active Sites Corporate Sites
- Ghen.org (January 2000)
- Ghen.net
- Corporate Information
- Common programs to all sites
- Forums
- Chat
- Personal Pager
- Search Engine
- Real Server
- etc.
9GHEN Awards (partial list)
10GHEN Citations (partial list)
Dozens of Other Publications
11GHEN Today
12Hindus and Internet
- There are about 1 billion Hindus in the world, or
16 of world population - Our definition of Hindus include Jain, Buddhist
and Sikh, the total population of all these
faiths is about 1.4 billion - There are over 4 million Hindus in US, most
affluent minority
13Content Partners
- Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan - Books
- Periplus Books, LLC
- India Book House Publishers ()
- () Contract Ended, August 2000
- Ramakrishna Matham (Mylapore, Chennai) Books
- American Institute of Vedic Studies Books
14Content Partners Authors
- Dr. David Frawley Books, Column
- Dr. Gangadhar Choudhary Books
- Sh. Bansi Pandit Books and Forum
- Prof. Subhash Kak Books, Column
- Dr. Satishkumar Modh Column
- Dr. A. V. Shreenivasan Books, Forum
- Mr. Sudheer Birodkar Books
- Prof. Lata Jagtiani Column
- Dr. Krishna Bhatta Column, Book
- Plus, several others
15Content Partners
- Rambhau Mahlgi Prabodhini, Mumbai India
BrightIndia, news, current events - Hindu Vivek Kendra, Mumbai, India News, current
events - Prajna Bharati, Hyderabad, India News, current
events - Panchjanya New Delhi, India, Hindi weekly
- Organiser New Delhi, India, English weekly ()
16Technology Partners
- Praja.com
- Events planning
- thePlunge.com
- Personal Events (Birthday, weddings etc.
planning/websites) - Odigo
- InstantMilan Personal Messenger
- Financenter.com
- Personal Financial Calculators for HinduShops.com
- Links2Go.com
- Co-branded directory for external non-Hindu links
- All the partnership agreements are signed. Some
of the partnerships are to be implemented
17GHEN Revenues
- Ad Agencies
- Burst! Media
- Value Click
- Affinia
- OneMediaPlace (formerly AdAuction)
- 24/7 Media, under negotiations
- Affiliate Arrangements
- Amazon.com
- Hinduism Today
- PlanetVeggie.Com
18GHEN Revenues
- Commerce Partners
- T-Series (largest producers of music in India)
- Xandu Pharmaceuticals - one of the largest
Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals (under negotiations) - InPhonics (hindunet branded wireless solution -
under negotiations) - iUniverse Co-branded print-on-demand book
publishing - Several Others being signed for HinduShops.com
19GHEN Team
- CEO Ajay Shah, Ph.D.
- V.P. Development Srinivas Bolisetty
- V.P. Operations Rajiv Varma
- C.F.O. Ragni Mehta
- V.P. Sales Kanchan Banerjee
- General Counsel Director of Marketing Rakhi
Israni
20Objectives
- Transition from Non-profit to a For-profit
organization - Incorporate and hire employees
- Increase the no. of page views by 1000 by Dec.
2002 - Increase the no. of visitors by 300 each year
- Grow advertisements and sponsorship revenues by
100 each year - Total sales of 3,500,000 by Dec 2002
- Achieve Profitability by Dec 2002
21Web Site Development Plan
22Market Segmentation
- Hindus around the world
- A key target Non-Indian/Hindu Population that
follows some Hindu practices - Yoga
- Ayurveda
- Vedic Astrology
- Vegetarian about 2.5 of US population
- Followers of Specific Gurus
- Children of Non-Resident Indians around the world
- School and college students studying about India
- Internet Users in India and rest of Asia where
the culture is Hindu/Hindu-like is expected to
rise dramatically in next 3 years - Hindu Women We estimate that general US women
statistics apply - Women comprise 48 of all Internet users.
(Jupiter) - Women control or influence over 80 of all
purchase decisions. (Ad Age)
23Site Targeting, Demographics Community
- GHEN Sites are targeted based on interest areas
and specific demographic groups - Interest area sites
- Ayurveda, Astrology, Vegetarian, Weddings,
Bhajans etc. - Demographic targeting
- Kids, youth, women, internationalization
- Community Portal Features
- Free websites, email, event reminders, classified
advertisements, matrimonials - Forums, Chat, Mailing List
- Under Construction Personal messenger, personal
event planner, community event listings
24GHEN Upcoming Sites
- HinduShops.com
- AyurvedaWeb.org
- Bhojan.org
- JyotishWeb.org
- HinduYouth.org
- NobleCauses.org
- HinduInfo.org
25Website Development Plan Personalization
Community
- Focus on Public and Personal Events
- Personalization
- Temple Centric Sites with Resources for temples
- Personal Calendar
- Free internet access
- Photo albums
- Family intranet
- Personal mailing lists and clubs
- Personal Messenger
26Website Development Plan Content
- More focused towards specific interest areas and
age groups - Internationalization Geographic targeting and
multiple languages - Publish Daily Hindu Digest (only general daily
Hindu publication, print or online) - Hindu Radio on the net
- Live Events and guests
- Education
- Hindu University on the net, offer fee based
courses
27Business ModelContent Sites
- Contents should not be for Hindus or Indians but
about Hindu and India. - Distinguish GHEN brand from others by adding
value - Expansion of content horizontally and vertically
to further strengthen our leadership position - Build a strong online community
- Leverage the GHEN brand name and contents for
e-Commerce - Form significant technological partnerships
- Internationalize the contents.
