Before Google, there was Rediff: The rise and fall of Ajit Balakrishnan's internet dream
The dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s was, at the time, what artificial intelligence is today: a new technology drawing enormous attention and optimism, particularly in the West. Balakrishnan moved early, securing a leased internet line from VSNL at a time when…
The dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s was, at the time, what artificial intelligence is today: a new technology drawing enormous attention and optimism, particularly in the West. Balakrishnan moved early, securing a leased internet line from VSNL at a time.
What followed was an astounding journey: Rediffmail became the digital identity of an entire generation of Indians in the 2000s, while Rediff went on to become a Nasdaq-listed internet company before Gmail even existed. Yet the company that arrived early, built some of India's.
What Happened
Balakrishnan co-founded advertising agency Rediffusion with Arun Nanda and Mohammed Khan when he was 22. The agency, according to IIM Calcutta, rose rapidly in the 1970s and became one of India's prominent advertising firms.
In 1995, Balakrishnan began building Rediff.com.
Rediff's own corporate history says the company was incorporated in January 1996, while Balakrishnan has described the website's origins in 1995.
By 1998, the company was offering free email, news, homepages, jobs and e-commerce services.
Key Details
In a recent podcast conversation with Reddif, Balakrishnan recalled that his interest in technology went back much further. Growing up in Kannur, Kerala, in a family with doctors, he said he was surrounded by science from an early age.
A 1998 Financial Times report described Rediff as India's most visited website at the time, with more than 650,000 visitors a month.
A 1998 Rediff report described its e-commerce operation as one of India's first.
The company reached the height of the dot-com boom in 2000, when Rediff raised about $57.3 million through an American Depositary Share offering and listed on Nasdaq.
Why It Matters
His grandfather would read Bertrand Russell to him and discuss scientific ideas. That early curiosity, he suggested, eventually shaped his interest in technology and innovation.
Rediff, meanwhile, was trying to build an all-in-one internet destination: email, news, cricket, shopping, jobs, entertainment and community services.
At the time, Google was still a young company.
What Reports Say
Coverage of the story so far points to:
Continued reporting by India Today as more details emerge
