As I was browsing through the channels on my idiot-box I discovered Focus TV, a channel that supposedly “empowers women”. On the other hand Meow 104.8 is the only radio station dedicated to women.

The new age is all about woman power, and it is evident in every aspect of human life. In fact women are carving a niche for themselves with  various verticals across many mediums, art forms and aspects of life. So I decided to pay an ode to the “fairer sex” by listing various online properties dedicated to them. Here it comes!

iDiva – It’s who you are
Well after settling for that baseline Indiatimes.com (part of the BCCL group) launched a vertical aimed at the fairer beings in November 2008. iDiva is a womans portal which ads up to the clutter of women’s websites. But the highlight of iDiva.com is an exclusive email service for women. The pink website has varied sections catering to all that women need:

iDiaries – reader contributions, celebrity and photo blogs.
Astrology – Choose from Chinese Zodiac, numerology, tarot readings, Feng Shui, and even a DIY guide
Lounge – A listing of the preferred movies, music, food and other ‘girly’ things to do.
Relationships – This section keeps the urban chic’s emotional, personal and social moral high.
Style & Beauty – The title itself is self-explanatory.
Work & Life – Includes career guidance and advice on working smartly. You can even find academic advice on these pages.

India Today Group Online has what women want!
India Today Group Online has been working really hard to create online properties for Indian women. We feature two of their famed online propositions for women:

Cosmo Blog:
In October last year the Group launched the Cosmopolitan Blog. Cosmopolitan is a widely read women’s magazine focusing on their issues, tribulations and the advantages of being a woman. The blog designed as an e-magazine has many interactive elements. The “confessions” page is simply amazing and is something new. The “quickies” section talks about everything from pleasure seeking tactics to hormone-free  pills for men. Cosmopolitan engages its readers with typical sections like Cosmosutra and Guy Candy.

The e-magazine format really works well for the online property. But one thing I really don’t understand is why many celebrities and models pose semi-nude in a women’s magazine? In fact why do they have show semi-nude photographs in a womans magazine? I always thought it was a tactic to attract the opposite sex to subscribe to the mag (correct me if I am wrong). Well, Cosmopolitan even offers tips on love, beauty, health, and regular news via SMS based services. They route the same through their short code 52424.

Woman:
With “Making a Difference” as their baseline India Today Group Online launched Woman around mid-2008. The website covers every aspect of an Indian womans lifestyle. On Woman you can measure your Body Mass Index (BMI) which was the only striking feature of the website.

An Ad Network for Women
In around Oct 2008 the guys at WebChutney had toasted on cracking a real ‘big’ idea. DivaNation, a specialised ad network targeting women was the reason to celebrate. In fact it was launched as India’s first womens media network. The niche ad network from the interactive agency WebChutney (funded by Capital 18) is part of Networkplay.

The website seems to be “currently in a testing phase” and I could not locate any news on the current functioning of the ad network.

IndiWo.com
In early 2007 IndiWo.com was launched. The Web 18 property was marketed as an Indian woman centric portal. Compared to other women websites IndiWo.com has exclusive sections on money, pregnancy, motherhood. Their highlighted sections are photo, video, forums and one dedicated to ‘experts’ featuring Leena Mogre, Micky Mehta, Dr. Anjali Mukerjee and more.

IndiWo.com was in the news for harping on its video section with exclusive content for its readers. Keeping fitness and women’s health issues in mind the IndiWo.com team roped in health and fitness expert Mickey Mehta for the Holistic Health Show. The 10 minute online video show has gone down well with the target audience. In fact they had even covered the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2008 on their website.

Alexa ranks the traffic of IndiWo.com as 70,884. It even shows the highest page views for the website during Oct-Nov 2008., currently the site has minimal traffic. See more statistic of the website.

Girls Gang Up!
In July 2006 Indian FMCG giant Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) launched a social network that took the country by storm. Sunsilk Gang of Girls (GoG) was designed specifically for women (or girls to be specific) promoting the beauty shampoo brand, Sunsilk. The social network was an instant hit. GoG has blogs, expert advice, hair care, fashion tips, a job site and much more. Users were urged to create ‘gangs’ which picked pace once introduced.  The most popular feature was the Makeover Machine where in users could upload pics and get an online makeover.

Other than participating and encouraging college events GoG started their own brand of events for members. In other offline efforts Sunsilk Hair Bars were set up in Bangalore and Delhi. GoG TV was the next to hit its users in 2007 by which the social network had half million users and about 30,000 gangs.

GoG is a case study for the perfect juxtaposition of print, outdoor and online advertising.
As an interactive Copywriter I have been harassed by many clients to create a GoG for their brand. I do not deny the success but many fail to notice the massive offline and online branding vested behind GoG. Why wouldn’t everyone be curious about a hoarding, event or TVC that screams out to women?

Alexa shows higher ranks for GoG in September 2008 while a steep down curve in the start of 2009. I always wanted somone to share the traffic flow of  men to GoG. Well, till then you could check out statistics from Alexa and Komli Media’s ViziSense for the social network.