A brand is a constantly evolving entity, but its most visual aspect is its website.
While today’s unicorn startups like Flipkart, Ola and Paytm have sleek websites that follow latest trends, they have come a long way from being the basic, web 1.0 websites of when they started. After years of iterations and design evolution, these sites look a lot different from their original versions. Along with the Unicorn status, have come new, sleeker websites and in case of Ola or Zomato, new business models too.
Startup pitch and investor community startup ShotPitch recently did some some delving into the past, and dug out the looks of a few Indian startup websites from back in the day. We found a couple more and turned this into a fun Now and Then slideshow.
(Move the slider over to switch between the Now And Then.)
1. Flipkart
Flipkart may be all sleek and bright colours today, but back then it was a pretty basic and functional website. Not to mention, there was no app.
[image-comparator title=”Flipkart then VS Now” left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-25-at-3.55.04-pm.png” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/flipkart-ola-site.png” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
2. Zomato
Zomato may be amongst the top 100 most visited websites in India today, but back in 2008, it was called Foodiebay and simply was a restaurant listing website.
[image-comparator title=”When Zomato was Foodiebay” left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-31-at-7.30.35-pm.png.jpg” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/foodiebay.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
3. Snapdeal
Snapdeal may be the 3rd largest ecommerce website today with an ever expanding product base, but back when it was started, it aimed to provide coupon based deals on goods as well as services.
[image-comparator left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/snapdeal-now.png” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/snapdeal-then.png.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
4. Ola
Ola has become the largest cab aggregator in India today, but Bhavish Aggarwal wanted to simply have a website providing tours and cabs for outstation trips.
[image-comparator left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ola-now.jpg” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Ola-then.png” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
5. Freecharge
Freecharge has never much strayed from its core business of enabling mobile and broadband recharges, however the website has come a long way, along with a whole new owner in Snapdeal.
[image-comparator left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Freeharge-now.png” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/freecharge-then.png” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
6. Quikr
Quikr came into its own in 2008 when it acquired the classifieds listing website Kijiji India, the Indian version of the internatonal classifieds chain.
[image-comparator title=”When Quikr was Kijiji India” left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-31-at-9.35.08-pm.png.jpg” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Quikr.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
7. Paytm
Paytm is one of the largest ecommerce and payment wallets in India today, but back in 2010, it was a mobile recharging website like Freecharge.
[image-comparator title=”then VS Now” left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-25-at-3.56.13-pm.png” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/paytm-old-website.png” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]
8. Redbus
Redbus was the first bus booking website when it started in 2007. While many competitors have sprung up now, Redbus remains the top bus player in the city, and maintains a sleek but basic website.
[image-comparator left=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-25-at-3.55.56-pm.png” right=”http://www.officechai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rsz_1redbus_old_site.png” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]