A Dissertation Report On

“MARKETING STRATEGY OF
INFO-EDGE INDIA LIMITED”

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE
OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Prepared by: Nikhil Gupta

V. U. Roll- PG/24/MBA-IVS, No.- 097
Registration No.- 00993 of 2017-2018

Major specialization: Marketing

Name of Institute: EIILM, Kolkata

UNDER THE GUIDANCE

OF

Prof. Chittresh Coomer

FACULTY, EIILM

SUBMITTED TO

Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, Kolkata

Affiliated to
Vidyasagar University

March, 2019

1
 Declaration

I do hereby declare that this dissertation entitled “Marketing Strategy of Info-

Edge India Private Limited” has been done by me and all the information
provided is correct and true to my knowledge.

This dissertation is submitted by me for the partial fulfillment of the award of

degree in ‘Master of Business Administration’.

The dissertation is exclusively prepared by me and has not been submitted to any
other institutions or published anywhere before.

DATE: Nikhil Gupta

PLACE: KOLKATA MBA,4th SEMESTER

EIILM, Kolkata

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 Acknowledgement

I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Chittresh Coomer, Faculty, EIILM who

has sincerely provided me with critical suggestions and valuable insights which
enabled me to complete this project and bring out this report in the best way
possible.

I would take this opportunity to thank Dr. R. P Banerjee (Director, EIILM) and
other faculty members for their cooperation and support.

I am also thankful to my colleagues for their motivation and to all those persons
who directly or indirectly helped me during developing this dissertation.

Signature:

Name: Nikhil Gupta

Date:

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 Abstract

This project represents the glimpse of a particular service industry along with the
general service sector information. In this study first of all the current service
sector situation is being discussed followed by the particular company profile on
which this study is based on. Detail study on the company has been conducted
related to its current position in market, feedback from consumers, market share,
competitors, future plans, marketing strategies, products etc. Later based on the
analysis findings are furnished with respected recommendations followed by
conclusion.

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 Table of Content

Chapters Contents Pages

1 Introduction 6-9
2 Scope of the Study 10
3 Objectives 11
4 Methodology 12
5 Analysis & 13-29
Interpretation
6 Findings 30
7 Recommendations 31
8 Conclusion 32
9 Bibliography 33

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 Introduction to Service Industry
An industry made up of companies that primarily earn revenue through
providing intangible products and services. Service industry companies are
involved in retail, transport, distribution, food services, as well as other service-
dominated businesses. Also called service sector, tertiary sector of industry.

The service industries (More formally termed: 'Tertiary sector of industry'

by economists) involve the provision of services to businesses as well as final
consumers. Such services include accounting, tradesmanship (like mechanic or
plumber services), computer services, restaurants, tourism, etc.
Hence, a service Industry is one where no goods are
produced whereas primary industries are those that extract minerals, oil etc. from
the ground and secondary industries are those that manufacture products,
including builders, but not remodeling contractors.

Service industry, an industry in that part of the economy that creates

services rather than tangible objects. Economists divide all economic activity into
two broad categories, goods and services. Goods-producing industries are
agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and construction; each of them creates some
kind of tangible object. Service industries include everything else: banking,
communications, wholesale and retail trade, all professional services such as
engineering, computer software development, and medicine, nonprofit economic
activity, all consumer services, and all government services, including defense
and administration of justice. A services-dominated economy is characteristic of
developed countries. In less-developed countries most people are employed in
primary activities such as agriculture and mining.

The proportion of the world economy devoted to services grew steadily during
the 20th century. In the United States, for example, the service sector accounted
for more than half the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1929, two-thirds in 1978,
and more than three-quarters in 1993. In the early 21st century, service industries
accounted for more than three-fifths of the global GDP and employed more than
one-third of the labor force worldwide.
The simplest explanation for the growth of service industries is that goods
production has become increasingly mechanized. Because machines allow a
smaller workforce to produce more tangible goods, the service functions of
distribution, management, finance, and sales become relatively more important.
Growth in the service sector also results from a large increase in government
employment.

