TechTree has a roundup on Hindi langauge portals. Since Hindi is not my language, I wasn’t familiar with most of these websites except Webdunia (of Nai Duniya Group), for instance, which is the most well-known Hind portal of all. Apparently there are scores of them attracting pretty good page views.
A Techtree listing of some popular portals looks like this: email (epatra), live cricket scores and news (Prabhasakshi), matchmaking (Jeevansathi.com’s Hindi version), content aggregation (Samachar.com), astrological services (Prabhasakshi and Webdunia), search (Raftaar.com).
However, there are still issues with business models since advertising in Hindi language sites are yet to take off. The web versions of newspapers have an edge over others since they already have relationship with advertisers. But stand-alone sites can take some time to get the traction. Some portals like Netjaal.com, Womeninfoline.com, Niharonline.com and Literateworld.com have already shut down, says the article.
But Hindi portal owners are waiting for a shift in advertising mindset they way it has happened in the TV business. For instance, the success of Aajtak and Star News’ conversion from English to Hindi are indication of the potential the Hindi audience holds.