28Competitive Analysis Content Sites
- Major Competitors for Hindu Content
- Hinduism Today magazine Good content and
visibility - HinduMythology.com from Indian Express group
well presented has backing of a large media
group. - Our Advantage
- We have several orders of magnitude more content.
- Competition lacks community features
- Have no strategic relationship with major Hindu
organizations. - Other GHEN sites have competition to a varied
degree. - More details available in the Business Plan
29Website Development Plan Commerce
- Hindu mall on the internet
- HinduShops.com
- Vegetarian grocery shopping
- Bhojan.org
- Weddings
- Vivaaha.org
- Travel Tourism
- Expanded MandirNet, and religious pilgrimage
(yatra) site, integrated with e-commerce - Ayurveda, Jyotish and Yoga sites
- integrated with appropriate commerce
- Integrate HinduWomen.org with HinduShops.com
- Continue and expand existing affiliate
arrangements
30Concept Hindushops.com
- Become a major Hindu commerce portal
- Target
- Hindu related merchandise
- Hindu educational products
- India related gift items
- Appreal
- Books etc.
- Create a directory of Hindu services
- Act as aggregator of merchants
- Provide value to customers through reviews,
recommendations etc. - Partner with community organizations consider
sharing portion of revenue for marketing through
NobleCauses.org - Provide free services to merchants and
contributors
31Market Analysis HinduShops.com
- At this time, there is no Hindu Mall however,
some of the India related malls are coming up,
and we expect Hindu malls to come online in next
few months - Initial sales will be mostly in US and Canada,
which will be eventually expanded to other
countries - Assumptions
- Studies 1 to 9 visitors to purchaser
conversion - Convert 1 of visitors to customers
- Avg. purchase 20, GHEN commission 5 (after
community marketing through NobleCauses)
32Business ModelHindushops.com
- We will not carry inventory
- Partner with established merchants
- Merchants will pay GHEN 10 of total revenue
- Merchant and GHEN will do independent or shared
marketing - Marketing to include non-profit organizations
through NobleCauses.org - Partner with service providers, astrologers,
pujaris etc. - Continue and expand relevant affiliate affiliate
arrangements such as Amazon.com - Provide free services to attract customers
- Free financial calculators through
financenter.com - Free directory lookups etc.
- Provide Free Services for merchants
- Websites
- Classifieds
33Competitive Analysis HinduShops.com
- Sites offering Hindu centric goods / services
- Carry very few items, not significant hubs of
e-commerce - We expect several such sites to come up in next
one year - Sites such as saranam.com that sell pujas
- Sites that sell general Indian merchandise
- Most notably indiaplaza.com and namaste.com
- Considerable resources and good brand recognition
- Lack Hindu focus, and related content
- Merchandising by non-profit Ashrams and
Organizations - A significant competition
- Generally sell merchandise mostly to their
devotees, loyal customers. - Our strategy To involve them in HinduShops.com
- Bookstores and Musicstores
- strong competition from the other websites such
as those from the publishers and their other
affiliates. - more details available in the plan
34Concept Bhojan.Org
- Sell vegetarian grocery and health food and
related merchandise - Scriptural aspects of food
- Recipes
- Health food
- Vegetarian Restaurant Guide
- Promote other GHEN sites to Vegetarians
35Market Analysis Bhojan.org
- A Hindu and vegetarian food portal
- It is estimated that about 2.5 of US population
is vegetarian (Gallup, 1997) - Many more avoid some type of meat products
- Studies 1 to 9 visitors to purchasers
conversion - Assumptions
- 0.5 of all GHEN site visitors will purchase
- average purchase of 25.00
- 5 of sales as revenue
36Business ModelBhojan.org
- Bhojan.org our vegetarianism site, in
collaboration with PlanetVeggie.com. - Down To Earth, parent of planetveggie.com is a
brick-and-mortar store based in Hawaii, with a
warehouse in CA - PlanetVeggie is directed towards Western
Vegetarians/Vegans - PlanetVeggie is partnering with us because we can
give them exposure to the Indian market. - PlanetVeggie us with their content, we will add
the relevant Hindu content. We will keep the
content advertisement revenues and share
e-Commerce revenues with them
37Bhojan.Org Competitive Analysis
- Well funded, well recognized Indian grocery
stores - Namaste.com (a division of ethnicgrocer.com)
- indiaplaza.com
- IndianGoodsOnline.com
- Indianstuff.com
- over a dozen more...
