Global Hindu Electronic Networks

1
Global Hindu Electronic Networks

• Introducing Worlds First and Only Comprehensive
  Hindu Mass Media Company

2
GHEN Vision

• To propagate the ancient Hindu vision of
  Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - Entire Universe is one
  family using state of the art communications
  tools
• To facilitate the Hindu ideal, Taamaso Ma
  Jyotirgamaya, Lead me from Darkness to Light
• To combine a Great Cause with Smart Business
  practices

3
GHEN Mission

• Be the first Hindu mass media company and
  e-Commerce portal in the world
• Create dynamic and growing religious and
  lifestyle content targeted towards every
  demographic subgroup blended with Hindu focused
  merchandise.
• Use state-of-the-art technology to build an
  active and engaged online Hindu community that is
  a well focused hub for information and commerce
• GHEN will be the premier information provider for
  all Hindu dharma and India (Bharat) related
  information in the world

4
What is GHEN

• Started with mailing lists in 1989, first web
  site in 1994
• A well planned focused hub of Hindu and India
  related information and commerce
• The only mainstream, active, Hindu online
  community
• Recognized as an undisputed leader in its class
• Started as a non-profit project of Hindu Students
  Council, now a for-profit company, being
  incorporated
• Focus on issues that are most important to Hindus
  and provide interactive services, peer support
  and provide end users with online access to
  experts
• Growth through collaboration with content and
  technology partners

5
GHEN Active Sites Portal Sites

• HinduNet.org (April 1994)
• Main hub of all the Hindu content, events, news,
  community features etc.
• HinduKids.org (May 1999)
• A portal for Hindu kids
• HinduWomen.org (November 1999)
• A portal for Hindu women
• HinduWeb.org (May 1999)
• Free Hindu websites for individuals and
  organizations (over 770 reserved, over 300
  active)
• Free Web based e-mail
• HinduLinks.org (May 1999)
• Reviewed links to other Hindu sites, about 1100
  reviewed, over 500 to be added

6
GHEN Active Sites Interest Areas

• HinduBooks.org (Formal, May 1999)
• Complete Text of over 75 Hindu books online with
  15 more in the pipeline
• Bhajans.org (1998, Domain May 1999)
• Hindu spiritual music
• Vivaaha.org (August 1999)
• Personals and Wedding with info on Hindu marriage
  ceremony
• MandirNet.org (June 1996, Domain May 1999)
• Directory of Hindu temples, history, archeology,
  events, news, announcements from around the world

7
GHEN Active Sites India Related

• FreeIndia.org (August 1997)
• Basic information, history, independence
  movement, biographies, Amar Chitra Katha()
  comics
• BharatDaily.org (December 1999)
• News and current affairs
• BrightIndia.org (GHEN Site April 2000)
• E-zine for a resurgent India
• Panchjanya.com (September 1999)
• Second largest circulating weekly newspaper in
  Hindi() Contract Ended, July 2000

8
GHEN Active Sites Corporate Sites

• Ghen.org (January 2000)
• Ghen.net
• Corporate Information
• Common programs to all sites
• Forums
• Chat
• Personal Pager
• Search Engine
• Real Server
• etc.

9
GHEN Awards (partial list)
10
GHEN Citations (partial list)
Dozens of Other Publications
11
GHEN Today
12
Hindus and Internet

• There are about 1 billion Hindus in the world, or
  16 of world population
• Our definition of Hindus include Jain, Buddhist
  and Sikh, the total population of all these
  faiths is about 1.4 billion
• There are over 4 million Hindus in US, most
  affluent minority

13
Content Partners

• Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan - Books
• Periplus Books, LLC
• India Book House Publishers ()
• () Contract Ended, August 2000

• Ramakrishna Matham (Mylapore, Chennai) Books
• American Institute of Vedic Studies Books

14
Content Partners Authors

• Dr. David Frawley Books, Column
• Dr. Gangadhar Choudhary Books
• Sh. Bansi Pandit Books and Forum
• Prof. Subhash Kak Books, Column
• Dr. Satishkumar Modh Column

• Dr. A. V. Shreenivasan Books, Forum
• Mr. Sudheer Birodkar Books
• Prof. Lata Jagtiani Column
• Dr. Krishna Bhatta Column, Book
• Plus, several others

15
Content Partners

• Rambhau Mahlgi Prabodhini, Mumbai India
  BrightIndia, news, current events
• Hindu Vivek Kendra, Mumbai, India News, current
  events
• Prajna Bharati, Hyderabad, India News, current
  events
• Panchjanya New Delhi, India, Hindi weekly
• Organiser New Delhi, India, English weekly ()