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A service industry is any industry that produces value is that primarily
intangible such as customer service, management, advice, knowledge, design,
data and experiences. Advanced economies are experiencing a long-term shift
whereby service industries are becoming a larger component of economic output
relative to other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture. The following
are common examples of service industries:

 Information Technology: Information technology is shifting away from

products such as packaged software towards services such as software as a
service.
 Hospitality: Any service that hosts guests such as a hotel, restaurant or pub.
 Travel: Travel services such as a flight or tour.
 Transportation: Daily transportation services such as a train.
 Media: Media such as a newspaper, blog or video.
 Entertainment: Entertainment such as a video game, theme park or movie.
 Sports: Sports including facilities such as gyms and spectator sports such
as professional football.
 Healthcare: Healthcare services such as a hospital, clinic or doctor's office.
 Wellness: Wellness related services such as a spa.
 Finance: Financial services such as a bank that offers bank accounts, loans
and investments.
 Insurance: Services that cover risks for a fee.
 Professional Service: The services of a recognized professional such as a
lawyer or accountant.
 Consulting & Staffing: Offering knowledge and labor as a service.
 Design: Creating designs as a service such as a graphic design or product
design.
 Marketing & Sales: Marketing services such as event promotion
and sales services such as a real estate agent.
 Energy: Energy services such as metered power from a grid or managed
solar panel systems.
 Management: Management services such as asset management or facility
management.

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 Information: Information services such as a market data service.
 Markets: Services that provide a two-sided market for buyers and sellers.
For example, an auction service for products or assets.
 Retail: Retailing such as a fashion shop.
 E-Commerce: Any service that conducts business electronically such as a
streaming media service or ecommerce retailer.
 Culture: Culture industries such as art, music and cultural events.
 Education: Educational institutions and companies such as a university or
professional training company.
 Asset Rentals: Providing access to assets such as construction equipment
for a rental fee.
 Product as a Service: Wrapping a product in services such as support,
maintenance and self-service tools. This may allow a firm to charge a
monthly recurring fee for a product.

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 Service Sector in Indian Market

The services sector is not only the dominant sector in India’s GDP, but has also
attracted significant foreign investment flows, contributed significantly to exports
as well as provided large-scale employment. India’s services sector covers a wide
variety of activities such as trade, hotel and restaurants, transport, storage and
communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, community,
social and personal services, and services associated with construction.
Market Size
The services sector is the key driver of India’s economic growth. The sector has
contributed 57.12 per cent of India’s Gross Value Added at current price in H1
2018-19. Net service exports stood at US$ 38.95 billion in H1 2018-19 (P).
Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 53.7 in
November 2018. The expansion in November 2018 was marked with boost in
output, the strongest since July 2018.

Advantages of Service Sector in India:

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 Scope of the Study

 To gain in-depth understanding of the business of Info-Edge India Ltd.

 To identify the ongoing trend in its business and expected growth in future.

 To help the existing service holders, workers, other new players to align
their market centric strategies.

 To obtain decision based on research.

 To gain competitive knowledge of leading players.

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 Objectives

 To understand the journey of Info-Edge India Ltd. and the position in

Indian market.

 To focus on the entry of different players in this industry and the

competition among them.

 To explore the opportunities of this industry in the context of our country.

 To find out the challenges the company is facing.

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 Methodology

Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a

field of study. Typically, it encompasses concepts such as paradigm, theoretical
model, phases and quantitative or qualitative techniques. A methodology does
not set out to provide solutions—it is therefore, not the same as a method.

Data: This study is completely based on secondary data.

Documentary Analysis: I have obtained secondary data from previously

published analysis articles regarding this company.

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 Analysis & Interpretation

Info Edge India Limited

Info Edge (India) Limited is a holding company, which provides information

technology services. The Company is involved in online classifieds business. Its
segments include Recruitment Solutions, 99acres, Online Restaurant Discovery
and Others. The Others segment includes “Jeevan Sathi” and Shiksha services.
The Company is engaged in the business of Internet-based service delivery
operating in over four service verticals through Web portals. Its service verticals
include Naukri.com for recruitment-related services, Jeevansathi.com for
matrimony-related services, 99acres.com for real estate-related services,
Shiksha.com for education-related services, merination.com for online/offline
coaching services and zomato.com for online food services. It also offers
placement search services, resume sales services and real estate broking services.
Its recruitment portfolio is supported by the offline executive search business,
Quadrangle, and its associated portal, www.quadranglesearch.com.

