Times Internet is an Indian

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

technology company, based in

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

, which owns, operates and invests in various internet-led products, services and technology. It is the digital arm of

the Times Group Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...

, the largest media conglomerate in India. Times Internet currently owns and operates 39+ digital products across news, sports, music, video, trivia, spirituality and a suite of transaction-led market-places across real estate, personal finance, education, jobs, table reservation, etc. Through its

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

arm TVentures, Times Internet has invested in over 50 start-ups in the technology space such as logistics provider Delhivery, bus aggregating platform

Shuttl Shuttl is a mobile app based office commute bus aggregator based out of Gurgaon, India. The company was founded in 2015. It operates in more than 6 metro cities across the country. History The company was founded by Amit Singh and Deepanshu Mal ...

, ed-tech platform Byju's, gaming platform MPL among others. Times Internet reaches over 450 million monthly visitors who collectively spend over 13 billion minutes across all its products and services.

History

1999–2012: Initial years

In its initial years, Times Internet primarily focused on digital media—handling the online versions of

The Times Group Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...

which is owned by

Sahu Jain family The Sahu Jain family is an industrial family of India. They own Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (commonly known as The Times Group), which owns ''The Times of India'', the most-circulated English newspaper in the world. The members of the extended ...

. Some major print publications includes ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'', ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...

'' and ''

Navbharat Times ''Navbharat Times'' (NBT) a Hindi newspaper distributed in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Kanpur. It is from the stable of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), which also publishes other dailies including ''The Times of India'', ''The Economic Tim ...

''. Times Internet ventured into multiple new categories with mixed success. It entered social networking and e-commerce with Indiatimes but was unable to scale the business. The company achieved success with

MagicBricks Magicbricks, a division of Times Internet Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (The Times Group) is a website that provides a common platform for property buyers & sellers to locate properties of interest in India, ...

, an online real estate platform launched in 2006 and iDiva, a women's lifestyle portal in 2009.

2012–2017: Early investments

Times Internet gradually transformed from a media-led company to a technology-led company. It became a conglomerate of multiple digital products, each operating independently within the group. Times Internet made a series of acquisitions—buying majority stakes in MensXP in 2012,

CricBuzz Cricbuzz is an Indian cricket news website owned by Times Internet. It features, news, articles and live coverage of cricket matches including videos, text commentary, player stats and team rankings. Their website also offers a mobile app. Cr ...

, Coupondunia and Dineout in 2014, Taskbucks in 2015, 'The Viral Shots' and WillowTV in 2016. In 2016, it also forged a strategic alliance with

Haptik Haptik is an Indian enterprise conversational AI platform founded in August 2013, and acquired by Reliance Industries Limited in 2019. The company develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users ...

, an AI-enabled chatbot service. The company launched its startup accelerator, TLabs in 2012 through which it invested in upcoming digital startups like Delhivery, Pratilipi etc. Times Internet also launched multiple new digital products—Happy Trips in 2014, ET Money and NewsPoint in 2015. Also in 2015, Times Internet launched ''Samayam'', a website that provides news in Tamil, Telugu and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

languages. In association with

HDFC Bank HDFC Bank Limited (also known as HDB) is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest private sector bank by assets and world's 10th largest bank by market capitalisation . It is the third lar ...

, it launched 'Times Points HDFC Bank Debit Card', an exclusive co-branded debit card in 2016. It also ventured into video streaming with Box TV Limited in 2012 but shut it down in 2016. As its portfolio kept growing, Times Internet built Colombia, a full stack AI led ad-tech network that united all its digital products on one central platform. Through this platform, it was able to move and monetize users across its various digital properties, based on consumer interests and needs.

2017–2019: Continued investments

Times Internet continued to acquire and launch multiple new digital products across the consumer technology space. It launched ET Insure in February 2017, BrainBaazi in February 2018, and ET Prime in April 2018. It acquired 'House of God' in December 2017 and partnered with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

to invest $115 million in

Gaana Gaana (or Gānā) is a genre of Tamil music, which is sung in the Madras Bashai dialect of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is rap-like "collection of rhythms, beats and sensibilities native to the Chennai people." It evolved over the past two ...

in February 2018. On 28 June 2018, Times Internet acquired MX Player, the world's largest video player for $140 million. On 20 February 2019, Times Internet re-launched MX Player as a video streaming platform, with over 100,000 hours of premium content across movies, TV and web shows etc. On 15 April 2019, Times Internet revamped its brand identity to reflect its new "Everything. Everyday." ethos that desires to bring people closer to their interests and aspirations every day. On 24 April 2019, Times Internet participated as a lead investor in $35.5 million (Rs 2.50 billion) Series-A funding round of Mobile Premier League (MPL).

Subsidiaries and products

List of digital products owned and managed by Times Internet as of May 2019.

References

External links

Times Internet
Official website of Times Internet
TechNews Updates
{{The Times Group Web portals Companies of The Times Group Indian news websites Online companies of India Indian brands Privately held companies of India 1999 establishments in Haryana Indian companies established in 1999 Companies based in Gurgaon