HT Media's digital business revenues up 41% in Q1 at Rs 17.5Cr, segment loss at Rs 17.04Cr

Media and publishing group HT Media recorded Rs 17.5 crore in revenues from the digital segment for the quarter ended June 31, 2013. This marks 41.3 per cent growth over the year-ago period and sequential revenue growth of 17 per cent, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2013. The company's digital businesses include the job portal Shine.com (which competes with the likes of Naukri.com), HT Mobile and HTCampus.com, among others.

Losses from the digital business were pegged at Rs 17.04 crore, having risen faster than the revenues, compared to Q1 FY13 when the segment loss from the business was pegged at Rs 11.7 crore. Sequentially, the segment loss has more than doubled.

Shine.com, previously housed under a subsidiary called Firefly e-Ventures before it was transferred to the parent firm, registered a revenue growth of 81 per cent in Q1 FY14 over Q1 FY13. The firm did not provide separate financials for the job portal.

Among other digital businesses, HTCampus.com and HT Mobile recorded growth of 39 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, in Q1 FY14 over Q1 FY13.

Recently, HT Mobile acquired digital marketing agency Webitude, owned and operated by Lucknow-based Bluelemon Technologies Pvt Ltd. Webitude is a full service digital agency located in Gurgaon and offers a host of digital marketing solutions including digital media planning & buying, social media marketing, social application development & deployment and online reputation management.

With this acquisition, Webitude will offer its solutions under an umbrella brand called Digital Quotient under HT Mobile. Techcircle.in first reported that HT Mobile had acquired the digital media marketing business of Bluelemon.

HT Media, which publishes the English daily Hindustan Times besides the Hindi daily Hindustan and the business daily Mint, as a whole reported total revenues of Rs 540.9 crore, up 10.4 per cent over the year-ago period. HT Media's net profit stood at Rs 47.49, up 16.8 per cent from Q1 FY13.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)