16
Technology Partners

• Praja.com
• Events planning
• thePlunge.com
• Personal Events (Birthday, weddings etc.
  planning/websites)
• Odigo
• InstantMilan Personal Messenger
• Financenter.com
• Personal Financial Calculators for HinduShops.com
• Links2Go.com
• Co-branded directory for external non-Hindu links
• All the partnership agreements are signed. Some
  of the partnerships are to be implemented

17
GHEN Revenues

• Ad Agencies
• Burst! Media
• Value Click
• Affinia
• OneMediaPlace (formerly AdAuction)
• 24/7 Media, under negotiations
• Affiliate Arrangements
• Amazon.com
• Hinduism Today
• PlanetVeggie.Com

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GHEN Revenues

• Commerce Partners
• T-Series (largest producers of music in India)
• Xandu Pharmaceuticals - one of the largest
  Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals (under negotiations)
• InPhonics (hindunet branded wireless solution -
  under negotiations)
• iUniverse Co-branded print-on-demand book
  publishing
• Several Others being signed for HinduShops.com

19
GHEN Team

• CEO Ajay Shah, Ph.D.
• V.P. Development Srinivas Bolisetty
• V.P. Operations Rajiv Varma
• C.F.O. Ragni Mehta
• V.P. Sales Kanchan Banerjee
• General Counsel Director of Marketing Rakhi
  Israni

20
Objectives

• Transition from Non-profit to a For-profit
  organization
• Incorporate and hire employees
• Increase the no. of page views by 1000 by Dec.
  2002
• Increase the no. of visitors by 300 each year
• Grow advertisements and sponsorship revenues by
  100 each year
• Total sales of 3,500,000 by Dec 2002
• Achieve Profitability by Dec 2002

21
Web Site Development Plan
22
Market Segmentation

• Hindus around the world
• A key target Non-Indian/Hindu Population that
  follows some Hindu practices
• Yoga
• Ayurveda
• Vedic Astrology
• Vegetarian about 2.5 of US population
• Followers of Specific Gurus
• Children of Non-Resident Indians around the world
• School and college students studying about India
• Internet Users in India and rest of Asia where
  the culture is Hindu/Hindu-like is expected to
  rise dramatically in next 3 years
• Hindu Women We estimate that general US women
  statistics apply
• Women comprise 48 of all Internet users.
  (Jupiter)
• Women control or influence over 80 of all
  purchase decisions. (Ad Age)

23
Site Targeting, Demographics Community

• GHEN Sites are targeted based on interest areas
  and specific demographic groups
• Interest area sites
• Ayurveda, Astrology, Vegetarian, Weddings,
  Bhajans etc.
• Demographic targeting
• Kids, youth, women, internationalization
• Community Portal Features
• Free websites, email, event reminders, classified
  advertisements, matrimonials
• Forums, Chat, Mailing List
• Under Construction Personal messenger, personal
  event planner, community event listings

24
GHEN Upcoming Sites

• HinduShops.com
• AyurvedaWeb.org
• Bhojan.org
• JyotishWeb.org
• HinduYouth.org
• NobleCauses.org
• HinduInfo.org

25
Website Development Plan Personalization
Community

• Focus on Public and Personal Events
• Personalization
• Temple Centric Sites with Resources for temples
• Personal Calendar
• Free internet access
• Photo albums
• Family intranet
• Personal mailing lists and clubs
• Personal Messenger

26
Website Development Plan Content

• More focused towards specific interest areas and
  age groups
• Internationalization Geographic targeting and
  multiple languages
• Publish Daily Hindu Digest (only general daily
  Hindu publication, print or online)
• Hindu Radio on the net
• Live Events and guests
• Education
• Hindu University on the net, offer fee based
  courses

27
Business ModelContent Sites

• Contents should not be for Hindus or Indians but
  about Hindu and India.
• Distinguish GHEN brand from others by adding
  value
• Expansion of content horizontally and vertically
  to further strengthen our leadership position
• Build a strong online community
• Leverage the GHEN brand name and contents for
  e-Commerce
• Form significant technological partnerships
• Internationalize the contents.

