Gomolo: A Startup Aspiring to be the IMDb for Indian Movies
Gomolo means "Go, Movie Lovers". The name had been formed by taking the first two alphabets from Movie and Lovers to form a new word called Molo. They also attempt to bring about a twist to the name by bringing forth that Gomolo stands for “Google for Movie Lovers”. Accentuating that, if you're looking for any information on movies, you don't need to Google it, you can just visit Gomolo.
“I did my MBA from IIM Kozhikode. I worked for about 6.5 years in the pharmaceutical industry after that. I started my career with Ranbaxy and worked primarily in global markets. I worked for Latin America region for a large part of my career. For two of my career assignments, I was based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I helped in starting and expanding the business of these Companies in Brazil and other markets in the region,” says co-founder and CEO, Pritam Roy sharing his background.
Amitava Sengupta is Co-founder & Head of Development and Amitava Bhattacharya is Co-founder and Head of Design. Amitava Sengupta has worked with Organizations like 3i Infotech and Patni, and Amitava Bhattacharya has worked with Companies like Wipro and Aptara Corp, before launching Gomolo. The two Amitavas have developed the site from scratch. Incidentally all of them went to the same school and have been friends for a long time.
Sharing his Brazilian journey, Pritam adds that, Orkut was pretty big at that time. Brazil and India were the two biggest markets for Orkut. Like many other Indians, he enjoyed movies and loved to talk about them. He says that we all are critics in our own ways, declaring a movie 'hit' or 'flop' according to our taste. “While living in a country far away, I realized the shared passion for movies even more. I thought, if we can create a platform which brings movies and social sharing together, it could be an interesting platform. After coming back to India, this idea took shape in the form of Gomolo in mid-2007 and I started working on it with my co-founders in Nov, 2007. Starting something on my own had been a dream for a long time. So, bringing my passion to create something of value which will have a great impact in the lives of many, love for movies and the power of internet together, Gomolo took shape,” says Pritam sharing his journey.
For the latest updates from the entertainment industry, Gomolo sources news from reputed News Agencies, catering to the industry. They are also in touch with Producers, Industry PR firms and Digital marketing agencies, who are also valuable sources of news / updates, which are put up on Gomolo. Recently, Komal Nahta, one of the leading trade analysts started writing on Gomolo on Trade. They also have a dedicated bunch of people, who regularly contribute articles / features to the site.
On the revenue generation front, they earn commission by selling movie tickets, DVD’s / VCD’s online in partnership with a few sites. They have also struck some good partnerships with a few reputed and diverse media Organizations. They try to monetize the content as well as some of their IP on various platforms to make money.
They aspire to make Gomolo the IMDb for Indian movies. It's a long and difficult journey and the team believes they have made some progress, so far. They started Gomolo with information on movies made in three languages, viz Hindi, English and Bengali. Their section on Bengali movies is possibly the best online resource for the Bengali Film Industry. For English movies, Gomolo is one of the leading sites from India. Recently, they’ve added Tamil, Telugu and Marathi movies. Out of these, the response to Marathi movies has been great.
In terms of numbers, currently, they have about 400,000 unique Visitors / month with 1.7mn pageviews. In the next 6 months, they would like to take it to 1mn unique visitors / month and 5 mn pageviews. In the next 12 months, they would like to be among the top 3 movie sites in the country.Excitedly sharing a story of their journey Amitava says, “We have been getting good hits on our Hollywood movie pages for some time. In case of one particular blockbuster, we had a huge surge in traffic. When someone from the Production House told me, that after Yahoo India, the maximum no of trailer views were from Gomolo, it was a proud moment for us.” On the business side, in spite of being a startup, they have managed to build good relationships and increase the business.
They are planning to come up with a mobile app for Gomolo. Their research reveals that a considerable extent of traffic shall come through the mobile internet users. They also plan to provide Research and Analytics services to the Movie Industry. Currently, they're talking to investors to raise funds that would help them execute their plans and achieve their ultimate goal of making Gomolo.com, the no. 1 movie site in the country.
“Gomolo starts with an English word, 'Go' and ends with a Hindi word, 'Lo' (which means take) and both are action words, which give it a nice feel. We hope this feeling triumphs,” says Pritam signing off.
Movie buff? Check out Gomolo! You can also try Twocents, a movie review startup with a social integration. Both the startups are on Yourstory Pages, what are you waiting for?