When a proud second-generation South Asian doesn’t know a Madras curry from a tandoori curry paste, and the in-laws are coming for dinner, there’s only one thing to do: consult MyBindi.com. This English-language social networking site, launched in 1999 as a part-time pet project for Canadian South Asians seeking hot dates and party spots, has evolved into a go-to lifestyle destination for an important segment of the highly coveted, affluent South Asian market. Needless to say, it’s a huge hit with multicultural marketers.
The website, with its array of channels, chat rooms, and entertainment and lifestyle blogs, attracts a whopping four million page views (and 300,000 unique visitors) monthly. It reaches 70% of the South Asian community in the Greater Toronto Area (15% of traffic is from the West Coast, 10% from the United States, and the last 5% is international). And there are currently 30,000 opt-in subscribers to MyBindi’s weekly e-newsletters, predominantly South Asians 20-48 who like to eat sushi, follow hockey and attend wine tastings, yet still want to be in touch with their cultural roots.
“These are out-going, well-educated professionals who do the same things as the rest of Canadians,” says editor-in-chief, CEO and owner Syerah Virani. “At the same time, there is something very inherent that binds them and their South Asian identity.”
Virani ought to know. The desire to stay connected to her South Asian heritage (she was born in India) is what compelled her to turn the hobby into a full-time investment. She discovered MyBindi’s dating channel after arriving in Canada from England and separating from her husband in 2002. The site’s connectivity kept her busy as a blogger until 2005, when the single mother and Bay Street lawyer saw the potential to grow MyBindi (so named after the decorative dot worn by South Asian women on their foreheads—“a bindi’s immediately recognizable, and the analogy is ‘MyBindi’ is a celebration of your identity”) into something much bigger.
So she quit her practice and remortgaged her home in order to acquire MyBindi from its three founders. “It’s stuff I am passionate about,” says Virani. “It’s a way for me to stay very connected to everything I left behind, at the same time embracing everything I came to Canada to achieve. It gives me that perfect balance.”
Many of Virani’s supporters contend it’s her dedication to broadening relevant, quality content; her lively, constant presence at grassroots events such as Kismet Wedding Show and Masala! Mehndi! Masti! (North America’s largest South Asian festival); and her talent for divining integrated marketing experiences for advertisers that has helped to transform the venue into a strong brand in its own right.
While there’s only two full-time staff, herself and a web designer, Virani counts on a dedicated roster of 11 writers who keep event listings up-to-date and refresh original content regularly. The real strength of the site is the weekly e-newsletters, she says. “Those newsletters have advertisements in them but our readers continue to welcome them because they know it’s where they will get the new article on Bollywood or the latest book review.” She abashedly confesses she’s not once had to knock on advertisers’ doors—they come to her.
The biggest source of revenue is on-site advertising, however advertisers do not underestimate the value of the different offline experiences offered by MyBindi, including networking mixers, cooking classes, singles dating events and its flagship event The MyBindi Comedy Night (which gave Just For Laughs festival winner Sugar Sammy his start).
“MyBindi is truly an integrated experience,” says Bobby Sahni, manager of multicultural marketing at Rogers Cable, which advertises on the site. “They’ve established themselves as a community partner whereas a lot of other websites may have content and advertising, but they just don’t extend beyond the online experience.”
Virani is a natural at cross-promotion, while ensuring campaigns are beneficial to both marketers and users. For example, in May 2008, MyBindi promoted the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s symposium about heart disease (South Asians have a high risk) on its website, and in return, the site was given a booth at the event to promote itself. The pairing has since evolved into a paid partnership where two restaurants (advertisers on the food channel Bindilicious.com) will develop heart-healthy menu items that will be endorsed by the Foundation, and in turn promoted on MyBindi and through its Upper Crust cooking classes.
Not everyone believed MyBindi would evolve past its dating origins, the assumption being members would simply outgrow the site. “But interestingly, it has managed to keep interest alive,” says Prasad Rao, partner and business director at Rao, Barrett & Welsh, a Toronto ad agency specializing in multicultural marketing. “It’s continued to draw new people in but managed to retain the earlier users.” MyBindi doesn’t ignore first-generation South Asians in Canada (Virani is one of them) but those it does attract tend to be young, educated professionals with strong English-language skills.
Imtiaz Seyid, vice-president South Asian & Middle Eastern Markets at RBC, was there from the start. RBC owns the site’s financial channel and sponsors the MyBindi Comedy Night. “What started off as a niche market advertising/brand-building channel quickly evolved into our mainstream strategy.”
Rao points out most South Asian media in Canada is “not evolved as well as it should be.” Because MyBindi sets the bar, advertisers automatically want to be associated with it, he says. Sahni adds Rogers advertises on MyBindi because it enables the company to reach a whole South Asian community using a common language. “Media is otherwise very fragmented in these communities because of all the different languages.”
Marketers also recognize the site’s users are thought leaders for the community. “They are the kind of people who the mass South Asian audience would look up to because they are more hip and happening and able to spend a lot of money,” says Pankaj Gupta, account director, Response Advertising Inc., which handles Telus’s multicultural marketing, among other clients.
MyBindi recently launched MyBindi West and Virani hopes to establish portals in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and London within the next five years. She also talks excitedly about the pilot they are conducting with a MyBindi TV site, an example of her keen eye for new revenue sources. “The goal over time is to have our columnists not just writing, but behind a microphone and camera out and about being more interactive.”
Given the rapid growth rate of the South Asian population (estimated to be the leading source of new immigrants to Canada), MyBindi could quickly become as recognizable in South Asian households North America-wide as the very symbolic dot it represents—a touch point for all those with roots that reach across borders.
LESLEY YOUNG is a freelance writer in Toronto
