BUSINESS STANDARD - Shares of Matrimony.com surged 14% on the BSE, hitting a 52-week high during Tuesday's intra-day trade, driven by the company's announcement that its board will meet on Sep 5, 2024, to consider a share buyback proposal. The stock has rallied 40% in the past three weeks and surpassed its previous high of Rs 785.05 on Aug 21. Matrimony.com, India's leading online matchmaking company, manages brands like BharatMatrimony, CommunityMatrimony, and EliteMatrimony. It is expanding into adjacent segments, including launching MeraLuv.com, a dating app for Indian Americans, and plans to release Luv.com, a next-gen matchmaking app. Analysts attribute the stock's rise to upcoming changes in India's share buyback tax regime, effective from Oct 1, which shifts the tax burden from companies to shareholders.
103 posts categorized "BharatMatrimony"
Matrimony.com Surges 14% Ahead of Share Buyback Decision
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CMO Arjun Bhatia on How Bharat Matrimony Blends Tradition and Technology
SOCIAL SAMOSA - Bharat Matrimony's CMO, Arjun Bhatia, discusses how the brand adapts to changing views on marriage, especially among Gen Z, by blending tradition with technology. They've used AI in campaigns like the creation of the digital influencer Aditya Iyer to highlight the importance of real connections. The "Wedding Games" campaign humorously addresses the pressure singles face at weddings. Bhatia emphasizes the shift in marketing from traditional to digital platforms, focusing on personalized content and influencer collaborations to reach modern audiences.
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Google Deletes All Matrimony.com Apps, and Most Competitor Apps
LINKEDIN, CEO POST - Google has deleted BharatMatrimony, Naukri, Shaadi, 99acres, KukuFm, Stage and many others apps from play store citing Google play billing system (GBPS). They deleted all our (Matrimony.com) apps, over 100, including BharatMatrimony, TamilMatrimony, MarathiMatrimony, Jodii, etc.
Google tried to implement GBPS a few years ago where it forced digital services apps to use their billing system and pay 15% or 30% of revenue compared to less than 2% what apps pay for using other payment gateways. We went to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and CCI levied a Rs. 936 CR penalty on Google.
CCI's Verdict: Google shall allow, and not restrict any app developers using third party billing/payment processing services.
Google changed their policy so the options are:
- Pay either 15% or 30% using Google.
- Pay 11% or 26% for using 3rd party payment gateways.
- Don't collect payment through app.
If you don't accept any of the above, your app will be deleted. This is what Google has done to most of the popular matrimony apps today.
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As Youngsters Put off Marriage, BharatMatrimony Eyes the Dating Pie
NEW INDIAN EXPRESS - BharatMatrimony, India's largest matrimonial service, is branching out into the dating market with the launch of a new platform, luv.com. This move reflects a cultural shift among young people in India, who are increasingly interested in dating and forming serious relationships before committing to marriage. The company emphasizes that luv.com will focus on serious, meaningful relationships.
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Bharat Matrimony Promotes 'Interest Matching' in New 'Be Choosy 2.0' Campaign
FINANCIAL EXPRESS - Bharat Matrimony's latest ad campaign, "Be Choosy 2.0", emphasizes the importance of shared interests in relationships by highlighting its new 'Interest Matching' feature. The campaign, conceived by Wondrlab, portrays individuals with similar interests who may never cross paths without the platform's assistance.
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India's Court Shields Bharat Matrimony in Google Dispute
MONEY CONTROL - The Madras High Court has temporarily prevented Google from delisting Bharat Matrimony and its affiliate from the Play Store over disputes regarding Google's new payment policy. Bharat Matrimony claims Google is misusing its dominant position in the Play Store ecosystem to force app developers to comply with the uneconomical billing policy. The court has granted a stay until June 1, 2023, giving Google time to respond to the allegations. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) previously imposed a penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position and directed it not to restrict or discriminate against app developers using third-party billing services. However, several Indian startups have accused Google of trying to circumvent the CCI's order with its new policy. The Delhi High Court directed the CCI to consider the startups' pleas, with a hearing held on April 25, though the outcome is currently unknown.
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BharatMatrimony Used AI Tools For the Latest Marketing Campaign
AFAQS - BharatMatrimony, the matchmaking service, recently launched a new marketing campaign, "My Perfect Valentine," featuring an AI-generated entity named Aaditya Iyer (AI). This marks India's first marketing campaign utilizing advanced AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney.
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Bharat Matrimony - Online Matrimony Trends Report 2022
NEWSPATROLLING - This annual report is based on users' activities on Bharat Matrimony, India's biggest matchmaking platform. 2022 saw 280M member logins from singles across India and abroad. A total of 432,520 members confirmed meeting their life partner on Bharat Matrimony last year. Singles between 25 and 29 years were the most active users on Bharat Matrimony - with Sundays being the most active time when online sessions peaked.
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Chennai-based Matrimony Enters Bangladesh's Matchmaking Market
THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS - Matrimony, believes that the market has huge potential in the country following societal and lifestyle changes of urban people. BangladeshiMatrimony says it gets ~1,000 clients a day now. It provides round-the-clock call-center service to those who are looking for life partners. Matrimony.com Limited, whose flagship brand is BharatMatrimony, has ~4K employees working at ~20 offices across India.
by Jasim Uddin Haroon
See full article at The Financial Express
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Homegrown Indian Dating Platforms
FORBES INDIA - Dec 23 - The online dating industry in India is worth $323M, and the country is the third-largest revenue generator, after the US and China. Although foreign dating apps were the first to create a significant mark in India, homegrown apps are now witnessing a slow and steady rise. These include Aisle, Truly Madly or HiHi. They are positioning themselves as means to look for longer-term relationships. But they still lag far behind older match-making platforms. Beginning with Bharat Matrimony (matrimony.com) in 1997, online platforms to look for life partners is now estimated to be worth $260M, with some of the big players being Matrimony.com, Jeevansathi.com and Shaadi.com. According to Statista, the number of registrations on Matrimony.com were 40M as of FY20, up from 18M in FY14. From having ~10% market share in 2010s, they now have 50% market share.
