Sify - SUPERBRANDS

Market
History
When the Internet revolution began,
there was one Indian company that
articulated its goals for the future. Its
mission was to make a difference to
the quality of the lives of millions
of people and organisations by
empowering them with the
Internet and by leveraging
the capabilities of Indian
knowledge resources. It did
this rapidly, becoming the
leader in quality, creating value
for its stakeholders and building
an enviable reputation as a catalyst
for positive change. That company was
Sify Limited.
In just seven years from the start of
commercial operations, Sify has helped grow
the market for the Internet, networking and
e-Commerce services in India. In the process,
Sify has become profitable, emerged as the
market leader in key lines of business and has
won global recognition for its pioneering role,
expertise, performance, customer focus and
service standards.
Sify.com is the consumer portal owned
and operated by Sify Limited. It is the face of
Sify for the Indian Internet user and proudly
carries the Sify legacy of
being a leader in the
Internet space.
As early as 1996/97, when the concept of
e-Commerce was still in its infancy in India, Sify
was already making headway in the Internet and
e-Commerce space by establishing India’s first
privately run public data network between all
the major cities in India.
Displaying exemplary speed of response,
Sify launched its Internet access service as an
ISP in November 1998 – within days of the
government abolishing its monopoly in this area.
Sify’s acquisition of India World in 1999
marked a defining moment in the growth of the
Internet in India and gave it a strong leadership
security.
Sify.com
sponsored the
Indian Olympic
contingent to
the 2000 Sydney
Olympics, through its
very popular sports
portal, Khel.com. The Indian
directory-based search
engine, Khoj.com, was voted the
best Indian search engine at the
Digit Web Excellence Awards in 2001.
The advertisement solutions offered by
Sify.com have consistently delivered value to an
ever-growing list of clients. The portal has the
highest monetisation per user among Indian
portals and is among the leading portals in
Achievements
From pioneer to leader,
Sify.com’s journey in
cyberspace has been
dotted with achievements
and recognition. From the
first news and information
website for Non-Resident
Indians (Samachar.com),
to editions in English and
five other Indian languages
(Hindi, Kannada,
Malayalam, Tamil and
Telugu), to India’s first
broadband portal,
www.sifymax.in, Sify has
led the way.
Sify.com has a CMMI Level 3 technology
development team and an ISO: 9001:2000
certified customer care centre. It relies on Sify’s
IP backbone which is comparable to global
majors such as AT&T, Telstra and others who are
known for their speed, reliability, scalability and
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BUSINESS SUPERBRANDS
advertising revenues.
Sify is a model corporate citizen and
has contributed significantly to
the relief and rehabilitation
measures in times of natural
disasters. Sify.com, through its
users, donated more than
Rs. 2.5 million (US$ 57,000) to
the Red Cross Society and CRY
(Child Relief & You) during the
major earthquake that rocked
Bhuj on 26th January 2001.
The generosity continued
when the tsunami hit India
and other countries, on 26th
December 2004. Sify.com
contributed Rs. 20 million (US$
455,000) to the Prime Minister’s
Relief Fund through the Red
Cross Society of India.
position in the Indian consumer Internet space.
Leading Internet brands such as Samachar.com,
Bawarchi.com, Khel.com and Khoj.com are now
part of Sify.com.
Sify.com, then known as Satyamonline.com,
was launched in August 2000 as a consumer
portal for all Sify’s ISP subscribers, as well as
other Internet users. The aim was simply to
become the Internet portal of choice for
every Indian Internet user.
In April 2002, as soon as the government
lifted restrictions on Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), Sify became the first company
to offer Internet Telephony services under the
brand name Sify Talk.
The first half of 2005 has been hectic for
Sify.com. It launched the first-ever multilingual
coverage of the Union Budget, Sify.com’s
short code ‘4545’ for mobile services and
most recently, www.sifymax.in, India’s first
broadband website.
Product
Sify’s range of customer services also reflects
its mission of empowering people with the
Internet. From the Internet access options
ranging from dial-up (Sify Gold), broadband (Sify
Broadband) and public Internet access points
(Sify iWay), to world-class web portals such as
Sify.com, Sify empowers customers to explore
the true potential of the worldwide web.
Sify.com is one of India’s leading consumer
portals with comprehensive information, facilities
and services. With a diverse range of offerings
from news to infotainment, cars to classical
music, shopping to job search, airline tickets to
home loans and food to entertainment, Sify.com
continues to be one of India’s
foremost Internet brands.
Sify.com caters to the interests
of two broad audience segments –
the resident Indian and the NonResident Indian (NRI). Sify.com
is the gateway to all services
relevant to the resident Indian,
while Samachar.com is the gateway
for the NRI.
Sify.com offers a comprehensive
range of both free and paid
services. A robust e-mail service
with ample storage and spam
protection features and several
other interactive utilities such as
chat, messenger (Sify Buzz), groups,
blogs, discussion forums are all part
of the services offered.
