Chakpak.com, an entertainment portal (Bollywood Content) has gotten nearly 25 Crores in funding from Venture Capital Firm Canaan Partners
Sources:
VCcircle
Content Sutra
From the press release:
Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Partners, India explains that out of a base of 40 million online users in India, 18 million are already accessing some or the other entertainment destination. This put together with the demand for Indian content outside India totals to 25 -30 million users. Mittal says “it’s a large category. Since chakpak.com gets 5 million visitors every month, they have shown very strong traction over the last 12 months in building a significant presence.”
Bollywood PORTAL + 5 million users (claimed) + IIT Grads (Founders) = BIG Funding from a BIG VC
My Analysis of ChakPak.com:
1) Quality of Traffic : 2/10
Due to the nature of the site content, Chakpak caters to teenagers & the time-pass crowd. How many High-Net Worth individuals (HNI’s) do you think will hang out at the Chakpak forum sharing juicy gossip about actors/actresses and doing movie reviews?
2) Revenues : 2/10
What do they make… Rs 25 per 1,000 impressions? Wait, dont they have Google Adsense as their main source of revenue? WOW!
3) Technology: 1/10
Do they have a killer application… difficult to replicate? Any patent-pending technology? NADA
What about the UI… what about design? YUCCCK!
Wait, they do have integration with YouTube. WOW!
4) Competitiveness: 2/10
They are competing for marketshare with the likes of Network18, BCCL (Times), BigAdda, Bollywood Hungama, etc. (Established media business with stake in print, radio, tv, ooh & web) Do they have a differential offering OR some USP… without it they will NEVER be able to build a loyal user base.
5) Market Niche: 1/10
Bollywood content… huh? Very Nice.
In India, pretty much every mohalla in every city has a website centered around Bollywood. Need proof, check this out:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bollywood
Recommended Movie For Mr. Alok Mittal This Weekend: TITANIC
Just found this post through twitter. Exactly my sentiments on chakpak, what a duh! investment.
Bipin: The VC does not agree with your assessment of his investment. Don’t be suprised if they throw another $5 million at a Hollywood portal with IIM founders
Whose money is it anyway?
I happened to hear about chakpak through my iit contacts. And when I visited the site, I was pretty depressed and wondered how long it can survive w/o any improvement in UI quality ( the least one can/should do).
Looks like the answers are starting to unfold. I hope they open their eyes and do something about it – though it will take monumental effort from here.
Too Bad for the VC. Too good for the VC. Bollywood traffic is like porn traffic. Easy to get, Hard to monetize. They were lucky that they got funding based on Traffic. They can use the money to do a lot oher things, not around bollywood.
in SEO speak, since they seem to be doing SEO traffic.
Maybe create several content Farms. Hire several content writers and link builders
I mean too good for the founders..