The Hindu Business Line : e-matrimony sites seen transforming into ‘lifecycle’ portals

Pune, Nov. 3Market potential of the online matrimony industry in the country is expected to grow at 40 per cent compound annual growth rate within the next three years. It is estimated to touch $63 million from the current worth of $30 million, with its registered base touching 30 million subscribers from 10 million now.

Mr Kyung Han, co-founder and Managing Partner, EmPower Research Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd, giving details said that Indians were using the Web more frequently and in varied areas than ever before, with Internet usage spanning both daily tasks as well as life’s landmark events.

He noted that, more importantly, Indian matrimony sites were emerging as leading candidates in controlling access to a majority of future Web-based personal services and products. He was in the city for the launch of the report ‘A Web Partner for Life’.

Three challenges

Mr Han noted that the challenges framework for Indian e-commerce sites, especially e-matrimony company, relied on three elements — 360-degree security for users and their online behaviour, seamless scaling in operational processes and Web site ‘stickiness’ beyond the match.

He said EmPower Research predicts that e-matrimony sites would transform themselves into full lifecycle portals, attracting and retaining those customers who were matched on the site.

“These customers would have a greater likelihood of trust in the e-matrimony sites for related services and products, such as real estate and careers, thereby positioning themselves to be the potential portals for all lifetime services,” he said.

He said the work has been going on for the past six months and the data had been taken from four sites — shaadi.com, bharat matrimony, jeevan saathi and simplymarry.com.

Crucial enablers

Mr Han said that with many different initiatives for e-matrimony companies, technology such as automated and complete security on profiles and online behaviour, business intelligence and data warehousing would be a crucial enabler.

Commenting on the operations of EmPower, he said it is headquartered at New York and has a presence in Bangalore with about 250 analysts. The company is also scouting for another location which can hold a capacity of 200 people.

He said that this year, it was estimating to touch a revenue of $6 million. EmPower is coming out with another report, titled ‘Social Media Trends in India’ in the next couple of months, Mr Han added.