The Brightcom Group is a

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Hyderabad, India with offices in US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Israel, China, India, and Australia, and with representatives or partners in Poland, and Italy. It ranked 400th in the

Fortune India 500 The ''Fortune India'' 500 is a ranking of the top 500 corporations in India compiled on the basis of latest sales and gross revenue figures. The list is published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine. ''Fortune India'' is ''Fortune'' sixth internatio ...

list in 2020.

History

Founded by Suresh Reddy and Vijay Kancharla as USAGreetings.com in September 1999, the company introduced its first eMarketing product 'Powered by USAGreetings' engine, in November 1999. In June 2000, the company metamorphosed into Ybrant Technologies Inc. In September 2007, the company filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). However, the company decided to put the IPO plans on hold. In May 2008, Ybrant Technologies integrated all its acquired companies (Oridian, AdDynamix, MediosOne, and VoloMP) and formally changed its name to 'Ybrant Digital'. The reorganization of the company with the name change resulted in the formation of operational divisions Technology Platforms led by Vijay Kancharl and Strategic Initiatives led by Bradley N Cohen. In December 2009, Ybrant added

location-based advertising Location-based advertising (LBA) is a form of advertising that integrates mobile advertising with location-based services. The technology is used to pinpoint consumers location and provide location-specific advertisements on their mobile devices. ...

(LBA) to its services, entering into a partnership with Livevana Innovations & Lepton Software. In February 2010, Ybrant Digital launched its local search platform in India 'Ybrant Reach' (YReach), starting in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. In August 2010, Ybrant Digital bought a search-based internet company

Lycos Lycos, Inc., is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company is based in Walth ...

. At the time, Lycos was a top 25 Internet destination worldwide, reaching nearly 60 million unique visitors globally. The Lycos Network of sites and services includes Lycos.com,

Tripod.com Tripod.com is a web hosting service owned by Lycos. Originally aiming its services to college students and young adults, it was one of several sites trying to build online communities during the 1990s. As such, Tripod formed part of the first wav ...

Angelfire Angelfire is an Internet service that offers website services. It is owned by Lycos, which also owns Tripod.com. Angelfire operates separately from Tripod.com and includes features such as blog building and a photo gallery builder. Free webpag ...

Gamesville Gamesville was a casual gaming portal founded in 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts by Steven Kane, Stuart Roseman and John Furse. Gamesville was acquired in 1999 by Web portal Lycos for $232 million in stock. Gamesville’s tagline was "Wasting you ...

, and

HotBot HotBot was an American web search engine owned by Lycos. It was launched in May 1996 by ''Wired'' magazine. During the 1990s, it was one of the most popular search engines on the World Wide Web. History HotBot was launched in May 1996 by HotWir ...

. In May 2012, Ybrant Digital announced that it had agreed to purchase PriceGrabber, LowerMyBills, and ClassesUSA.com from

Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more t ...

. PriceGrabber provides price comparison shopping services to Yahoo! and MSN shopping. LowerMyBills.com offers savings through relationships with over 500 service providers, while ClassesUSA.com is an online higher-education portal. Steve Krenzer would move from Experian to Ybrant to continue to lead these three businesses. Ybrant expected the purchase to nearly double its revenues. In September 2012, the purchase of

PriceGrabber PriceGrabber.com is a price-comparison shopping site and distributed content commerce service founded in 1999 by former CEOs Kamran Pourzanjani and Tamim Mourad. The company partners with merchants, retailers, and sellers to provide information o ...

LowerMyBills LowerMyBills.com is a consumer finance corporate website that connects prospective mortgage borrowers to lenders. The site connects consumers who respond to their marketing with service providers. Rock Holdings Inc., the parent company of Quicke ...

, and ClassesUSA.com from Experian fell through. In March 2016, Ybrant Media Acquisition, Inc., a unit of Ybrant Digital, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in relation to a $36.6 million loss connected with the acquisition of the

search engine. In 2018, Ybrant lost ownership of Lycos Inc. In May 2018, Ybrant changed their name to Brightcom.

Acquisitions

References

External links

* {{Lycos Digital marketing companies of India Indian companies established in 2000 Marketing companies established in 2000 Companies based in Hyderabad, India 2000 establishments in Andhra Pradesh Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India