Info Edge (India) Ltd. is one of India's premier online based business. Over a
period of more than two decades it has steadily developed a portfolio of brands
across different domains that primarily provide online classified services. The
company operates online recruitment business through its flagship brand -
Naukri. The online recruitment portfolio is supported by the offline executive
search business Quadrangle and its associated portal qauadranglesearch.com. The
company operates online real estate classified business through its portal
99acres.com online matrimonial classified business through its portal
jeevansathi.com and online educational classified business through its portal
shiksha.com. Info Edge (India) Ltd. has a network of 62 offices located in 43
cities throughout India. It has also made forays abroad into the Gulf market with
the website www.naukrigulf.com and currently has offices Dubai Bahrain Riyadh
and Abu Dhabi. In the last decade Info Edge has also expanded by investing in
businesses that have been conceptualized and initially developed by separate
entrepreneurially oriented management teams. Each of these businesses are
managed externally with inputs from Info Edge. Essentially these are part of an
investment portfolio of the company. Some of these investee companies include
zomato.com (online restaurant classifieds and food delivery business) and

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policybazaar.com (online insurance). Info Edge India Ltd was incorporated on
May 1 1995 as Info Edge India Pvt Ltd and they went public on April 27 2006.
In March 1997 the internet portal naukri.com was launched and in December
1998 jeevansathi.com was launched. In November 2000 the company acquired
the business of Quadrangle division. In September 2004 the company acquired
Jeevan Sathi Internet Services Pvt Ltd and they became the wholly owned
subsidiary company. The internet portal 99acres.com was launched on September
15 2005.In July 2006 the company launched the internet portal naukrigulf.com
and in July 2007 they launched the internet portal asknaukri.com. In August 2007
the company entered the domain of professional networking services by
launching the internet portal brijj.com and in May 2008 they forayed into the
online education by launching the internet portal shiksha.com. During 2010-2011
the company invested in Nogle Technologies Pvt Ltd, Kinobeo Software Pvt Ltd,
99 Labels Pvt Ltd, Zomato.com etc. During 2011-2012 the company invested in
Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd Zomato Media Pvt Ltd Happily Unmarried
Marketing Pvt Ltd. The company also acquired the business of Tootstep
consultancy private Ltd during the year under review. During 2012-2013 the
company acquired Make Sence Technologies Pvt Ltd. During the 2014-2015 the
company gets RBI nod to raise FII investment limit. The company also made
investment in Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd and also transferred Policy
Bazar shareholding during the year under review. In August 2015 the company
made investment in Mint Bird Technologies Private Limited. The website
www.vacationlabs.com is a web-based booking system for tour operators
providing services such as processing bookings collecting payments sending
confirmation emails reminder emails feedback requests accounting and more. On
13 October 2015 Info Edge (India) announced that it has transferred its entire
shareholding in Etechaces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (Etechaces
or Policy Bazaar to its wholly owned subsidiary Make Sense Technologies
Limited (Make sense) for a total consideration of about Rs 101.30 crore. Make
sense has entered into a definitive agreement with MacRitchie Investments Pte.
Ltd. (MacRitchie) an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek an investment
company based in Singapore enabling MacRitchie to subscribe to the shares of
Make sense to extent of 49.99% of its share capital (on a fully converted and
diluted basis) for a total consideration of about Rs 134.10 crore. Out of the above
funds Make sense will invest an amount of about Rs 31.10 crore in Policy Bazaar
and this is part of the fund raising undertaken by Policy Bazaar in March 2015
wherein funding from Make sense was subject to approval from FIPB. Funds

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aggregating to about Rs 101.30 crore would be used by Make sense to retire its
payable to Info Edge (India). Consequent to the aforesaid transaction Info Edge
(India) will own 50.01% of Make Sense and Make sense will hold about 19.65%
of Policy Bazaar. On 30 January 2016 Info Edge (India) announced that the
company has through its wholly-owned subsidiary invested an additional amount
of Rs 5 crore through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference
shares in Happily Unmarried Marketing Private Limited which is engaged in the
business of sale of fun & creative products. It owns and operates the site
www.happilyunmarried.com. According to the aggregate investment including
the above is now Rs16.4 crore in Happily Unmarried Private Limited which
translates to about 44% stake in the company on a fully converted and diluted
basis. On 22 November 2017 Info Edge (India) announced that pursuant to the
acquisition of Cathero Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Runnr) an on-demand logistics
and delivery company and other restructuring by Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd. Info
Edge (India) along with its wholly owned subsidiary holds about 44.74% in
Zomato on fully converted and diluted basis. On 19 December 2017 Info Edge
(India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly owned
subsidiary about Rs 12.50 crore in International Educational Gateway Private
Ltd. (Univariety). The aggregate shareholding of the company after this initial
investment in the said entity would be 29.62% on fully converted and diluted
basis. Univariety is engaged in the educational business of providing products
and services and counseling to schools, colleges and educators. The Board of
Directors of Info Edge (India) at its meeting held on 1 February 2018 accorded
its approval to allow divestment of 32629 equity shares of Zomato Media Private
Ltd. (Zomato) being 6.66% of the paid-up share capital of Zomato on fully
converted and diluted basis either directly or through its wholly owned subsidiary
- Naukri Internet Services (NISL) as may be deemed fit in the best interests of the
company at a consideration of rupee equivalent of USD 50 million. On 1 March
2018 Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its
wholly owned subsidiary about Rs 6.40 crore in Agstack Technologies Private
Limited. (Gramophone). The aggregating shareholding of the company post this
initial investment in the said entity would be 25% on fully converted and diluted
basis. Gramophone is a technology enabled marketplace for enabling efficient
farm management. Info Edge (India) crossed the total income figure of Rs 1000
crore for the first time in Financial Year 2017-2018. On 19 April 2018 Info Edge
(India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned
subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Bizcrum lnfotech Private Ltd. (ShoeKonnect). The

