popular city-centric websites are ahmedabad.com and ahmedabadcity.com.
Started in the 1990s, both primarily target the Gujarati community in
the UK, USA and Canada.
Issues concerning the city are completely missing in these websites.
Saureen
Vyas, Manager of ahmedabad.com, said, “While we present city news and
other local items, at the moment, the website is mostly accessed by
Gujaratis from abroad.”
For
Gujaratis living abroad, ahmedabad.com offers a whole bouquet of
services like delivery of flowers, sweets, cakes and chocolates.
Vyas
said, “We used to have a blog facility in order to increase local
participation, but had to discontinue it as often people used indecent
language.”
However,
some measures have been introduced to ensure that the portal remains
popular. Among others, the website now shows programmes on Navratri
celebrations.
Ahmedabadcity.com
too offers similar services. Mahender Bapna, Director of
ahmedabadcity.com (I) Ltd said, “We are revamping our website and
looking for a mid-August launch. It will look for more local
participation. We have a huge library of resources and content is not a
problem for us.”
At the moment though, the website is only offering e-commerce services.
Bapna added, “We get 400 to 450 visitors everyday and around 10 per cent them are locals.”
One reason behind low local hits is that since the services offered are mainly for NRIs, it is not very cost effective.
As
Tarak Dave, a city-based professional, said, “In order to book a cake
online in these websites, it would cost me more than Rs 1,000. The
e-commerce model is totally NRI-centric. How do people in the city
match the dollar rates of services?”
Source by expressindia.com
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