ONLINE MATRIMONY

C4

Group -2

ROHIT KHANDELWAL (09BM8042)

SHAILENDER NEGI (09BM8046)

SIDDHARTHA SHARMA (09BM8048)

 VARUN WADHWANI (09BM8060)

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur

Contents
Contents................................................................................................................ 2

History................................................................................................................... 3

Where online portals come in?...............................................................................3

What Web 2.0 Does?..............................................................................................4

Pricing Comparison:...............................................................................................6

Conclusion:............................................................................................................ 6

Business of matchmaking – Future Prospects........................................................6

Business Model...................................................................................................... 7

123 Matrimonies Business Model...........................................................................8

Some Drawbacks of Online Matrimony .................................................................8

Suggestions .......................................................................................................... 9

Future Growth and new technology.......................................................................9

References............................................................................................................. 9

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 2

Introduction about the concept – Online Matrimony

Someone said “marriages are made in heaven” - If that’s true then Internet is the new heaven.
Some people would rather say that there was a time when marriages were made in heaven.
Some may still say, for all we know.
Online matrimony is an emerging trend in our very society today. Loads of youngsters now
prefer to look for their life partners on these web sites since the medium available with us is
fast, user friendly and easy to access- it's now been rightly said that marriages today are
possible just at the click of the mouse. Indeed it's a perfect match between our rich tradition
and technology. Internet as a medium of match making takes away geographical limitations
and is therefore much more efficient than the traditional avenues for searching our life
partner. Online Matrimony portals are in more than one way superior to their counterparts
(print) as they allow the various users to know each other better by sharing their personal
information, their family background, personality, education, outlook towards life etc. So in a
way individual compatibility is much more through this channel comparable to the general
match making process. At present online matrimony is a business which is worth more than
Rs.1400 million, over 12 million Indians now use matrimonial websites for searching their
life partners, and it is being touted as brimming with a widespread potential.

History
Matrimony has gone through a tremendous transformation in India. From the days when
priests used to get the marriages fixed to the matrimonial portals which provide the users an
advanced platform to interact with their prospective life partners and get to know them better,
it has definitely come a long way. In the past, marriages were fixed among the families on the
basis of economic standard, caste, religion, job status, age, height, and family backgrounds.
They were fixed with the help of relatives, brokers, professionals and astrologers. As the
circulation of newspapers grew in the last few decades, popularity of print media became
widespread in the form of matrimonial advertisements. With the advent of internet, people
are moving quickly to these online matrimonial portals for the wide variety and reach of
services offered by them to their customers.

Where online portals come in?

Increasingly, the venue of choice of most parties is getting to be the cyberspace these days.
At least that is what would seem to be the case if we were to check the rising quantities of
investments which is going into this market. Between February and Aug’09, Yahoo Inc and
venture capital firm Canaan Partners pumped in $8.65 million, which is nearly Rs 40 cr. in
Bharat Matrimony, an online marriage portal with more than 7.5 million subscribers run by
the Bharat Matrimony group, which also owns the hot online businesses like ClickJobs.com,
IndiaProperty.com, IndiaAutomobile.com and IndiaList.com. Sequoia Capital has invested in
VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 3
about $8 million in Shaadi.com, another online match making portal, it already has 7.9
million subscribers owned by the People Interactive Group that owns mauj.com (a mobile
content and applications solutions business) and Fropper.com (a friendship and dating site).
Venture funds Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo, in turn, acquired 5% stake in Infoedge
, India, which in turn runs Jeevansathi.com (it also owns job portal Naukri.com and
classifieds portal 99acres.com), for $6 million. Info Edge, will also be getting Rs 155-170 cr.
through public issues for its expansion plans.

What Web 2.0 Does?

Various features are available online today. Some of them are listed below:
 With the help of Web 2.0 technologies as soon as users register, they are sent an instant
confirmatory SMS & email simultaneously. Users can also update, edit and check how
their profile looks to others in real time on the site. Users also benefit the Web 2.0
technologies that alert them on a frequent basis with suitable matches to their profiles.
 By focusing on the latest marriage trends, relationship issues, lifestyle guide, health and
fitness, and even assistance in deciding upon honeymoon destinations, solutions are put
in place for grooming a person before marriage
 It provides ways to control the ability to download personal data, photos, and videos as
per the discretion of users.
 Regular alerts are sent to the registered users with suitable matches to their profiles.
 Provides customized solutions and assistance.

Major Players & Comparison:

There are four major players in the Indian market which together cover about 90% of the
India’s market share. Shaadi.com boasts of about 7.9 million registered users, while
Bharatmatrimony.com comes close on the heels with 7.5 million users. The second thrust in
this industry is brought up by Timesmatri.com with 0.5 million user which is growing thick
and fast and Jeevansaathi.com, with about 0.63 million users. We can compare the major
players based on their reach, average stay per minute at the site, page views, pricing options
to the customer amongst many other players.