Recent Developments
A 24 hours a day seven days a week news desk
ensures that Sify.com users are always abreast of
the latest happenings in India and around the
world. Sify.com subscribes to all major news
wires (Reuters, AP, UNI, PTI etc.) for real time
news updates. It also has alliances with leading
content and research houses as
well as freelancers, for providing
general, personal finance
(Walletwatch.com), sports,
movies and news on other
subjects. City-specific news is
provided through five city news
channels. News is also offered in
five Indian languages.
The portal has a range of
e-Commerce options, too.
SifyMall.com, the VeriSign secured
online shopping store offers
products across several
categories, with guaranteed
deliveries and best price deals.
The bookstore on SifyMall.com, powered by
Landmark, the leading Indian name in books,
has more than
1,000,000 titles.
Sify.com also offers
premium services
such as astrology,
classifieds, money
transfer, premium
mail, stock market
predictions, recipe
e-books and more.
Sify is among the leading broadband Internet
service providers to homes in India.
All Sify iWays also offer broadband Internet
access to people without a PC at home.
Sifymax.in, India’s first broadband portal offers
rich multimedia content to these users, as well
as other broadband users.
Sifymax.in gives Internet users access to an
enormous range of music, news and exciting
audio and video entertainment content. This
includes ten radio channels with music 24 hours
a day seven days a week, across genres such as
Bollywood hits, Indipop and international pop in
Hindi, English and Tamil. Music videos, movie
clips with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews
Promotion
“The world’s oldest form of communication
announcing the world’s newest form of
communication,” said the Town Crier of the City
of London, whom Sify flew down to promote its
branded Internet services. Sify has promoted its
services using such innovative methods, as well
as routine online contests and sweepstakes on
Sify.com
Sify.com services are regularly promoted
online as well as through the network of
more than 2,500 Sify iWays. Online alliances
also help Sify.com reach out to new users.
Sify.com has also used print, to promote
Samachar.com in the US markets; television
to promote Sify Mail and FM radio to promote
4545 and exam results.
and the latest movie trailers from Hollywood,
Bollywood and Indian regional films are all
available around-the-clock. News from trusted
and popular channels, including BBC World and
Aaj Tak, ANI and Headlines Today, ensure users
can catch up with the news when convenient.
Sifymax also aggregates the best podcasts on
the web. The site is designed to be a delight for
broadband Internet users.
Sify.com’s mobile short code, 4545, is also
gaining popularity. Services on offer include ring
tone downloads, mail-on-mobile, exam results,
logos and picture messages, news and
entertainment content, astrological predictions
and much more. Sify.com is also the first Indian
portal to offer mobile blogs (or moblogs)
through 4545.
Sify.com has earned the trust and loyalty of
students by offering the most reliable and
quickest access to exam results of state boards
as well as national public examinations like the
CBSE. The results are being offered on the web
through 4545 and through the mail.
Tennis fans will recall Sify’s coverage of the
Brand Values
The Sify brand is best symbolised by the nature
of the Internet itself – young, dynamic,
innovative, constantly evolving, friendly and
empowering. Sify’s mission is to make a
qualitative difference to the lives of millions of
people and organisations by harnessing the
power of the Internet.
A key factor in this is the use of India’s
existing knowledge resources – her educated
professionals in engineering, networking and
software. Everything that the company has done
or achieved since it began commercial
operations in April 1998 stems from this
singular purpose and vision.
www.sify.com
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
Sify
The name Sify is based on the company’s
NASDAQ trading symbol.
Sify.com owns some of the most famous
NRI websites, including Samachar.com,
Bawarchi.com, Khel.com and Khoj.com.
Khel.com sponsored the Indian Olympic
Contingent to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Khoj.com was rated as the best Indian search
engine at the Digit Web Excellence Awards,
2001.
Sify.com also owns Walletwatch.com, among
the most popular personal finance websites. It
offered the coverage of the 2005 Union Budget
in six languages – an Indian Internet first.
Wimbledon 2005 in www.sifymax.in complete
with profiles, schedules, scores, player interviews,
articles and even highlights of the big matches.
This was followed by Fame Gurukul. Billed as
the hottest on-the-air Indian reality show, SONY
television – the channel behind Fame Gurukul –
has tied up with Sify Max as their exclusive
broadband partner, giving sole rights to behindthe-scenes footage, interview with the
contestants, actual programme coverage etc. In
short, the Indian broadband users are in for a
whole new world of entertainment
Sify.com was the first to launch the Soshkele
(an animated, expandable advertising banner) in
the Indian Internet space.
Sify.com was the first Indian portal to launch
the .in mirror, Sify.in – a reflection of the pride
in being Indian.
Sify.com has launched the first Indian
Broadband portal, www.Sifymax.in.
Sify.com owns the popular mobile short code
4545.
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