Automart in alliance with Rediff.com
The Telegraph, (Correspondent), February 11, 2000

Leading auto portal Automartindia.com, which has been floated by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), today announced a strategic tie-up with Rediff.com. Automartindia is said to be the fastest growing auto portal in the country.

With this agreement, automartindia.com will now become the official auto channel on Rediff.com. The facility will enable Rediff subsrcibers to buy or sell automobiles by logging on to its new auto channel, powered by Automartindia.com.

A statement issued by M&M claimed that its site is "changing the way vehicles are bought and sold in the Indian market." The website includes vehicles of all makes and models to set up an electronic vehicle exchange in India, the statement added.

Of late, there has been lot of activity in the auto portals sector with two leading portals offloading a part of the stake to investors. Automart sold 20 per cent of its stake to Sah & Sanghi, a leading Mumbai-based vehicle dealership. In another development, Kotak Mahindra Finance picked up a 30 per cent stake in indiacar.com. also web portal set up by Ashwin Sanghi. CEO of Vitesse, a leading Maruti car dealer Both deals are reported to be independent of each other. However, the pricing of the deals is not known.

Commenting on the tie-up with Rediff, Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Information Technology Services Ltd said: "There are certain similarties between us - our quality content, the agility of our teams, the commitment, and determination to provide innovative services", Ajit Balakrishnan, founder, chairman and CEO of Rediff said, "Rediff always seeks alliances with best of breed sites."

Witnessing a sharp revival in its fortunes, the Indian automobile industry currently clocks sales of over 1 million a year with almost all car manufacturers planning new launches, M&M officials said the auto portals would provide information and service to customers.

They added that the alliance with Rediff was part of Automart's plan to form a network of alliance which would help facilitate transactions between auto buyers and sellers. While more such tie-ups are believed to be on the anvil, Automart has already joined hands with various service providers for finance, insurance, help on RTO documentation, accessories suppliers and online valuation indexes.

Automart is now planning to introduce a certification programme where the vehicles for sales could be evaluated by an auto expert for various parameters on the basis of a checklist.

Thus, the service would provide an expert opinion on the condition as well as the estimated fair price for the vehicle. The service is expected to benefit used vehicle buyers.

Founded in 1996, Rediff is said to have monthly page views of over 55 million.

It has various channels suited to India. Automart is said to be one of India's top website for buying and selling used vehicles and it has over 5500 vehicles in its inventory.