puzha.com - Malayalam Digital Magazine

uzha.com is a passionate idea the founders took to the next level in 1998 by establishing it as a business unit. At that time, offering Malayalam content to readers around the world through the internet meant more than the technology and the internet access itself. Creating awareness among writers to provide content, baby-stepping internet users to use fonts, and training the staff to create web-ready content in short, everything looked quite challenging! Starting in a small facility near the Market Gate of IIT Bombay, Puzha was relocated to Aluva in 1999 with an expanded team of editorial staff. The Puzha.com portal was formally launched in 2000 and by that time it had made all interactive publishing features, Chowara text editor, and all web utilities available to the visitors. There are three ‘firsts’ associated with Puzha.com – The first internet Malayalam magazine, the first interactive portal, and the first Malayalam online bookstore.

Sustaining the online literary and language initiatives demanded a revenue stream and that’s how Puzha.com partnered with DC Books, Kottayam to launch DCBookstore.com. With more than 4200 Malayalam titles showcased and serving readers from 34 countries, this modest e-commerce venture in Kerala turned out to be the largest local language bookstore in India. It is a stirring experience to watch that a few customers stop by the Puzha.com Aluva office to pick up their orders and at the same time someone requests a book shipment to Algeria! In line with Puzha.com’s vision, the bookstore also generated Malayalam content in the form of book descriptions, author profiles, and reviews and slowly gained popularity among serious readers.

Puzha.com conducts a short-story competition every year and released a book- Puzha Kavithakalum Kathakalum – a select collection of stories and poetry published on puzha.com to promote the writers. Puzha.com participated in the Akshaya computer literacy program of the Kerala Government and conducted the literary competition. In January 2005, Puzha.com launched its Malayalam print magazine, Puzha Magazine, in the United States to compliment its online efforts by taking it to a wider audience.