- The above sites carry virtually identical items
- Non-Indian Online grocery stores
- Competitive Advantage for Bhojan.org
- Content Articles, encyclopedia of Vegetarianism
etc. - Our strong emphasis on vegetarianism
- Health food
- Emphasis on Western (non-Indian) grocery items,
with a growing collection of Indian grocery
38Concept NobleCauses.org
- A public service site of GHEN
- Facilitate Giving to various charities
- Provide charities / organizations easy access to
fund collection mechanisms - Collection of Hindu and India related charity
- Secular Charities
- Healthcare Research
- Hospitals
- Educational Institutes
- Community
- Support Groups
- Calamities and natural disasters
- Hunger and Shelter related projects
39Market Analysis NobleCauses.org
- This site will be similar to CharitableWays.com
or helping.org - Currently, there is no Hindu or India related
charity portal - At this time, there are no reliable statistics
for Hindu charitable contributions, however, they
are expected to be significant - Fulfill the needs of Hindu/India non-profits
- promote their causes
- raising funds abroad, amongst NRIs
- Fulfill the requirements of NRIs
- Identifying genuine charities
- Sending money to these charities
40Business ModelNobleCauses.org
- Those who shop on HinduShops.com can enter a code
for the charity if it appears on NobleCauses.org
and the charity will receive portion of the
revenue of the purchase - The above concept will be extended to our grocery
site bhojan.org - The site will therefore be used to promote
HinduShops.com in the community - The site will contribute to the banner
advertising revenue for GHEN - Risk / Legal Analysis
- Identifying genuine charities
- Extensive legal efforts needed in getting
authorization to collect money / transfer money
41Competitive Analysis NobleCauses.org
- GuideStar.Com lists 333 Hindu non-profits in USA
and a few hundred India related non-profits - NobleCauses.org has no competition amongst Hindu
and Indian charities, temples and causes - Several general charity sites, such as
charitableways.com, helping.org are not focused
on our target market but have more resources and
could be considered competitors in US charities - We will cooperate, rather than compete with the
charities that are promoted by temples and other
Hindu organizations
42Marketing Plan
- Offline Advertising
- Hindu lifestyle oriented Magazines and Newspapers
(Yoga Times, Vegetarian Journal etc) - Ethnic Indian newspapers,
- Ethnic Indian radio and Television
- Community
- Through NobleCauses.org
- Promotion through Hindu organizations and Temples
- Other websites
- Syndicate GHEN content through isyndicate
- OnLine Marketing
- Affiliate programs
- Content Syndication
- Banner Advertisements
- International Promotion
- Hindu organizations and temples
- Promotions to get better demographics data, and
build a larger membership base
43The Financials
44Start-Up Expenses
- Startup Funding requirement is 1,717,150
- Startup funds include
- Office Setup
- Incorporation
- Equipment cost
- Provision for cost of content acquisition
- Provision for acquisition technology
45Summary Startup Expenses
46Traffic Forecast
- Current Marketing Budget 0.0
- In 1998 and 1999 organizational sites were
de-coupled from GHEN sites. Actual growth of our
content sites is therefore much greater
47Marketing Sales Budget for 6 months
48Marketing Sales Budget Up to 3 Years
49Marketing Sales Budget Up to 3 Years
50Marketing Sales Summary
51Personnel Plan
- Key personnel will be located in USA
- Content developers, editors, additional
programmers and web administrators will be hired
in India to control cost - News/event acquisition through freelance
reporters - Reliance on columnists for content
- Personnel cost control through strategic
partnerships with content providers
52Personnel Plan Staffing for first 6 months
53Summary Personnel Plan
54Sales Forecast
55Sales Forecast
56Sales Forecast
57Profit Loss Statement
58Profit Loss Statement
59Profit Loss Statement
60Profit Loss Statement
61Pro-Forma Balance Sheet
62Pro-Forma Balance Sheet (6 mo. To 1 year)
63Pro-Forma Balance Sheet (Up To 3 Years)
64Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (first six months)
65Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (up to 3 years)
66Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (up to 3 years)
67Summary Keys to Success
- Leadership Already functioning sites, which are
category leaders - Management Experienced Management team with
extensive community relations - Commerce Attract quality merchants and
customers leveraging GHEN brand name. - Comprehensive Content Directed towards interest
areas and demographic groups - Growth through community relations, content,
technology and strategic partnerships - Low development costs
- Internationalization