Q&A: Arun Tadanki, MD, Yahoo India

'We've positioned ourselves as a premium digital medium'

Managing Director of Yahoo India Arun Tadanki was a speaker at the advertising and media conclave at Goafest 2011. He took time out to speak to Viveat Susan Pinto & Priyanka Singh on how the internet firm was dealing with Google’s dominance in the online space, and what are the avenues available to advertisers on the net. Edited excerpts:

Yahoo has been in India longer than Google. But they are ahead of you. How are you dealing with this challenge?
Every company has its own business model. We are uniquely positioned in the market. Last year, we grew twice as fast as the internet market in India and reached 65 per cent of internet users. We have positioned ourselves as a premium digital medium. We primarily focus on two pillars — cricket and entertainment. Though mail and messenger continue to be our flagship offerings, we intend to engage a lot of young internet users with our content. We had 17 million visitors to Yahoo Cricket in March. The latter has grown five-fold in the last few years.

An ad is still viewed as an intrusion, especially on the net. What are you doing about that?
Yahoo is very particular about its ad content and display. We conduct consumer surveys every quarter to gauge their response to ads and what they expect out of it. I don't buy your point that people are not interested in ads. Take Vogue for example. Quite a few buy it for the quality of their ads. Advertising works. You have to do it in the right way.

Internet penetration through mobiles is growing in India. How are you tapping this medium?
Internet penetration through mobiles is growing at about 60-70 per cent per annum. For us, it is a medium that has enormous potential. From customising the webpage to the handset to partnering with handset manufacturers to maximise reach, we are looking at every aspect of the business.

How important is live streaming to a digital media company? Google used it successfully during the third edition of the Indian Premier League.
Live streaming promises new opportunities for a marketer; yes, but it is the video advertising market that I would bet on. It offers greater potential because advertisers draw parallels to TV.

How much of a threat are social networking sites?
We view them as partners. Yahoo sees Twitter and Facebook as great opportunities to engage with consumers. You have links on our pages to these sites. This works well for both of us.