The Hindu Business Line : Sulekha.com on expansion mode

Hyderabad, Nov. 22 With over a million Yellow Pages’ listings and increasingly considered as a preferred blogging base, Sulekha.com has emerged as an utility portal with a difference connecting small- and medium-sized businesses and individual users.

As part of its next phase of growth, it has charted out a major brand-building exercise aimed at an expanded global footprint with new overseas centres and addition of 10 more cities in the country.

“We have positioned ourselves as a portal with a difference that touches day-to-day lives of people. However, this has come through with our constant endeavour to offer innovative services that bring about efficiencies and touches consumer’s diverse and yet individual needs,” the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sulekha.com, Mr Satya Prabhakar said.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Prabhakar said, “the company has had two rounds of funding totalling $14 million, with participation by Norwest Venture Partners and Indigo Monsoon. The brand-building exercise we have undertaken would mean investment of about $1 million.”

“Services of JWT have been enlisted for the TV commercial campaign even as the company is setting up centres in Singapore and Dubai to serve the large non-resident Indian community,” Mr B. Sridhar, Director of Global Brand and Marketing, said.

Alliance led growth

“As a social media platform, we have aggregated over 15 million pages and have forged alliances with the likes of Penguin India for publication of some of the popular blogs and write ups. As an extension of alliances, we have also teamed up with Reliance Infocomm and Vodafone, thereby extending the advantages of the site to mobile handsets,” Mr Prabhakar said.

“Right from selling a car, disposing off old furniture to booking a cab or a driver, you can make it happen with just a click of button. Since this adds value, small- and medium-sized companies, retailers and services providers partner us. This generates revenues. We managed to break even long back. We don’t need any more funds,” he said.

The focus now is on adding more than 10 major cities to the existing eight cities and two overseas centres. Together, these new additions would complement the large existing footprint both in India and the US, Mr Prabhakar said.