28
Competitive Analysis Content Sites

• Major Competitors for Hindu Content
• Hinduism Today magazine Good content and
  visibility
• HinduMythology.com from Indian Express group
  well presented has backing of a large media
  group.
• Our Advantage
• We have several orders of magnitude more content.
• Competition lacks community features
• Have no strategic relationship with major Hindu
  organizations.
• Other GHEN sites have competition to a varied
  degree.
• More details available in the Business Plan

29
Website Development Plan Commerce

• Hindu mall on the internet
• HinduShops.com
• Vegetarian grocery shopping
• Bhojan.org
• Weddings
• Vivaaha.org
• Travel Tourism
• Expanded MandirNet, and religious pilgrimage
  (yatra) site, integrated with e-commerce
• Ayurveda, Jyotish and Yoga sites
• integrated with appropriate commerce
• Integrate HinduWomen.org with HinduShops.com
• Continue and expand existing affiliate
  arrangements

30
Concept Hindushops.com

• Become a major Hindu commerce portal
• Target
• Hindu related merchandise
• Hindu educational products
• India related gift items
• Appreal
• Books etc.
• Create a directory of Hindu services
• Act as aggregator of merchants
• Provide value to customers through reviews,
  recommendations etc.
• Partner with community organizations consider
  sharing portion of revenue for marketing through
  NobleCauses.org
• Provide free services to merchants and
  contributors

31
Market Analysis HinduShops.com

• At this time, there is no Hindu Mall however,
  some of the India related malls are coming up,
  and we expect Hindu malls to come online in next
  few months
• Initial sales will be mostly in US and Canada,
  which will be eventually expanded to other
  countries
• Assumptions
• Studies 1 to 9 visitors to purchaser
  conversion
• Convert 1 of visitors to customers
• Avg. purchase 20, GHEN commission 5 (after
  community marketing through NobleCauses)

32
Business ModelHindushops.com

• We will not carry inventory
• Partner with established merchants
• Merchants will pay GHEN 10 of total revenue
• Merchant and GHEN will do independent or shared
  marketing
• Marketing to include non-profit organizations
  through NobleCauses.org
• Partner with service providers, astrologers,
  pujaris etc.
• Continue and expand relevant affiliate affiliate
  arrangements such as Amazon.com
• Provide free services to attract customers
• Free financial calculators through
  financenter.com
• Free directory lookups etc.
• Provide Free Services for merchants
• Websites
• Classifieds

33
Competitive Analysis HinduShops.com

• Sites offering Hindu centric goods / services
• Carry very few items, not significant hubs of
  e-commerce
• We expect several such sites to come up in next
  one year
• Sites such as saranam.com that sell pujas
• Sites that sell general Indian merchandise
• Most notably indiaplaza.com and namaste.com
• Considerable resources and good brand recognition
• Lack Hindu focus, and related content
• Merchandising by non-profit Ashrams and
  Organizations
• A significant competition
• Generally sell merchandise mostly to their
  devotees, loyal customers.
• Our strategy To involve them in HinduShops.com
• Bookstores and Musicstores
• strong competition from the other websites such
  as those from the publishers and their other
  affiliates.
• more details available in the plan

34
Concept Bhojan.Org

• Sell vegetarian grocery and health food and
  related merchandise
• Scriptural aspects of food
• Recipes
• Health food
• Vegetarian Restaurant Guide
• Promote other GHEN sites to Vegetarians

35
Market Analysis Bhojan.org

• A Hindu and vegetarian food portal
• It is estimated that about 2.5 of US population
  is vegetarian (Gallup, 1997)
• Many more avoid some type of meat products
• Studies 1 to 9 visitors to purchasers
  conversion
• Assumptions
• 0.5 of all GHEN site visitors will purchase
• average purchase of 25.00
• 5 of sales as revenue

36
Business ModelBhojan.org

• Bhojan.org our vegetarianism site, in
  collaboration with PlanetVeggie.com.
• Down To Earth, parent of planetveggie.com is a
  brick-and-mortar store based in Hawaii, with a
  warehouse in CA
• PlanetVeggie is directed towards Western
  Vegetarians/Vegans
• PlanetVeggie is partnering with us because we can
  give them exposure to the Indian market.
• PlanetVeggie us with their content, we will add
  the relevant Hindu content. We will keep the
  content advertisement revenues and share
  e-Commerce revenues with them

37
Bhojan.Org Competitive Analysis

• Well funded, well recognized Indian grocery
  stores
• Namaste.com (a division of ethnicgrocer.com)
• indiaplaza.com
• IndianGoodsOnline.com
• Indianstuff.com
• over a dozen more...
• The above sites carry virtually identical items
• Non-Indian Online grocery stores
• Competitive Advantage for Bhojan.org
• Content Articles, encyclopedia of Vegetarianism
  etc.
• Our strong emphasis on vegetarianism
• Health food
• Emphasis on Western (non-Indian) grocery items,
  with a growing collection of Indian grocery

