BharatMatrimony Group Rebranded As Consim Info; IPO In 2 Years
The BharatMatrimony Group, which runs matrimonial portal Bharatmatrimony and other classified portals like Clickjobs, Indiaproperty, Indialist, Loanwala and Indiaautomobile has announced a change of name: the group will now be called Consim Info (Consim - Consumer Services through Internet and Mobile). The group also has a host of religion based matrimonial sites - MuslimMatrimonial, SikhMatrimony, BuddistMatrimony, JainMatrimony, and ChristianMatrimony - and the change of name appears to be an attempt to position the company as more than just a matrimonial services company. I spoke to Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO of Consim on the company’s plans:
Is this a pre-IPO rebranding for the Bharatmatrimony group?
We might look at an IPO 2 years down the line, but not immediately. The rebranding reflects the company vision, and that we have gone beyond matrimony.
You’d told ContentSutra that the company would be profitable by the end of this year. Are you profitable yet?
Our plans have changed and the company wants to spend more money on strengthening the brand, particularly the matrimonial brand and going international. We will probably be profitable by the second or third quarter of next year.
How much money will you be investing in the international forray?
We haven’t firmed up those plans yet so I can’t comment on the investment. But we are targeting countries with a South Asian population - we launched a site for Indonesia and Malaysia alongwith Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) called Muslimmatrimonial. We’re also targeting the Gulf and Sri Lanka.
Where have you deployed the money ($8.6 Million) raised from Canaan Partners and Yahoo?
Around 50 percent of the money that has been deployed was used in strengthening the matrimony business, while the rest was for growing new businesses, for promoting clickjobs.com and indiaproperty.com. In terms of revenues, around 80 percent comes from the matrimony business. The jobs vertical is second.
How are your non-matrimonial verticals doing?
Indiaproperty is the leader in the online property space. We’re better in terms of the rates and services that we offer. Clickjobs is a challenge - we have to establish a brand. At this time, we have close to 2 million resumes - but beyond a point, whether you have 5 million or 50 million, it doesn’t make a difference. People don’t go beyond 2-3 pages and it’s the technology and innovation that matters. For loanwala, banks are not taking each and every lead - they want leads from a specific city and location. A bank like Citibank wants only top 10 cities, and not the rest. If a user applies for a loan, and the bank doesn’t want to offer it because of their own specifications, then the user blames us.
Posted In: Companies, Bharatmatrimony
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Comments (14)
Dec 6, 2007 9:32 AM
If 80% of revenue comes from Matrimony business and secondly from clickjobs.com, then how come indiaproperty.com is the leader in online property space?
Dec 6, 2007 11:02 AM
>Are you profitable yet?
>
>Our plans have changed and the company wants to spend more money on >strengthening the brand, particularly the matrimonial brand and going >international.
What a joke, do these guys realize facebook is about to eat their lunch on the dating scene.
Dec 6, 2007 1:52 PM
well who knows may be they plan to do a Facebook App by name of “Please Marry Me ”
Dec 6, 2007 6:02 PM
I am surprised that this company is not profitable yet. With theor online and offline model. I understand that it takes time, but come on Bharatmatrimony was one of the earlier ones.
How would a VC firm put money into something like this, with shaadi.com, simplymarry and jeevansaathi among thousand of other sites doing essentially the same thing and 80% of their revenue is thru matrimony. I guess during these times, anything goes
Dec 7, 2007 1:09 AM
Which business of them is giving them profits now? In all the spaces they are, they are not the leaders and leaders too are bleeding. They must be doing good revenues for sure given matrimony site is ranked 2 I guess but to bring an IPO there must be profits for 2 years.
Dec 7, 2007 2:42 AM
I don’t believe that they are not profitable, at least on matrimony business. May be the profit generated is re-invested in other verticles that are not doing so well. If not then why VCs will look at such categories. The news is doing rounds that Shaadi has got 2nd round of funding and even BharatMatrimony Group.
In western world, valuation is based upon the members (free and paid) and hence Facebook will have a good value before showing such revenues. This business (and valuation) is yet to mature in India.
Dec 7, 2007 2:47 AM
Yes bharatmatrimony is getting the 2nd round of funding soon. Its all done and wil be announced in few weeks from now.
Dec 7, 2007 3:13 AM
Nikhil, thanks for the article and wanted to clarrify few things here. Already someone is immitating me with the name Murgavel.
BharatMatrimony being a #1 in all parameters (traffic, features and success) it has always been profitable for us. As a group we are lossing money as we are burning money in Jobs, Property and in other entities. We expect the group to become profitable next year.
Thanks.
Dec 7, 2007 3:20 AM
I am sure Bharat Matrimony on its own is doing good. But your group is sure making good investments in other portals. All the best Murugavel!
Dec 24, 2007 5:06 AM
Are you having mobile portal for voice or sms? If yes, then what is the short code used as well as whether u are tied up with Reliance infocomm(cdma) or Reliance Telecom(gsm).Who is the contact person for all such communication?
Jan 1, 2008 6:26 AM
We are realy looking to sell out our entire business since we are not competent in front of existing players as well as new enterants.
May 29, 2008 12:27 AM
How can u say that u r going internationally NOW. the main advantage of internet business is it has no boundaries. when a site launched it can access from anywhere. from 1997 u r a global player.
Jan 31, 2009 10:01 AM
It is for sure that bharat matrimony will take over shadi.com and also all other websites. I say it is the best
Feb 11, 2009 4:24 AM
I like bharatmatrimony and india list. These two websites are designed in such a way that it is not easy for other websites to be in compitition with them. hope other sites of your groups also do well like click jobs in future.