The Hindu Business Line : Lighting up lives on weddings

Chennai, Sept. 24 It may be nice to receive gifts at one’s wedding but nicer still to make it an occasion for the less fortunate to benefit from it. Matrimonial Web site Shaadi.com has enabled that by tying up with GiveIndia.org, a donation platform that allows one to support a cause of their choice from about 100 NGOs that have been scrutinised for transparency and credibility.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Vibhas Mehta, Business Head, Shaadi.com, said nowadays many people did not want gifts at their weddings. There were also instances of those who wanted the gift money to be contributed to a charitable cause. Taking into account these trends, Shaadi.com decided to leverage its database to contribute to its cause as a part of its CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities.

The matrimonial portal completes 10 years of existence this year. Says Mr Mehta, “There is an increasing number of socially-conscious couples today who would like to tie values to vows. Moreover, this being our 10th anniversary year, we are more than happy to share our joy through such noble causes.”

GiveIndia lists various NGOs supporting children, women, human rights, environment, health, education, youth, the disabled and the elderly. Couples getting married through Shaadi.com can choose the NGO(s) they want to support in three ways: they can earmark some money as a donation to a cause; they can ask family and friends to gift a donation to a cause/charity as their wedding gift or they can themselves donate the cash gifts to GiveIndia.

Mr Mehta says the response to this is encouraging. The portal has set up a microsite promoting this initiative and over 1,000 members have so far made donations.

Offline centres

Mr Mehta of Shaadi says the company will focus on increasing the number of brick-and-mortar Shaadi centres to 500 in the near future. Three years ago, the company ventured into these offline centres and there are more than 150 now. The company also plans to develop the wedding planning and astrology services business which it introduced some time ago.

Meanwhile, Bharatmatrimony.com is mulling the idea of extending its services to other countries – that is, to cater to nationals of other countries and not just the Indian diaspora there, says Mr Murugavel Janakiraman, the group’s chief executive officer. Malaysia is one such country on the radar, he said.

The group has diversified into several verticals that deal with jobs, property and automobiles, among others, and the plan is to achieve leadership in all, he said. On the matrimonial front, it has launched Loanwala, a vertical through which prospective brides and grooms can apply for loans, a relationship/marriage counselling blog and helpline and recently re-launched its wedding directory which gives information on wedding venues, beauty parlours, astrologers and such, Mr Murugavel said.

Ten years into the business and both major matrimonial portals have plans to go beyond matchmaking.

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