38
Concept NobleCauses.org

• A public service site of GHEN
• Facilitate Giving to various charities
• Provide charities / organizations easy access to
  fund collection mechanisms
• Collection of Hindu and India related charity
• Secular Charities
• Healthcare Research
• Hospitals
• Educational Institutes
• Community
• Support Groups
• Calamities and natural disasters
• Hunger and Shelter related projects

39
Market Analysis NobleCauses.org

• This site will be similar to CharitableWays.com
  or helping.org
• Currently, there is no Hindu or India related
  charity portal
• At this time, there are no reliable statistics
  for Hindu charitable contributions, however, they
  are expected to be significant
• Fulfill the needs of Hindu/India non-profits
• promote their causes
• raising funds abroad, amongst NRIs
• Fulfill the requirements of NRIs
• Identifying genuine charities
• Sending money to these charities

40
Business ModelNobleCauses.org

• Those who shop on HinduShops.com can enter a code
  for the charity if it appears on NobleCauses.org
  and the charity will receive portion of the
  revenue of the purchase
• The above concept will be extended to our grocery
  site bhojan.org
• The site will therefore be used to promote
  HinduShops.com in the community
• The site will contribute to the banner
  advertising revenue for GHEN
• Risk / Legal Analysis
• Identifying genuine charities
• Extensive legal efforts needed in getting
  authorization to collect money / transfer money

41
Competitive Analysis NobleCauses.org

• GuideStar.Com lists 333 Hindu non-profits in USA
  and a few hundred India related non-profits
• NobleCauses.org has no competition amongst Hindu
  and Indian charities, temples and causes
• Several general charity sites, such as
  charitableways.com, helping.org are not focused
  on our target market but have more resources and
  could be considered competitors in US charities
• We will cooperate, rather than compete with the
  charities that are promoted by temples and other
  Hindu organizations

42
Marketing Plan

• Offline Advertising
• Hindu lifestyle oriented Magazines and Newspapers
  (Yoga Times, Vegetarian Journal etc)
• Ethnic Indian newspapers,
• Ethnic Indian radio and Television
• Community
• Through NobleCauses.org
• Promotion through Hindu organizations and Temples
• Other websites
• Syndicate GHEN content through isyndicate
• OnLine Marketing
• Affiliate programs
• Content Syndication
• Banner Advertisements
• International Promotion
• Hindu organizations and temples
• Promotions to get better demographics data, and
  build a larger membership base

43
The Financials
44
Start-Up Expenses

• Startup Funding requirement is 1,717,150
• Startup funds include
• Office Setup
• Incorporation
• Equipment cost
• Provision for cost of content acquisition
• Provision for acquisition technology

45
Summary Startup Expenses
46
Traffic Forecast

• Current Marketing Budget 0.0
• In 1998 and 1999 organizational sites were
  de-coupled from GHEN sites. Actual growth of our
  content sites is therefore much greater

47
Marketing Sales Budget for 6 months
48
Marketing Sales Budget Up to 3 Years
49
Marketing Sales Budget Up to 3 Years
50
Marketing Sales Summary
51
Personnel Plan

• Key personnel will be located in USA
• Content developers, editors, additional
  programmers and web administrators will be hired
  in India to control cost
• News/event acquisition through freelance
  reporters
• Reliance on columnists for content
• Personnel cost control through strategic
  partnerships with content providers

52
Personnel Plan Staffing for first 6 months
53
Summary Personnel Plan
54
Sales Forecast
55
Sales Forecast
56
Sales Forecast
57
Profit Loss Statement
58
Profit Loss Statement
59
Profit Loss Statement
60
Profit Loss Statement
61
Pro-Forma Balance Sheet
62
Pro-Forma Balance Sheet (6 mo. To 1 year)
63
Pro-Forma Balance Sheet (Up To 3 Years)
64
Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (first six months)
65
Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (up to 3 years)
66
Pro-Forma Cash Flow Statement (up to 3 years)
67
Summary Keys to Success

• Leadership Already functioning sites, which are
  category leaders
• Management Experienced Management team with
  extensive community relations
• Commerce Attract quality merchants and
  customers leveraging GHEN brand name.
• Comprehensive Content Directed towards interest
  areas and demographic groups
• Growth through community relations, content,
  technology and strategic partnerships
• Low development costs
• Internationalization