Web2Corp's ByIndia.com First Example of a New Vision for Web2.0?

November 27, 2006; 03:50 AM

When Web2Corp (NASDAQ: WBTO) purchased ByIndia.com (http://www.byindia.com), a powerful search engine that automatically filters search results to only return hits that are Indian in nature, it saw an opportunity to take a powerful tool and, embracing the ideas behind Web 2.0, create a site that would become a one-stop web application and a destination for visitors throughout India.

"India is predicted to be the world's third largest market in the next five years, so early adoption into this increasingly tech-savvy country is something that will definitely pay off in the long run," says William Mobley, co-founder and CEO of Web2Corp. Upon purchasing ByIndia.com, Mobley saw an opportunity to take the under-rated search engine and transform it into something that suits his vision of what he thinks Web 2.0 is all about.

"You have to understand that all of the big 'Web 2.0' companies are pieces of a larger puzzle," he says. "Google.com and YouTube.com, MySpace.com, and Ebay.com are all titans of the internet right now because they are powerful applications that provide users with what they want, but they don't have the right focus." But Mobley thinks that all of these companies are missing out on something. "What web users of all levels clearly want, though, is a single destination to handle all of their internet needs, a kind of operating system for the internet. [Alexa.com's #1 ranked site Yahoo.com does that somewhat, but ByIndia.com offers its visitors a more focused experience that's targeted to produce results that are more useful to people living in India. It promotes the growth of an active, self-sustaining community online. And unlike some of the other companies that are trying to do this, ByIndia.com has been built with all of these features--directories, classifieds, jobs, auctions, blogs--from the ground up. It's not patched together. It's not writing a blog on MySpace.com that links to YouTube.com and slows to a crawl because of all the data that has to be passed around the internet for someone to see your page. It's all in one place. It's the web, made simple."

Web2Corp's strategy seems to be working so far, since ByIndia.com has catapulted up the rankings and, in little over a week, is already the #2 search engine for the Indian community. Visitors have been coming to the site in droves--traffic is up 500%--and staying longer too. As the community builds on ByIndia.com, things are looking up for the re-launched Indian search engine and for Web2Corp.

What's next for Web2Corp? Bill Mobley won't say. "But keep your eye on Web2Corp," he says, eyes glowing with excitement. "You'll be hearing a lot more from us soon."

Information about ByIndia.com can be found at http://www.byindia.com

Safe Harbor Act Disclaimer Notice is available on the web site at http://www.web2corp.com