MSN India has teamed up with Webduniya.com to launch probably India’s very first Hindi portal. The site is called MSN Yuva and is targeted at youth audience residing in Tier II and III Indian towns.

The editorial and content strategy rights remain with MSN India while Webduniya will feature as content partner and it will provide Hindi content -produced or owned by Webduniya.

Sanjay Trehan, Head, MSN India, indicated that MSN India may launch more online properties in other regional languages such as Tamil in the coming months. Trehan further said, “The next growth in the online space will be powered by vernacular content.”
Wikipedia and Google have also tried their stints at regional languages in the past.

Owing to the deal with Webduniya, MSN has also made Webduniya’s Social Networking Website – Dosti , which will enable users to create profiles and network with friends, send and receive messages or scraps in Hindi.

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, recently tracked the time Britons spend online and the sites that account for the highest share in the online market. The results were as interesting and varied as the medium itself, as 10 brands accounted for 45% of total UK Internet time.

Communication and Entertainment are Central Themes Amongst Most Heavily Used Web Brands. Facebook (13%) is the most heavily used brand followed by MSN / Live Windows.

In April 2009, the average Briton spent 22 hours 20 minutes online or using Internet-related applications. This represents a 34 percent increase on a year ago when the figure was 16 hours 36 minutes. Facebook is one of the major factors in the increasing time people are spending online – the site recording 3.8 billion more minutes in April 2009 than April 2008.

Rank Brand % Share
1. Facebook 12.7%
2. MSN/ Windows Live 9.2%
3. Google 5.3%
4. EBay 4.1%
5. Yahoo! 3.5%
6. AOL Media Network 3.0%
7. BBC 2.3%
8. You Tube 1.9%
9. Microsoft 1.5%
10. Apple 1.5%

Consequently, the Other 7,625 Brands Currently Tracked by Nielsen Online are Fighting for the Remaining 55 Percent of Time Britons Spend Online.

Alex Burmaster, Communications Director, EMEA, Nielsen Online concluded that the major players have had a pretty good year which will further attract advertisers as the medium has already engaged users through the vehicles of entertainment and communication.