Tete-a-Tete

BoloHealth.com is a new entrant in the health industry with an endeavour to create novel solutions for discerning Indian. Here is a small tête-à-tête with the company’s Founder, MD & CEO Dr Simanta G. Sharma about the product offering and future plans.

Tell us about your advertising stint?

I joined Ogilvy & Mather in their BTL division OgilvyOne Worldwide as their Director – Planning & Strategy for their Healthcare Business. Till I joined O&M, I was an absolute greenhorn in the advertising and communications industry, but I must say the induction program, the hands on learning plus the guidance from senior planners at O&M really enabled me come up to speed in no time and it truly was a memorable stint. As the lone healthcare planner & strategist I was in charge of the entire portfolio that the healthcare business catered to for clients like DuPont, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Piramal Healthcare, eMerck and many more.

How did BoloHealth happen?

BoloHealth.com is an idea which has been in gestation for about 3 years till now as we are poised to launch the project fully to the people of India. The entire idea found a backer in an Indian American, who is our angel investor and has provided us with the initial seed fund.

Tell us indepth about BoloHealth (the core idea, process, funding)

BoloHealth.com is to empower the urban Indian to take charge of his/her health by adopting reliable and credible health practices, by being better informed that allows him/her to take right and balanced decisions on health & wellness.

At BoloHealth.com a user can get myriad health and wellness content to gorge upon right from very relevant and credible (expert reviewed) feature articles to expert blogs, to captivating slideshows, to quizzes and videos. A user can interact with experts on our panel, users can start his own blog on any topic in the genre, an user can create support groups and network with other health enthusiasts by participating in various forum's and discussions.

We commenced the development of the portal in January 2009 and launched a stealth alpha in June 2009. We are planning a beta release of the portal in the month of July 2009 for the netizens across India.

What is you USP?

Health as a genre has never appealed the Indian audience , Our USP will be the way health is packaged and presented to the Indian netizen, through innovative slideshows , relevant features and the entire aspect of empowering the user through social media like blogs, groups, forums and networking. In fact we will be the first portal of its kind wherein a healthcare enthusiast will be experiencing the entire gamut of social media in a very relevant & contextual genre i.e. health and wellness.

There are many online start-ups offering similar products? Why did you enter a cluttered market?

Indian netizens access the top 5 online international health & wellness properties more than they access the top 5 Indian counterparts. This is a clear indication that the Indian netizen is not satisfied with the current options available to him amongst the Indian players. We are attempting to fill this need gap and offer a product at par to international portals and still have an Indian flavour to it.

How has the response been? Could you share a few traffic and market statistics?

The initial response to our portal has been excellent but these are all very qualitative as they pertains more on the content quality, the look and feel of the portal, the ease of navigation etc. As regards to traffic, these are very early days for us to come out with any kind of figures but our aim is to be amongst the top 250 portals in a year's time in India and definitely the numero-uno portal when it comes to our genre.

User interaction is the key to your product offering. How do you plan on increasing the same?

We are absolute believers in web 2.0 as the way forward to being a successful portal and we have adequately ensured the same in our portal. A user has a plethora of options to choose from on a regular basis on the aspect of interactivity. BoloHealth.com provides a user to network, debate, discuss, share, review and connect with likeminded health enthusiasts.

Any content tie-ups in the making?

We do look forward to content tie-ups with other publishers (web as well as print) who are seeking quality and relevant health and wellness content.

Where do you see BoloHealth in the next 5 years?

I see BoloHealth.com as the most credible, relevant and popular health and wellness portal who despite being a leader in its genre remains the best online health buddy for its users at all times.