Picture this: It's another Friday evening, you've barely managed through a hard week and you feel you just have to be something different this weekend. You probably have three choices in front of you:

(a) Call up Charu or Vikki and check what they're up to;
(b) Hunt for the newspaper, gleaning them for ideas; or
(c) Head to your 'usual' den.

If it is (a), the two or three of you together will most likely land up pursuing (b) or (c). Looking at newspapers (b) will result in tons of movie listings, or coverage of events that you probably knew of already - big stars, classy musicians, golf tournaments, art exhibitions - and didn't want to attend or were too pricey for the weekend spirit. So, to pep up your mood, you will gladly take option (c) and head to the movie theater showing a one-star rated movie, or a restaurant/bar to tank-up, surf the Internet through all your online social networks; or stare at the TV, remote in hand, feeling all powerful with the new sense of control.

The above is not a piece of fiction - it really happened to us. Reality smacked us in the face when we learnt, surprisingly, that we were not alone. Many around us were also tired of picking (c) all the time... They say that inspiration usually hits when one is scraping bottom. The same enlightenment struck Amitabh Saran and the need for Buzzintown was confirmed.

A premier entertainment hub dedicated to the promotion of events and entertainment in India, Buzzintown is owned by Wortal, a U.S. headquartered company, with a pan-India presence. By providing dynamic coverage of local events, Buzzintown keeps users everywhere tapped into the cultural pulse of their towns. It features events in several different categories including art, music, books, theatre, sports and more in 19 cities across India. The company has set up over 40,000 alliances with its stakeholders and also has presence on mobile phones through WAP and SMS. The website currently has over 1.3 million registered users, with over 10 million page views a month.

Buzzintown was born with the idea of providing people rich information on all kinds of entertainment options, using all kinds of media available. It wanted to empower people with information, and let them decide how they wanted to spend their time. When you open the newspaper today, in all likelihood, you would see movies and art exhibitions. "We were certain that there are a lot of entertainment options but only the famous ones used to get coverage. This is the reason we felt the need to create a platform where people can come and look at over 100 genres of entertainment choices and pick from them. And they should get it using the medium of choice - information on the go - internet, or mobile. That's how the idea of Buzzintown was formulated," says Dr. Amitabh Saran, Co-founder and Managing Director.

A free service, its main revenue generators are online advertising, content syndication, corporate tie-ups, online and offline ticketing and its 'platform' used by the online fraternity.

As an entertainment hub, Buzzintown provides India’s widest array of events, including videos, venue details, artiste profiles, groups, and other stakeholders of the event industry. It provides high-quality, localized event listings by venue, artist, and genre of entertainment for all major events in town. Apart from providing event listing, the portal also provides a robust online ticketing platform for the events. Events can be posted by registered users free of cost, and the invite can be sent out to other users. The listing for private events is visible only to the invitees.

Users can join communities which are provided with customized updates for shared interests. These communities also provide the promoters a readymade segment to sell tickets for specific events. The portal is not an online social networking site. The content for the site is sourced from end users, and the various stakeholders of the entertainment industry. Alerts for major events are received many weeks in advance; while alerts for smaller events are usually received one to two weeks in advance. Registered users have the option of receiving a newsletter every week which lists the events scheduled for that week. In addition, they can subscribe to free SMS alerts of the day's top events.

"Whoever is looking out for options for enjoying a day - is our target audience," says Saran. However, the company has categorized its target audience into the following:

• Youth in the age group of 18-21 looking for various entertainment options available in a city
• Young single professionals in the age group of 22-30 looking for various entertainment options with friends in different cities
• Professionals in the age group of 31-45 looking to go out with family after work and also planning their weekends
• Tourists travelling to and within India and wanting to know about entertainment available in a particular city
• Expatriate community.

Each and every guy with 'five' events with them is a competitor. "On the contrary, no one today has the singular focus on becoming a wholesome entertainment hub as much as Buzzintown. An external audience does take Bookmyshow, Asklaila, Burrp in the same league as Buzzintown - we feel each of them has their strengths. Buzzintown focuses on 'dynamic' content, not just ticketed shows or 'static' information," says Saran. For instance the portal lists 'food festivals' or chefs specials for the week, as part of food and dining category rather than the yellow page list of all the Chinese food joints in your town! When there is a portal that starts listing events/happenings, Saran considers it to be a constant validation of the marketplace need.

There is a different value proposition, which Buzzintown is bringing up on board - a single point of information and entertainment content. The value-add which it provides is in terms of being more local - for which it has created a network of over 40000 stakeholders of the entertainment industry across India.