Global reach of major players over the last six months:

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 4

Shaadi.com leads has been quite consistent. JeevanSathi.com and BharatMatrimony.com are
almost on par with shaadi.com. BharatMatrimony.com had a sudden surge in Mid January.

Now let us use the parameter of Page views:

Now the surprise is JeevanSathi.com seems to be the site receiving the most hits, because of
extensive Testimonial readership. BharatMatrimony.com does have a bit of Ajax, but they
should still be commanding higher page hits especially the sudden increase in reach wasn’t
complimented at all with any rise in page views.

Some figures:

No of People Visiting the Sites

Criteria & Shaadi.com Jeevansathi.com Bharatmatrimony.com Simplymarry.com
Change
People 695,190 34,824 31,339 21,782
Average Stay (Average no. of mins. On the Site per Visit)
Avg Stay 6:31 5:23 2:19 4:14

Some other comparisons:

Duration Shaadi BharatMatrimony JeevanSathi SimplyMarry

Google Page Rank 7 6 6 7
Alexa Rank 1049 3170 2004 11456
Compete Rank 2686 52826 48113 72296
Quantcast Rank 12262 64139 47959 58922
Technorati Links 1065 95 62 17
Google Page Rank – A rank awarded by Google, a score out of 10, the higher the better.
Alexa Rank – The lesser the better
Compete Rank – The lesser the better
VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 5
Quantcast Rank (Quantcast provides visitor demographic statistics) – The lesser the better
Technorati Links – The more the number of links, the better for a site.

Pricing Comparison:
Duration Shaadi.com JeevanSathi.com BharatMatrimony.com SimplyMarry.com
3 months 1595 1350 – 1900 1590 – 2290 500
6 months 2655 1900- 2750 2690 – 3890 1000
9 months - - 3440 – 4990 -
12 months 4250 4100 - 2500 – 3500
Note: All figures mentioned are in Indian Rupees (INR)

Conclusion:
Shaadi.com seems to be the site we would put our profile on. It has the largest NRI audience.
The site has a pleasant and secure feel about it, but there is scope for improvement. It would
be nice if they could track the performance of off-line Shaadi Points.

BharatMatrimony.com is very popular among South Indians for other regional services. It
is too aggressive while marketing these services, which might not be that good a tactic. It
needs to do a lot to work on to be on top.

JeevanSathi.com has been doing well and according to the statistics they get the most traffic
at least in India. After talking to a couple of parents (who were looking for spouses for their
children) – they said they were most comfortable on JeevanSathi.com. They need to reduce
the number of paid membership options.

SimplyMarry.com started with a bang – because it belonged to the Times Group. Although,
the name of the website has received a lot of criticism but we did like their advertising
campaign. They are in a good position to be eventual market leaders if they can utilise the
newspaper matrimonial classifieds properly.

Business of matchmaking – Future Prospects

Among the pioneers of this dynamic new industry are a few frontrunners, the most prominent
among them Shaadi.com (almost 60% market share), while there are estimated to be 30 other
smaller online players serving to various niches of the market. While what has given this
market its potential is the fact that the country's huge marriage market is being aggregated in
steps into the online market at a rapid rate, and though a large chunk of this market may still
eventually remain offline, the volume of business done online is set to rise steadily over the
years. Online match making is estimated to be around 10% of this industry and has lot of
potential to grow. Globally, online match making (matrimony and dating) is $2 billion (Rs
10,000 crore) industry and is expected to be growing at a rate of 10-15% annually.

After the four top players there is a whole bunch of local portals and websites serving to the
more specialised niche segments. Players like Sulekha.com, Baraat.com, Matriworld.com,
MatriSearch.com, iMilap.com, GodBless Matrimonial India, India Matrimonials.com,
Hamarijodi.com and MeraSathi.com form up the rear flank of this industry. And the market
they have been serving to is a lucrative one: the Indian Diaspora overseas. Realising the need
to specialise and find their own niche, many of these small players have begun to address
specific communities and castes. The business potential of the global market alone is valued

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 6

by industry watchers at several hundred million dollars. Bulk of this untapped business is still
in the niche segments is a fact that the major players seem to have woken up to — Bharat
Matrimony offers a choice of 15 regional websites (Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and
Bengali being the prominent ones; its website that is specifically aimed at the Marwari
community is also reported to be doing great business). Similarly, Timesmatri.com provides
an option to search grooms and brides by mother tongue, religion and education.

