INDIA INFOLINE – July 18 – Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and Managing Director, BharatMatrimony (Matrimony.com), revolutionized the process of arranged marriages in India, by providing an online platform for matchmaking through its flagship matchmaking service BharatMatrimony. The company's free registrations have grown from 2.64M in FY16 to 3.21M in FY17. The company has ~702K paid users.
Q: What are the 3 major changes in the marriage services sector in the recent past?
A: The mobile and internet penetration has been growing. Second, an increasing number of Indians are leaving their native places and moving out of India or their own societies in search of a job or a better lifestyle. Also, there has been an increase in the freedom an individual can exercise over life decisions.
Q: What makes you better than your competitors?
A: We cater to the needs of various communities through CommunityMatrimony. We also offer personalised matchmaking through Elite Matrimony and our Assisted Service package.
Q: Tell us about the issue size of the IPO. How will the company use the capital?
A: The offer details are as follows: Primary (Rs. in Millions): 1,300. Offer for Sale (in Equity Shares of face value Rs.5 each): 37,67,254. We will use the Net Proceeds for:
- Advertising and business promotion activities;
- Purchase of land for construction of office premises in Chennai;
- Repayment of our overdraft facilities; and – General corporate purposes.
Q: How big is the marriages service industry in India?
A: It is estimated that in 2016, of the 107M single individuals, there were ~63M individuals who were actively seeking prospective life partners. The marriage services industry is estimated to be worth ~3,7B in fiscal 2016.
Q: What are your plans to ensure sustained monetization?
A: We will be investing in technology to make our sites and apps more user-friendly.
by Priyanka Sharma
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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team
BLOOMBERG – Sep 13 – Revenue from Indian online dating expanded ~21% annually from 2010 to 2015, and will reach 20.6B rupees ($322M) by 2020, according to Ken Research Pvt Ltd. India's wedding market, including matchmaking services, venue-hire, catering, decorating and photography, is worth ~$54B a year. Matrimony.com, which opened an IPO on Monday, added 3M user-profiles last year, of which 40% were in semi-urban areas. People are shifting to mobiles to access dating sites. Three years ago, 60% of Shaadi.com's 3M user base was accessing the site via desktop. That proportion has shrunk to 20%, while mobile access jumped to 80% from 40%.