15
aggregate shareholding of the company after this initial investment in the said
entity would be 20% on fully converted and diluted basis. ShoeKonnect is a B2B
marketplace that enables footwear brands manufacturers wholesalers and retailers
to connect communicate and transact with each other for conducting and
expanding their business. On 3 May 2018 Info Edge (India) announced that the
company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3.43 crore
in Rare Media Company Private Ltd. It is a follow up round of investment in Rare
Media which is already an associate of the company. The aggregate shareholding
of the company after this investment in the said entity would be 43.86% on fully
converted and diluted basis. Rare Media is engaged in building the future of work
using pioneering technology. On 25 June 2018 Info Edge (India) announced that
subject to requisite regulatory and other approvals as may be applicable including
that of Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) the company has entered
into an agreement with SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited (Soft Bank) a
wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Vision Fund L.P. of which SoftBank Group
Corp. is a limited partner whereby Soft Bank has agreed to invest an amount
equivalent to about USD 45 million for 49.99% stake (on a fully diluted basis) in
Diphda Internet Services Ltd. (Diphda) a wholly owned-subsidiary of the
company for the time being. Info Edge (India) has also agreed to invest an amount
equivalent to about USD 45 million in Diphda for 50.01% stake (on a fully diluted
basis) and to jointly invest through Diphda an amount equivalent to about USD
90 million in Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 8.93%
stake (on a fully diluted basis post completion of fund raise exercise with other
investors).On 5 July 2018 Info Edge (India) announced that the company has
agreed to jointly invest with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (MacRitchie) a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek an amount of about Rs190.51 crore in
Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 3.5% stake (subject
to change consequent to completion of primary investment in Etechaces
announced by the company on 25 June 2018) by purchasing the shares held by PI
Opportunities Fund I (PIOF) through its subsidiary Make Sense Technologies
Ltd. Consequent to the aforesaid transaction Info Edge (India) will own 50.01%
of Make Sense and Make Sense will hold about 19.92% (including existing stake
of 16.42%) of Etechaces on fully converted & diluted basis. On 6 July 2018 Info
Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned
subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Ideacficks Info labs Private Limited (Zipp serv).
The aggregate shareholding of the company after this initial investment in the
said entity would be 45.31% (subject to change pursuant to milestones agreed in

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the relevant Investment Agreement) on fully converted & diluted basis. Zipp serv
(www.zerv.corn) is an online platform which provides data-driven real estate
intelligence to enable smart property purchase. The company's two flagship
products are 'Clean Properties' and 'Price Point'. Clean Properties provides instant
access to land titles conversion records building approvals liens and litigations
for thousands of ongoing apartment projects. Price Point's analytics engine tracks
lakhs of recently registered sale transactions and gives granular actionable
insights for buyers at a project level so that buyers get a leg up in negotiations.

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Its Business Portfolio Comprises:

Recruitment: Online recruitment classifieds, www.naukri.com, a clean market

leader in the Indian e-recruitment space, www.naukrigulf.com, a job site focused
at the Middle East market. Offline executive search
(www.quadranglesearch.com) and a fresher hiring site (www.firstnaukri.com).
Additionally, Info Edge provides jobseekers value added services (Naukri Fast
Forward) such as resume writing.

Matrimony: Online matrimony classifieds, www.jeevansathi.com, is among the

top three in India’s online matrimonial place. At the same time it has offline
Jeevan sathi match point & franchisees.

