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With more and more international companies scouting for projects in the engineering sector in India, the business-to-business (B2B) publication industry is poised to grow at around 17 percent over the next two years, according to Mr. Linus Lobo, Chief Operating Officer, IPF Online Ltd.

The combined revenues of the Indian B2B market from events, publishing and online services were about Rs 980 crore in 2008 with publishing accounting for Rs 380 crore, events and exhibitions Rs 520 crore and online content about Rs 90 crore, he said.

"With the entry of more and more European players, which have little information about local markets, the importance of the B2B information service industry is likely to increase manifold," Mr. Lobo said. The largest users of B2B information services were players in the small and medium-scale industries, he added.

By 2012, the B2B magazine industry was likely to grow at 12 percent to Rs 590 crore, e-media at 40 percent to Rs 340 crore and B2B events by 15 percent to Rs 900 crore, he said

In the B2B publishing segment, the general interest and business magazines sub-segment is the largest accounting for 50 percent of the market, followed by IT and other specialist magazines. At present, around 1,000 B2B titles are published in India. Most magazines had also started their online versions to capture the growing Internet population, Mr. Lobo said.

Corporate advertisement rates have also improved with the rates hardening by eight percent from the bottom levels last year, he said. The rates decreased by about 10 percent during the downturn, he added.