TekChakra.com

An oligopoly of 4 matrimonial sites is dominating this market and controlling probably 90% of it. Matrimonial sites tend to be of serious nature - and people and families that are less conservative are targetted by the service providers. The typical user of online local and dating services is not the right target user and visitor to these sites… but there maybe just a very small fractional overlap.

The four front runners are - Shaadi.com, BharatMatrimony.com, Jeevansathi.com and SimplyMarry.com. The first 3 have been around for 8 to 10 years now. Shaadi.com was intially Sagaai.com, and Jeevansathi was purchased by Info Edge a few years ago, the folks behind Naukri.com. SimplyMarry is TimesofIndia’s very very late move to break into this market. Known earlier as timesmatri.com - which apparantly is terrible choice for a name - my guess is that they switched over in an attempt to create a better brand and name. Who does not remember the wildly popular and successful Sunday 4 page matrimonial print insert that came with the Sunday Times. I guessed that TOI was making around Rs 20 crores every week with it. Why they took so long to switch over to and supplement the print version with an online version and promote it heavily is something I fail to understand. Specially when BharatMatrimony and Shaadi advertised within their print editions. Also, the Times Group has been one of the front runners in the Internet digital space - quickly setting up the Times Internet division and launching Indiatimes.com very early on in the dot com days. Not moving quickly and aggressively into the Matrimonial space has cost them dearly now. Perhaps they were happy with the print matrimonial edition’s revenues, and saw a self launched online version more as a threat and conflict of interest with their successfull money making print version. They probably saw the “trust” that they built in the print brand over the decades, being broken in some way by an online version - if the online version was marketed very aggresively.

So, where we stand currently is that that there are 3 close front runners running neck-to-neck  and then there is SimplyMarry.com - coming in a distant fourth.

Whats interesting here is that traffic to all the 4 sites has been declining over the last 12 months (see the alexa link above). My guess is that there is still a lot more potential - but suddenly a lot of people visiting these sites have been exposed to more choices of Indian flavoured social networks - that are a totally free way to meet other like minded individuals. Add to that the entrance of popular social networking sites like Orkut, Tagged, and now Facebook. Suddenly the non-traditional conservative single can build a network of local and global friends - for fun or dating … and there is always the thought of “marriage” in the back of their minds - if they feel they “connect” with a potential spouse.

Because the spread of the Internet is no where near saturation point in India, these 4 services will continue to be popular and make money… because of their very large  “singles looking for lifepartner” databases  - which is their most prized asset.

The only issue and danger, in the long run, would be a gradually eroding Indan culture being eaten up by western cutural invasion through globalization and media. If desis gradually move towards the dating game or live-in concept, the online matrimonial market may take a hit. But, we’re still decades away from that. But, if and when it does happen, they may find themselves in the same boat as the once highly successfull, but now steadily declining Match.com - that is losing all its traffic and revenues to the Web2.0 Social Networking wave, thats free to ride - for anyone and everyone. 

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