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Q&A With CEO of Matrimony.com - 20 Years of 'Happy Marriages'
STIMULUS - Dec 18 - Murugavel Janakiraman has been in the business of online matrimony for two decades. He officially started in 2000 with BharatMatrimony.
Q: What has been the impact of Covid19 on the business?
A: Covid has made us more efficient and lean. It's like when you lose your extra fat and feel fit and energetic.
Q: Digital adoption has increased. We see some conversations leading to marriages on apps like Tinder. How has the ecosystem changed in recent years?
A: There are 60M people looking for a life partner at any given point in time, of which ~7M - 8M are registered with online matrimony sites. So there is definitely headroom to grow. Thanks to Covid and the increased digital adoption, we think the category will grow much more strongly. We don't see dating apps as a challenge. They can remain distant cousins of matrimony sites, for a different set of users and for a different purpose.
Q: Has the number of women listing their own profiles increased?
A: Today, overall number of females registered is ~30%. ~70% of all profiles are created by individuals. 85% of male profiles are created by individuals themselves, while 50% of female profiles are created by the individuals themselves. The remaining 50% would be a mix of parents, siblings and others.
Q: Alongside the growth of the category, the brand has also evolved. Can you walk us through that journey?
A: If you look at our commercials from 15 years ago, they were primarily targeted at parents. Later we realised that we need to target the single individuals. Then we started focusing on what is it that will help people get into a happy marriage. We also realised that women want equality in relationships.
Q: How closely involved are you with the brand's creative process?
A: I am pretty much involved in everything end-to-end, from the scripts to all the discussions.
Q: Early on, you ventured into multiple verticals like jobs, property and automobiles. What was the thinking then and how did the narrowing down happen, to focus on matrimony?
A: In Matrimony, you cannot have a lifelong user. But our users are also using other verticals like jobs and property so we wanted to leverage the strong audience that we had built. In 2008-'09 there was a global recession. We were left with a million or so and were losing Rs.1 to 2 crore a month. We decided to focus on matrimony and property. I had to let go of other businesses. If the ecosystem is what it is today, we would have raised money and we would have probably succeeded.
Within matrimony, we are focusing on matchmaking and wedding services. And within matchmaking, we are now focusing on global opportunities. We are the number one in SriLanka today. We have BangladeshiMatrimony, NepaliMatrimony; we have now also launched MuslimMatrimony.com. We are looking at more opportunities in places like South East Asia.
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Matrimony.com Stock Hits Fresh 52-week High
BUSINESS STANDARD - Dec 3 - Shares of Matrimony.com hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 795, surging 10% on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Thursday. ~500,155 equity shares, representing 2.2% stake of the company, changed hands via bulk deal on the BSE, exchange data show. The names of the buyers and sellers could not be ascertained immediately. Matrimony.com is one of the leading consumer Internet companies in India, managing brands such as BharatMatrimony, CommunityMatrimony and EliteMatrimony. The Company delivers matchmaking and marriage related services to users in India and the Indian diaspora. In the past two weeks, the stock has rallied 27% after SBI Mutual Fund (MF) bought an additional 744,279 shares, or 3.3% stake, in Matrimony.com through its various schemes.
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BharatMatrimony Parent's Q2 Profit up 31% YOY
FINANCIAL EXPRESS - Nov 6 - Matrimony.com's revenue increased 1.1% to Rs 93.3 crore ($12.6M) in Q2 FY21 from Q2 FY20. The company reported a jump of 31.2% YOY in net profit to Rs 10.3 crores ($1.4M) for the July-September quarter. The matchmaking business revenue was up by 4.6% YOY to Rs 92.7 ($12.5M) crores while it added 2.1 lakh (210K) paid subscriptions during the quarter, up by 25.7% YOY.
by Sandeep Soni
See full article at Financial Express
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BharatMatrimony Introduces 100% ID Verified Profiles
UNITED NEWS OF INDIA - Nov 2 - BharatMatrimony, India's leading matrimony service, is launching Prime, a membership service that offers 100% ID verified profiles. To be eligible for BharatMatrimony Prime, members should 1) Hold a degree (graduation or above), 2) Verify their ID (driving license, passport, PAN card or ration card) and 3) Upload a profile photo. BharatMatrimony has recently launched a slew of new features to provide a safe environment to female members. These include:
- Control who can view and contact you
- Unique SecureConnect feature which lets members receive calls from prospects without revealing their mobile number
- Choose who can video call with you
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Matrimony.com Expects Double Digit Growth to Continue
DEVDISCOURSE - Sep 28 - Matchmaking service provider Matrimony.com saw its membership grow by 30% during the pandemic, Matrimony.com founder-CEO, Murugavel Janakiraman said. The company is expecting to record double-digit growth in revenues and will invest in products and marketing. According to the company statement, Matrimony.com holds a 60% market share and BharatMatrimony is the flagship brand. For the year ending March 31, 2020, the company reported revenues of Rs 372 crore ($50M) with 7 lakh (700K) subscribers.
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