When Digant Sharma shifted to the U.K. to study engineering, he and his friend Priyanka explored Europe through city specific websites like I Amsterdam. But when they and their friends used to travel to India, they found a vacuum on Delhi in the cyber space. “There is a Delhi Tourism website and though it has improved over the years it is not good enough to meet the demands of the young and curious consumer. We approached them but they asked to prepare a file and all and we didn’t have the patience,” says Digant who went on to do his Masters in Management from the University of Bath and joined Gulam Noon’s food manufacturing firm. However, the idea of starting a city-specific website kept haunting him. He started contacting bloggers and photographers who were as curious to understand Delhi and soon So Delhi took shape.
In 2010 Digant and Priyanka, who by then had become his fiancé, returned to India after leaving their cushy jobs in the UK to start a new career to showcase the hidden treasures of Delhi to the world. With 35,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook, 11000 followers on Instagram and 4000 followers on Twitter, Digant claims theirs is the most followed website on Delhi. “Google has realised our potential. So if you type ‘the best butter chicken in Delhi’, chances are that you will get So Delhi among the top three results.”
When the duo started they had international and domestic travellers in mind but when he launched the basic version in 2012, Digant found to his surprise that a lot of traffic was coming from the local populace. “That’s when we realised that we have to be more specific and detailed. That we can’t be generic like Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet as locals will figure out the discrepancies — like how a website put Akshardham and Swaminarayan Mandir as top two destinations in Delhi not realising that they are referring to the same place. Nor can we be too niche in terms of presentation and information. So with fine dining we also have elaborate options on street food and hidden gems in East Delhi and Faridabad also get due attention.”
Digant says that the traffic to the website comprises people in the age group of 16 to 70 but the largest section is in the 18 to 35 range. “What’s happening is,” reflects Digant, “Delhiites are getting bored of eating at the same places in neighbourhood. They want to explore the lanes of the city and also want to do specialised things like a guided tour to Tughlaqabad or a crash course in heritage photography.” Also, he adds, a number of youngsters shift to Delhi every year for job and education and they need a handy guide to find home food in the city. “The idea of printed guides has become dated because they are not usually updated and are not easy to lay hands on.”
Smartphones have changed the way information is consumed. “When we started only to 10-15 per cent of the traffic came through smartphones but now the share has increased to around 45 per cent,” says Digant, promising that the revamped version of So Delhi will be even more mobile friendly.
According to him their strength lies in detailing. The 12-member editorial team is headed by Priyanka, who left her management job with Barclays to join Digant. Her job is to provide equanimity to the write-ups sent by the contributors. “We don’t have a generic monument section; we have a separate category for tombs and baolis, which is updated from time to time. In R.K. Puram there is an old baoli which has been covered recently.”
Also, Digant adds, unlike Trip Advisor, the reviews are not user-based. “In such cases we usually get the comments of the friends and rivals of a particular restaurant. We have roped in ex-chefs of top hotels to review the food of different restaurants across the city. The idea is to concentrate on the specialities of the restaurant rather than testing everything. We have appointed ambassadors in different parts of the city to give us information on new developments in the neighbourhood. We then send our writers and photographers to take it forward.” There is a dedicated section for educational institutions and hospitals where you can fix an appointment with a doctor or a vet but Digant says this is section is hard to maintain because the information is not forthcoming on its own. “For emergencies offline medium still remains the most trusted one,” he admits.
Digant maintains that they pay only for the cost of travel and most of the writers contribute pro-bono because they want to do something for the city. “Most of the revenue”, he says, “is generated through advertisements and revenue sharing with the restaurant and tour booking websites which So Delhi leads the consumer to. We have broken even and this year we are expecting to make some profit.” At 28, it is not a bad bargain. Not undermining the possibilities of offline media, Digant has launched a So Delhi guide which is available across top hotels and book stores.
Now Digant is planning to launch versions of So Delhi for other cities and on top of his mind is Goa.