Real Estate: Online real estate classifieds, www.99acres.com, it is India’s largest

property market place covering almost all the major cities and a large number of
agents & developers.

Education: Online education classifieds, www.shiksha.com, is the smartest

gateway for students to achieve their goals.

The Businesses:

Naukri.com: Naukri.com is the largest jobsite in India. It is part of Info Edge

India (Ltd), India’s leading Internet Company with well-known brands like
99acres.com, jeevansathi.com & Shiksha.com.
Having revolutionized the online classified space, today Info Edge has a market
capitalization of over Rs. 95 billion, an employee base of 3800 associates, with
presence in 41 cities in India and Middle East, and we’re geared to grow much
bigger. Our financial track record shows a strong upward trend – Net Sales in FY
13-14 were Rs. 5051 Million with CAGR of 21.4% for the last 5 year period.

The revenues of naukri were 315 crore in FY 2013-14 with a consistent upward
growth rate. The no. of resumes in the database increased by 12% to about 37
million at the end FY2014. Being a leader in its category, Naukri.com is forever
pushing the boundaries with new-edge innovations and technology. We have
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integrated the semantic search mechanism from a recently acquired Company,
Makesense Technologies to significantly improve the job search of the site and
make it more efficient for users
We also launched a mobile application that is based on both iOS and android
platforms, and a SAS based Career Site Manager. All these developments have
received a great response from users leading to more engaged jobseekers and
satisfied customers.

99acres.com: 99acres.com is an internet portal dedicated to meet every aspect of

the consumer needs in the real estate industry. It is a forum where buyers, sellers
and brokers can exchange information, quickly, effectively and inexpensively.

99 acres.com is part of the naukri.com group-India’s No.1 job portal. Our parent
company Info Edge, funded by ICICI Ventures, started in 1989 and became Info
Edge (India) Ltd. on May 1, 1995. Since inception, Info Edge has provided
project, marketing and management consulting services to a number of clients in
India and abroad.

Info Edge long toyed with the idea of providing job information to the public
independently but was unable to identify a financially viable technology
backbone to do so. This changed when Internet entered India.

The rest as they say is History.

Naukri.com, Info Edges first venture revolutionized the concept of e- recruitment

in India. Today it is India’s No.1 job site and amongst the top 15 job sites as per
Alexa rankings. It’s services 6000 organizations and is almost a one-stop clearing
house for jobs and careers for Indians.

A few years down the line, Info Edge demonstrated their understanding of e-
business once again with the success of Jeevansathi.com - their matrimonial site.
Jeevansathi.com with over 500,000 profiles on site, is today one of India’s leading
matrimonial sites. With the real estate industry in India witnessing a boom, the
online property market holds considerable opportunities. This is the potential that
Info Edge is now targeting with the 99acres.com.Info Edge aims to develop this
portal into one of the leading sites for buying, selling or leasing any type of
property, anywhere in the country.

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Jeevansathi.com: Jeevansathi is the leading brand in Online Matrimony space in
India. It is part of Info Edge India (Ltd), India’s leading internet company with
well known brands like naukri.com, 99acres.com & Shiksha.com. Having
revolutionized the online classified space, today Info Edge has a market
capitalization of over Rs. 95 billion, an employee base of 3800 associates with
presence in 41 cities in India and Middle East, and we’re geared to grow much
bigger. Our financial track record shows a strong upward trend – Net Sales in FY
13-14 were Rs. 5051 Million with CAGR of 21.4% for the last 5 year period.

Shiksha.com: Shiksha.com is a one-stop-solution making course and college

selection easy for students looking to pursue undergraduate (UG) and
postgraduate (PG) courses in India and abroad; also accessible to users on the
move through the website’s mobile site. Launched in 2008, Shiksha.com belongs
to Info Edge (India) Ltd, the owner of established brands like Naukri.com,
99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com, among several others. With this strong brand
pedigree, Shiksha offers its users the unique privilege of customized tools like
Alumni Employment Statistics that includes salary data powered by Naukri.com.
Our website is a repository of reliable and authentic information for over 14,000
institutions, 40,000 plus courses and has a registered data base of more than 3.5
million students. We offer specific information for students interested in UG/PG
courses in India (shiksha.com) and Abroad (studyabroad.shiksha.com) across the
most popular educational streams – Management; Science & Engineering;
Banking & Finance; Information Technology; Animation, VFX, Gaming &
Comics; Hospitality, Aviation & Tourism; Media, Films & Mass
Communication; Design; Medicine, Beauty & Health Care; Retail; Arts, Law,
Languages & Teaching; and Test Preparation.

