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Times, Citi launch timesofmoney.com

Priya Ganapati in Bombay

At a time when most dot-coms are battling for survival, the launch of yet another dot-com would indeed seem surprising. But Times Online Money Limited, a joint venture between the Times of India group and Citigroup, has gone ahead and launched the much-delayed timesofmoney.com, a financial supermarket that aims to be the private banker to the common man.

Timesofmoney.com announced that it would offer its services as a neutral platform to banks, financial corporations, mutual fund houses, property developers and other service providers. This is with the aim to bring a complete spectrum of financial products to the common man and the corporate customer.

''Timesofmoney treats the consumers to exclusive features and value additions. We give consumers services like financial health check and asset allocators to determine ideal investments based on an individual's risk profile. The common man can use the portal to file taxes, pay bills, etc. The aim is to simplify and present services in a de-jargonised manner," Raj Kapoor, chief executive officer, timesofmoney.com said.

While the entire content on the site will be provided by the Economic Times, the business newspaper from the Times group, the technology platform has been provided by I-flex Solutions, a part of Citigroup.

The 'financial supermall', as the portal calls itself, offers deposits, small savings, insurance, bullion, cards, personal loans, auto loans, home loans, property, mutual funds, stocks and shares, bill payment, taxation, NRI services and corporate financing. The portal also offers facilities like one window to pay bills, tax filing and maintaining book of accounts.

But convenience comes at a price: sometimes a high one at that! For instance, in the bill payment service, customers have to pay Rs 10 for every bill they pay using the timesofmoney.com portal.

Though Kapoor said that the service is scalable, which means that the price goes down as the number of transactions made increases, the lowest that a customer

would have to shell out still works to Rs 7 per bill payment transaction.

This high fee contrasts with that of existing players like billjunction.com, a service from the ICICI group that charges only Rs 5 per transaction from the consumer and as an incentive offers the service free for the first three months.

"The bill payment program is a loss making proposition for us. We are not making any profits out of it. We are only offering the service because we need an entry point into a customer's world," said Kapoor justifying the fee.

With an investment of Rs 450 million staggered across three years, the portal hopes to break even in three years. However, Kapoor admitted that there is immense pressure on him to ensure profitability from year two itself.

The investment has been made by the Times of India group, one of the largest media groups in the country and Citigroup, a leader in the financial services market in a 60:40 ratio.

"We are not looking at any venture capitalist for funding, In fact, our business plan has not even envisaged a second round of funding. But we are always open to alliance partners who can add value," he said.

The downturn in the dot-com market has made its effect visible on the new players. Words like 'eyeballs' and 'page views' have been cast aside in favor of 'monetisation' and 'transaction-based revenues'. And the last to pop out of the box, timesofmoney.com, is being politically correct too.

The portal executives reiterated that its revenue model would be largely based on transaction generated revenue rather than advertising related.

"The revenues from transactions will be largely from the numerous alliance partners that we have. Certain services like bill payments tried to monetise the transactions made by individual customers," Kapoor explained.

Some of the transaction-oriented services on the portal include payment of electricity, telephone, cellphone bills, life insurance premiums, and remittance of money home by non-resident Indians.

Kapoor is unperturbed when pointed out that many of these services are already being provided for free by the existing service providers in tie-up with banks. For instance, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, already has an electronic clearing scheme (ECS) that directly debits the telephone bill amount from the bank account specified by the consumer.

"Our business proposition is based on speed and customer service. And we believe that customers will pay for the superior service that we offer. Also we act as a single liaison point for the customer and that we believe will draw them to us," he said.

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