The global media continues to bet big on India. The latest to join the ‘chalo India’ bandwagon is Blouinartinfo.com, the leading online provider of news and analysis in the areas of arts and culture, fashion, luxury, design, architecture and travel. Louise Blouin, the French-Canadian founder and chairman-CEO of Louise Blouin Media, was in India earlier this week to launch the India portal of the site. Blouin, 54, also publishes several magazines such as Art+Auction and Modern Painters, which provide specialised information on the art market. Gargi Gupta spoke to her about her plans here
Considering that the Indian art market is still very small, does an India-specific portal make sense?
India makes perfect sense for us because it has smart people in technology and smart people in culture. We want to take the culture of India to different places in the world. Also, there’s a big local market for local news. It’s opening up now, and the more it opens up, the more collectors will buy. And there are some really big collectors in India.
What will be the size of your operation here?
The India operations will be one of our biggest. We plan to hire around 100 people in the technology backend in Bangalore; there will be another 50-100 people in Delhi and Mumbai, comprising professional writers and bloggers in all the arts. We will go to the arts universities to recruit. I can’t give details but we are investing around $110 million in 11 country-specific portals that we’re launching at the same time — besides India, there’ll be China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Russia and the United Kingdom. For us, there’s also the advantage of time difference which will allow us to constantly update our news.
Are you familiar with the Indian art market, the artist, galleries and institutions such as Saffronart which have grown quite big of late? Have you bought any Indian artists?
I bought some art in Mumbai. We also went to Saffronart — they have a very nice space. They had an Art Deco auction and I’d be quite excited to see how the prices went because I know it would sell for multiples of that in the US.
Will in.Blouinartinfo.com also provide information about prices for Indian artists?
Yes, and we are in the process of collecting data about Indian artists. We provide price records going back to 1922 from 700 auction houses around the world. There are 500 million bits of data that is being constantly updated.
Will this be a paid service?
No, it’ll be free to users. Advertisements from brands, individual sponsors and cultural institutions such as galleries and museums will sponsor the portal. I don’t believe in a paid model. I am concerned about having the best content, monetising will come later. We’re speaking to a lot of people. India has a lot of money and a lot of people who love the arts.
But hasn’t the downturn in the economy adversely affected advertising and the art and luxury market?
Not luxury, which will always go up. India may not be a very big luxury market but it’s growing and will become bigger. That’s why we are here now, to help it grow. Besides, it’s never smooth riding. But companies and brands are coming in and investing, as they are in China and Russia also. As for Indian artists, we want to give them a voice. There are also plans to hold exhibitions of Indian art in out space in London [Bloiun runs a philanthropic foundation which has a premium gallery space in Holland Park].
