Afaqs

About Afaqs

Afaqs is India's leading digital media platform for the business of brands, communications, content, technology and consumer culture. Founded on 28 September 1999 as agencyfaqs!, it has served for more than a quarter of a century as the trusted source of news, analysis and insights for professionals in advertising, media and marketing. Its official website is afaqs.com, and the company behind it, Banyan Netfaqs Private Limited, is headquartered in Noida in the National Capital Region.

The Founding: agencyfaqs! in 1999

Afaqs! was launched on 28 September 1999 as agencyfaqs! with a simple objective: to make easier the lives of professionals in advertising, media and marketing by fulfilling their information needs. The name reflected its original format — "faqs" being an abbreviation for Frequently Asked Questions — since most of the brand-related questions that executives asked were answered on the site. The venture began humbly: as the company itself later recounted, afaqs! was started in a New Delhi garage by three people, at a time when the Indian internet was in its infancy and the idea of a dedicated online publication for the communications industry was a novel one. From that modest beginning it grew into India's largest website in its space.

From agencyfaqs! to afaqs!

In May 2008 the site was rebranded from agencyfaqs! to afaqs!, a shortening of the name intended to reflect the changing dynamics of marketing communications. By then the business of communication had expanded well beyond advertising agencies to encompass media owners, marketers, digital platforms, content creators and technology companies, and the new name captured that broader remit. The trusted afaqs! name became a prefix for all the company's ventures, establishing a common identity across its digital platform, print magazine, events and newer products. The rebrand marked the moment the publication consciously positioned itself as a media brand for the entire marketing communications ecosystem rather than a service for agencies alone.

Founders and Leadership

The venture was founded by Sreekant Khandekar and Sandeep Vij. Khandekar, a journalist who had been the founding editor of A&M magazine, left the world of traditional publishing to build a dedicated online platform for the communications industry, and he continues to lead the company as co-founder and chief executive. Vij is the co-founder. Under their leadership the company has grown into a substantial media operation with offices in Noida, Mumbai and Bengaluru and a team of journalists, event professionals and commercial staff. Khandekar remains an active editorial voice, writing on the industry and conducting high-profile interviews with marketing leaders, including conversations staged at the company's own conferences.

What afaqs! Covers

The platform's editorial strength has always been its strong editorial focus and a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering meaningful, insightful and industry-relevant coverage. Its reporting spans brand campaigns, agency developments and account movements, leadership appointments and industry transitions, expert opinions, exclusive interviews with marketing leaders, in-depth case studies and research-driven reports. As the business of communication has evolved, so has afaqs!: from covering traditional advertising and media in its early years, it now reports on content, technology, consumer behaviour and marketing innovation, chronicling the evolution of India's communications ecosystem. The site publishes daily news updates alongside longer analysis, and its coverage is aimed squarely at professionals who make decisions about brands, media spending and creative work.

The ABC Audit Milestone

A defining moment in the company's history came when it secured audit certification from ABC Electronic (ABCE) in the United Kingdom — the only site in its segment to do so. The audit certified afaqs! traffic at 2.67 million page impressions per month, making it the largest audited website in the world in the advertising, media and marketing space, ahead of previous world leaders adage.com from the United States and brandrepublic.com of the United Kingdom. The company's co-founder noted that when afaqs! received its first ABC certification a few years earlier it had ranked as the world's number two site in its space, and the team had been determined to reach the top. The milestone was presented as a remarkable achievement for an Indian digital media company competing against far better-funded western websites that had operated in the space for decades.

afaqs! Reporter and Print

Following the success of the website, the company launched a fortnightly print magazine titled afaqs! Reporter in 2005, capturing news in advertising, media and marketing for readers who still valued print. The magazine extended the brand from the screen to the page and gave the company a presence in both mediums. Over the years the company also experimented with adjacent products, including initiatives in telecom marketing and platforms connecting freelancers with projects, reflecting a willingness to build new ventures around its core audience of marketing professionals.

Events and Awards

Events and knowledge-sharing platforms have become a major pillar of the afaqs! business. Its best-known property is the afaqs! Foxglove Awards, established in 2015 as India's biggest award exclusively for young agencies — those 12 years old or younger. The awards, which marked their tenth edition in December 2024 and returned for an eleventh edition in January 2026, span national and regional categories across creative disciplines and have seen more than a thousand agencies participate with thousands of entries over the years. Other properties include the Digies digital awards and conference, vdonxt asia, the Marketers' Excellence Awards, FON — The Future of News, GLB — Great Lifestyle Brands, FOIL — Festival Of Indian Languages, the Media Brand Awards, Digipub World and Startup Brands. These events bring together agencies, marketers and creative leaders from across the country and have become fixtures of the industry calendar.

Research and Rankings

The company has also built a reputation for industry research. Its afaqs! Top 50 Marketing Agencies project produced a detailed, first-of-its-kind revenue-based ranking of Indian marketing agencies, open to creative, media, integrated, digital, social media, public relations, influencer marketing and content marketing agencies, with participation free of charge. The ranking provided rare insight into where marketing budgets were actually being spent, revealing the rise of digital agencies, PR firms and media agencies alongside traditional creative shops. The idea, the company said, was born from marketer feedback that they struggled to identify agency partners from a plethora of new names and to judge whether those agencies were financially sound.

Marketplace and New Ventures

In June 2020 afaqs! launched Marketplace, a platform designed to connect marketers and agencies, extending the brand into business services. The move reflected the company's broader strategy of building an ecosystem around its audience rather than remaining a pure publishing operation. Combined with its events business, its print title and its digital advertising platform for marketing and media professionals, Marketplace positioned afaqs! as a multi-product company serving the commercial needs of the communications industry as well as its information needs.

Legacy and Influence

In October 2024 the company marked 25 years since its founding, with its co-founder reflecting on what the team had been doing when afaqs! was launched in that New Delhi garage a quarter of a century earlier. Few Indian digital media companies have survived — let alone led their segment — for that long. Over those 25 years afaqs! chronicled the transformation of Indian marketing communications: the rise of television and then digital, the explosion of mobile internet, the growth of e-commerce and startups as advertisers, and the emergence of content creators and influencers as a distinct force. Its longevity, its audited credibility and its expansion into events and services have made it the reference point for the Indian advertising, media and marketing industry.

Reading afaqs! Online

Readers can follow afaqs! at www.afaqs.com, where it publishes daily news, campaign coverage, interviews, case studies and event updates. For anyone working in Indian advertising, media or marketing — or seeking to understand how brands communicate with Indian consumers — the platform remains the starting point: a publication that began as a simple idea in 1999, to make professionals' lives easier, and grew into the most trusted name in its space.