In.com overtakes Rediff.com

In.com is consistently ahead of Rediff.com since the last few months, globally. In July, it received 15.4 million unique visitors, as compared to 13 million unique visitors on Rediff.com

The latest traffic data churned out by comScore will surprise existing perceptions - that Rediff.com is bigger than In.com in terms of unique visitors worldwide. In fact, in what is evidently an established trend, In.com has been consistently scoring more than Rediff.com in terms of unique visitors globally.

In July 2010, In.com received 15.4 million unique visitors, which is 2 million more than Rediff.com (13 million unique visitors), globally.

Interestingly, In.com overtook Rediff.com in March 2010 for the first time, when it got 15.7 million unique visitors, as compared to 13.4 unique visitors on Rediff.com. Since then, it has consistently remained ahead of Rediff.com, while the number of unique visitors landing on Rediff.com is gradually reducing since the beginning of this calendar year.

The traffic on Rediff.com dipped from 14 million unique visitors in January 2010 to 13 million in July. In.com was at 10.6 million unique users in January this year.

Not only this, the comScore data even reveals that In.com is bigger than another site with Indian origin: Indiatimes.com (9.4 million unique visitors, worldwide, in July).

Kedar Gavane, director, comScore (India), clarifies that the total number of unique visitors estimated for In.com includes traffic figures of various Web18 sites which have 'In.com' as part of their domain name. For instance, sites such as Ibnlive.in.com, Cricketnext.in.com and Tech2.in.com are included in this figure. Similarly, various web pages (including Rediff Mail and excluding 'India Abroad' section) which have Rediff.com as part of their domain names are calculated under Rediff.com.

The traffic of numerous TOI group sites such as Timesofindia.indiatimes.com and Economictimes.indiatimes.com are clubbed with Indiatimes.com domain.

15 million unique visitors is a significant number for any India-originated web destination. Will this number affect the global ad spends by Indian brand managers, who primarily believe that Rediff and Indiatimes have strongholds on the international online audience?

Prasanth Mohanachandran, co-founder, AgencyDigi, says, "From now onwards, the status quo of media vehicles to reach the international audience will be challenged. The world suddenly feels bigger than Rediff and Indiatimes. Also, the details of traffic on In.com are available by genre on comScore, implying transparency for the first time."

A digital media planner agrees, "The traffic figures of various Web18 sites, clubbed under In.com, are available individually as well. This will enable advertisers to fine tune or target consumers more efficiently through various content genres or Web18 sites such as news, technology, cricket and entertainment.

However, Raj Menon, chief operating officer, Contests2win, has a different opinion. He says, "In the short term, there won't be a major re-jigging of plans by advertisers. In India, the ad spend pie is split amongst the big three: Yahoo, Rediff and Google. Media buyers will wait and watch to see if this is a one off or whether In.com can sustain this lead."

He adds, "In the NRI markets (especially in the US), Rediff is particularly strong because of its 'India Abroad' section. Media consumption is a habit and habits cannot be changed overnight, especially when the consumer is slightly older and has stayed with the brand for more than 10 years. So marketers will be cognizant of the change of guard but also vigilant. They will eventually spend where the eyeballs are and where they get maximum ROI (return on investment)."