Rediff.com total income grows by 71% at $4.21 million in Q2FY06

New Delhi, Nov 7 (UNI) Rediff.com India Ltd, online providers of news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services to Indians worldwide, today announced that the total income of the company grew by 71 per cent to 4.71 million dollars for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to 2.76 million dollars during the same quarter last fiscal year.

Gross Margin of the company for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 increased 80 per cent at 5.33 million dollars as against 3.06 million dollars or 70 per cent during the same quarter last fiscal year.

Operating expenses increased by 64 per cent to 4.19 million dollars for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, compared to 2.56 million dollars for the same quarter last fiscal year, primarily due to higher advertising, marketing and product development costs.

Operating EBITDA increased to 1.14 million dollars for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to an Operating EBITDA of 0.50 million dollars for the corresponding quarter last fiscal year.

Registered users of the company grew to 47.7 million as of September 30, 2006, a 21 per cent increase over the number of registered users as of September 30, 2005.

With revenues from the India Online advertising business growing by 94 per cent for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year, online advertising remains the primary growth driver for the company.

The number of advertisers on the company's website for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 totalled about 160 brands, an increase of 20 per cent over the number of advertisers during the same period in the prior fiscal year.

Online verticals such as travel, matrimonial and employment, information technology products, consumer financial services and financial products accounted for 68 per cent of online advertising revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2006.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, the top 10 advertisers contributed about 57 per cent of advertising revenue for the India Online business, compared to 52 per cent during the same period in the prior fiscal year.

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