Says Mr Shriram Adukoorie, head, consumer group, Microsoft Corporation (India) Ltd. ``While monetising the traffic we'll be focussed on ad sales (sponsorships, CPMs, click-thru, and precision targeting). We have no immediate plans to go for e-commerce alliances. He adds: ``Travel is high on our agenda. We'll also beef up content like astrology and match-making, where we see intense activity in India as compared to other markets,'' Mr Adukoorie adds that MSN India's bulk of investment will be devoted to programming (content development) and distribution. ``Our growth will be driven by alliances-a mix of revenue sharing, co-branding, and fee-based- rather than acquisition.''

MSN India has already secured 25 advertisers-dotcoms account for a quarter of this-and is now planning to beef up its local content and services to attract big advertisers.

For Messenger services, MSN India has already tied up with the Close Up brand. The portal will extend its service of sending physical greeting cards -the site sent over 50,000 cards in partnership with Parle, during New Year - to Valentine's Day. ``Services like these (which are free to users) allow us to offer better value to our advertisers,'' says Mr Adukoorie.

MSN India's sales partner for the Indian region is Media2India. The portal has multiple pricing slabs for advertisers, including the medium $18 per CPM (1,000 impressions). The portal's advertising strategy is driven by its ad serving technology - ADS.

MSN India's eight broad India-centric categories include: business news, gaming, cricket, entertainment and communicate. However, the services - e-mail, messenger and chat - are the main traffic drivers. In the last three months of operations in India, the portal has already roped in 17 partners, who have brought 30 sites to the horizontal portal.