The Hindu Business Line : BharatMatrimony going global

Meeting point
To expand beyond South-East Asia, the company will set up portals based on either religion or country as a differentiator.
It is also planning to set up physical marriage bureaus in countries with a strong Indian population.

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Chennai Feb.16 The BharatMatrimony Group has entered the global matrimony space by setting up a portal for non-Indian Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Co-branded by Yahoo! the name of the portal would be made public soon, said Mr Uday Zokarkar, Head-New Business Initiative, BharatMatrimony.com Private Ltd.

The BharatMatrimony Group has so far catered to the Indian matrimony space (including Indian diaspora across the globe) through its 15 sub-portals and offline activities such as organising matrimony meets.

"We now plan to target global markets mainly in South-East Asia with cultures similar to India," said Mr Zokarkar.

More portals

To expand beyond South-East Asia, the company would set up portals based on either religion or country as a differentiator, he said. "We are still studying cultures in other countries. For the latest portal, we had the advantage of an existing Urdu portal," he said.

Besides setting up global matrimony portals, the company is also planning to set up `BharatMatrimony Centres', physical marriage bureaus, in countries with a strong Indian population. "We are looking at the UK and Europe, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to cater to NRIs and people of Indian origin," said Mr Zokarkar.

At present, the company has an office in Dubai and had tied up with Indian communities in the US to organise matrimony meets in New York and New Jersey.

India plans

Domestically too, the company plans to set up over 200 Centres across India in the next 18 months to cater to tier-II and tier-III cities. Its strategy to strengthen presence in these markets would be through tie-ups with local communities, said Mr Zokarkar. The company has so far organised about 12 such community-specific matrimony meets, including meets for Goundars in Tamil Nadu, the Chavara community in Kerala, Arya Vysyas in the Tirupati region and Kayasths in Madhya Pradesh.