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Marketing Strategies:
Marketing Mix: (In general for all businesses)
The conventional 4 P’s of marketing are common for every sector i.e. Product,
Price, Promotion & Place; but in case of service sector there are more 3 P’s need
to be added to complete the marketing mix and those are, Physical Evidence,
People, Process. All the components are discussed below;

Product: Info Edge is an online advertising platform so the main product of the
company is advertisement services. Company arranges various plans or service
packs in every vertical based on market situation i.e. Banner, Gold Packs, Sticky
Ads in case of all services.

Info Edge is an online platform for classified advertisements for specific

purposes. It has adopted both C2C and B2B models for its operations to gain
maximum advantage. It has embedded most of the modules into one structure to
increase consumer liability and interest.

Price: As we are talking about service sector it is not easy to fix a price for any
service. In case of any physical product we can actually calculate the cost so that
after adding profit we can fix the price but the cost of any service is difficult to
ascertain. Quikr fixes the prices of the service depends on days served.

Promotion: To be in the mind of customers it is mandatory to increase the OTS

i.e. opportunity to see. Info Edge uses television commercials with popular
celebrities, sponsoring programs etc. for promoting the brand.

Info Edge has gained immense popularity in India and it is because of its
numerous ATL and BTL marketing campaigns. It has launched witty and
informative ad campaigns. Advertisements have been displayed via digital and
print media in popular television channels, newspapers and magazines and on
online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Place: Being an online platform it is difficult to target the places for approaching
this service as the illiteracy rate is still high in India but Info Edge makes its
strategy like this, they approach all the IT companies, business houses and
selective individuals.

Physical Evidence: As being an intangible product it needs a physical evidence

that is why agreements are prepared based on the purchasing term.
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 People: Service is all about people. Considering the complicacy huge interactions
are needed to get things clarified. Executives from Info Edge are always there to
solve every issue of consumers.

Process: Not being a tangible product a service can not be purchased like normal
product. This is a proper systematic process.

Porter’s 5 Force Model:

New Entry

Supplier Power Buyer Power

Competitive Rivalry

Substitution

Competitive Rivalry: Brand Value, Capture the Market (60% or nearest).

Supplier Power: Large no. of companies, Large no. of jobseekers.

Substitution: Linkedin, SMS job alert by AIRTEL.

Buyer Power: Prices.

New Entry: Salesforce and database required, difficult to create a brand.

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SWOT Analysis:
Strength:

 Dominant player with strong brand value.

 Largest Database.
 Max number of clients.
 Highest traffic share.
 Sales network across India.
 Integrated services also available on mobile through the Naukri app and
mobile site.
 Provides advices and suggestions to job seekers on resume, interviews,
salary negotiations etc.
 Cost and time efficient for the employers to recruit employee having a
particular skill set.
 Apart from Indian jobs, Naukri.com also opens up the job opportunities
abroad.

Weaknesses:

 High dependence on Naukri.com only.

 High attrition rate.
 Large number of employees & sales force.
 The website faced issues while registering the brand name.

Opportunities:

 Largest market of jobs.

 Internet penetration.
 India has over 350 universities & 17600 colleges.
 Naukri.com can persuade more companies to utilize the portal by
emphasizing lower recruitment costs.
 It can integrate more closely with the HR department of various companies.

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Threats:

 Monster’s semantic search technology.

 Linked.in getting popular in India.
 Economy slowdown.
 Limited internet penetration across various organization or locations.

PEST Analysis:

Political:

 Government policy to increase jobs.

 Pumping money in the infrastructure.

Economic:

 Global slowdown.
 India has recovered faster than rest of the world.

Social:

 People spend more time on internet.

 Rise of social networking sites.

Technological:

 Improved penetration of internet.

 Improved broadband services.

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Segmenting, Targeting & Positioning of Info Edge India Limited:
Segmenting:

 Internet users looking for a job portal.

Targeting:

 Internet users searching for better career opportunities.

Positioning:

 Naukri.com is positioned as a leading job portal in India with highest

magnitude of database available.