The online marriage business has grown with a compounded growth of 140% over the last
two years and doesn't look as if it is suddenly about to quiet down. But at the same time, the
market leaders are nervous and looking over their shoulders. The reason being, Competition
is on the rise already as evidenced by the entry of wannabes Match.com, Baraat.com,
Matrimonialsindia.com, and Indianrishtey.co. Also, this nascent industry still faces stiff
competition from unorganised players like marriage bureaus, pundits and relatives, who offer
services at extremely low costs.

Online matchmaking is catching on fast over the "offline" arranged marriage model, as it has
clear advantages over it. Searching online allows users to find their match quickly by posting
their profiles and searching for free but paying to communicate thereafter. Prospects can
divulge information at their own pace on these portals. And one can communicate with
multiple parties in a secret manner, which is very important in a conservative culture like
India.

Most of India's matrimonial portals currently are serving only as matchmaking sites, but the
real market is the overall wedding market. It is estimated to be between $15 billion and $18
billion nationwide. Most of the matrimonial sites aim to become an online referral partner to
all the wedding planning and buying businesses estimated in these figures. Internet usage
growth will play a major role in deciding the future of India’s online match making industry.
The action will accelerate once the Internet population goes over 100 million people. As the
next phase of Internet usage explodes in India, so will the online model for matrimony.

Business Model
To understand the business model of Indian matrimonial websites we will have to analyse
how these websites generate profits. We will have to see that do people actually get married
through the websites. Since it seems to be a good business but does it works? We will have to
understand their revenue model.

Revenue Generation
1. Subscription fee of the members: Varies from Rs 2200 to Rs 7200
2. Revenue from Online Advertisements
3. Revenue from sale of wedding related items.
4. Money earned by running matrimonial events etc
5. Fee charged for Astrology Services
6. Expert advice on idle matches

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 7

Shaddi.Com: Model Study
Shaadi.com has a little superior model than other matrimonial sites. It has Franchising Model
which is perfect for Indian Demographics which allows it to penetrate in tier II and Tier III
cities. So match making in a way is being offered through a retail outlet.

Few Highlights:
No of centres – 151 across India
Presence – 87 cities
Franchisor of the year award – 2005&2006
Shaadi.com centres have personal relationship advisor, national as well as International
Women entrepreneurs for sensitivity & empathy
The average Break even period for each franchise is of 6 months which shows high return on
investments. This business is easy to hand over, and it requires no technical knowledge.

Data:
Franchise Required – 400-500 sq ft
Investment required – 7 to 8 lakhs
Franchise Present – 150
Expected franchise – 500 by end of 2008

123 Matrimonies Business Model

It is one of the oldest and popular paid Indian matrimonial sites. It has changed its business
model to become 100% Free. It has facilities like search, personalized written messages, and
chat by text, voice and webcam one-on-one 100% free for Indians searching their prospective
soul mate. Anyone can register and create an account on 123 Matrimonies without any
expiration dates.
123 Matrimonies delivers all the facilities that paid sites deliver, all for free! It has all the
features that the other major websites have, but for free and with a lots of extras thrown in!
This website also has a unique proximity search by zip codes. Users have the facility to
search for suitable matches within a specified distance, language, location, religion, caste and
more. The site was very recently redesigned and redeveloped with the goal of "keeping it
simple". 123 Matrimonies is one of the first web 2.0 Indian Matrimonial sites and uses the
popular Microsoft platform including ASP.NET, SQL Server and AJAX. With all these
amazing user friendly features, excellent service and user-friendly navigation, and 123
Matrimonials.com stands in good stead to savour the very large pie of the Indian matrimony
market.

Some Drawbacks of Online Matrimony

 Online tracking of Customer Behavior is very difficult.
 Phishing is also a problem
 Misrepresentation of fact and chances of frauds are there
 Hacking of account is a problem.
 Sometimes there are Harassment issues among the users.
 Spamming in the account is also problem.
 Offensive content may be posted.

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 8

Suggestions
 RSS feed subscription
 Integration with social networking sites will increase the traffic.
 Photo tagging and real time search are also exciting ways to attract new users.
 Profile updates, if any, should be made visible to those connected directly to a user to
let them know of any changes in their status

Future Growth and new technology

 The growth prospects are very bright with the spread of internet.
 Online matrimony merging with social networks like Face book, LinkedIn etc.
 Availability in local languages in future option.
 ‘Secure Talk ‘service that will let customers to talk to the potential matches without
revealing their actual numbers will add a new feature.

References
1. http://www.thefreelibrary.com
2. http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Online-Matrimony/
3. http://www.shaadicircle.com/jeevansathi/Online_matrimony.asp
4. http://www.shaadi.com
5. http://www.bharatmatrimony.com
6. http://www.prlog.org
7. http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/oct/05spec1.htm
8. http://www.watblog.com
9. http://www.alexa.com/

VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur Page 9