Competitors of Info Edge India Limited:

There are main five competitors currently in market who can be burden in the
growth of the company and they are;

 Monster
 Timesjobs
 JobSitesIndia
 Shine
 IIMJobs
 Magic Bricks.
 Shadi.com

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Upcoming Strategies:
In 2006, when Info Edge India was planning an initial public offering (IPO), its
founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani was told by many that the price he was seeking
for the shares was way too high. Bikhchandani had fixed this at Rs 320 per share,
which translated into a trailing price-earning (P/E) multiple of 52.6. A far better
established Infosys, in comparison, commanded a P/E of 41.71 at the time.
Bikhchandani, however, went ahead.
The market response showed that if anything, Bikhchandani had undervalued his
own company. Within about 20 minutes of its listing, Info Edge's stock price
touched Rs 623.8 apiece before climbing further to Rs 1,688 apiece in just over
an year, reaching a P/E of 102.2. "I was told that I was being aggressive. It was
very hard to predict where the stock would go because we were new to stock
markets. But maybe we under estimate it," he says.

But today, eight years later, with Info Edge's price trading at Rs 547.85 on April
11 (the company has awarded share bonuses twice), things are very different. The
company's growth has hit a brick wall, largely due to the economic slowdown,
which in turn has badly affected its flagship online recruitment business,
Naukri.com.

Hiring is down, and so is Naukri. According to a Manpower India employment

outlook survey, the hiring forecast was weakest in India among Asia-Pacific
region in the past eight years in 2013. Naukri growth has been stunted over the
past seven quarters - up from Rs 83 crore in first quarter of 2012/13 to Rs 91 crore
in third quarter of 2013/14. Revenues for the first three quarters of 2013/14 are a
mere 9.27 per cent higher than that of the corresponding period of 2012/13. (See
Changing Mix). "The (Naukri) business is not growing as of now. When GDP
growth comes down, so does employment growth. As the economy bounces back,
so will Naukri," says Bikhchandani. Analysts broadly agree. "The naukri (jobs)
business is a function of several variables which have not been great for the past
few years," says Abhishek Shindadkar, analyst at ICICI Securities.
Naukri's fate has had Info Edge looking for newer avenues of growth. In fact, the
company has 14 businesses in all, of which eight are internal and rest, investments
in other companies. Among its own businesses are the online real-estate site,
99acres.com, the online matrimonial site, Jeevansathi.com, and the education site,
Shiksha.com. Its investments are in digital companies - Zomato, Meritnation,
Mydala, PolicyBazaar and Canvera.

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Info Edge's second biggest business, with over Rs 85 crore in revenues, is
99acres. This company ties up with brokers and developers to list their properties
on its site. It already has the largest number of listings among online sites, about
600,000 - its closest competitor MagicBricks has 500,000. Around 15,000
brokers and 3,000 developers are associated with 99acres. The offline real estate
advertising market at present is roughly Rs 3,000 crore, according to Info Edge
sources, while online is around Rs 250 crore, or less than 10 per cent. "But with
user awareness increasing, the market is moving from offline to online. The task
is to take this 10 per cent to 30-40 per cent in the next few years," says Hitesh
Oberoi, CEO and Managing Director, Info Edge. Oberoi took over from
Bikhchandani about four years ago so the latter could concentrate on external
investments.

99acres has adopted a five-fold strategy: increase the number of property listings
on its site along with quality data, invest heavily in products and technology,
increase branding and promotion, focus on mobile, and above all, expand the
sales teams' outreach. Here, Bikhchandani is trying to replicate Naukri's success
model. In its initial years, Naukri was highly sales-driven, with a large sales staff
in around 20 major cities which aggressively wooed recruitment consultants and
headhunters, explaining to them the benefits of online - as against conventional
offline - recruitment: lower costs, wider reach. They often helped consultants set
up their IT infrastructure. 99acres is going the same way, with a staff strength of
800 of which more than 500 are in sales. "In the past two years, we have doubled
our 99acres staff," says Oberoi.

The focus on mobile can be seen in the mobile app 99acres launched last month,
three years after introducing a mobile-only website. Its current traffic share from
mobile is 24 per cent. "There's fair bit of evangelisation that needs to be done
with brokers," says Bikhchandani. "As we go down the broker value chain, we
find that there are some who are not computer-savvy. But with smartphones
proliferating and our app being put up, we are in an advantageous position."

27
Unlike Naukri and 99acres, which are in the forefront of their respective
segments, matrimony site Jeevansathi.com is at No. 3, behind BharatMatrimony
and Shaadi.com. As at other such sites, registration is free, but to contact others
who are also registered, paid membership is required. The company is trying hard
to increase the conversion rate - from free to paid, and currently at 10 per cent -
to turn profitable. Since this is a person-to-person affair with minimal interference
from the sales team, the conversion rate is low. "We are planning to take the
conversion rate to 12-14 per cent through predictive analysis," says
Bikhchandani. "Once we do that, we will start making money."

Shiksha.com, which provides online education information, makes money

through listings and generating leads for educational institutions. "The idea
behind Shiksha is the same as 99acres," says Oberoi. "Education is the second
largest advertising category in print after real estate, some Rs 2,000 crore. Info
Edge wants to capture this market."

Among the companies Info Edge has invested in (see Spreading Web), online
restaurant guide Zomato.com remains the most promising bet. Info Edge has put
in Rs 143 crore in five rounds, the most recent tranche in last November when
Zomato was valued at Rs 1,000 crore. Bikhchandani says the thought of investing
in other companies came to him around 2008 as the core business was generating
plenty of cash. "We were already in four verticals - jobs, matrimony, education
and realty. We didn't want to run a fifth internally because we wanted to get at
least one of the businesses right (apart from Naukri). At the same time, there are
opportunities out there," Oberoi adds.

Still, among all the businesses of Info Edge, including the investee companies,
only Naukri is profitable so far. It is generating all the cash that is funding the
other businesses. Analysts, however, agree that the focus on the non-employment
companies is the right track. According to an Ambit Capital report, Overblown
Hopes, published this January, "the standalone non-recruitment business (of Info
Edge) has increased by more than 30 per cent year-on-year in each of the last six
quarters, particularly led by 99acres. We expect continued growth momentum...
Info Edge will need to increase its investment in the businesses to maintain its
market share."

28
While Oberoi holds the fort, Bikchandani today is entirely focused on external
investments, meeting two or three company heads almost every day. He has met
close to 400 of them to make his nine investments so far. Three of them, worth
Rs 35.6 crore, did not turn out well and Info Edge has written them off. "Six out
of nine is a pretty good hit rate in the venture capital business. All six are not
successes yet, but it looks like they are moving in the right direction," says
Bikchandani.

What sort of future does he see? Bikhchandani says five years from now he wants
to see four or five of his businesses - either owned fully or substantially - to have
a billion-dollar market capital each if they were to list on the stock exchange.

It seems like a tall order because Info Edge itself is currently valued at just over
$1 billion. Rivals certainly have a very different view. "Growth rate in the
property business has slowed of late. Transactions have fallen due to market
conditions," says Vivek Madhukar, COO, Times Business Solutions, a direct
competitor to Info Edge in the recruitment (TimesJobs), real estate (MagicBricks)
and matrimony (SimplyMarry) segments. In the matrimonial category, which is
already stitched up between BharatMatrimony and Shaadi, Madhukar adds: "It
will be very difficult for a third player to break into that league without a highly
differentiated product."

Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO, Institutional Equities at Ambit Capital says Info Edge
has done a good job of investing its money - around Rs 450 crore - judiciously.
But he has some reservations too. "Zomato is a market leader but tomorrow, if a
global giant like TripAdvisor focuses on the Indian restaurant business, Zomato
will struggle. Besides, apart from 99acres and Zomato, success stories will be
difficult to find," he says.

29
 Findings

 Info Edge India Limited has a perfect vertical combination.

 Naukri.com is the most profitable vertical of Info Edge.
 The company is going to grow or expand the business in more geographical
areas.
 Most of the manpower in Info Edge is with Naukri.com.
 Naukri is the most dominant vertical in Info Edge.
 This company has the biggest database.
 Many new competitors are coming into market.
 The company has a very sound goodwill.

30
 Recommendations
 The company is popular because of sound database so it should be kept
efficiently.
 The position of the company majorly depends on the one performing
vertical, they can try to grow other verticals too.
 The company has high attrition rate; strict measures should be taken
against this.
 The company has many potential competitors so it should make its
strategies to be on the safe side.
 The management can trigger up the two slow moving verticals i.e. Jeevan
Sathi & Shiksha so that the whole group can grow faster.

31
 Conclusion

After all analysis and interpretation, the conclusion can be made that Info Edge
India Limited is going well with the planned strategies. Two of the main verticals
i.e. Naukri which is a job portal and 99acres which is a real estate related portal
are designed in a way to perform efficiently and they are actually doing well, but
the other two verticals are not that much sound currently. It is having a good
market share with an impressive quality of consumer reviews, and one of the
verticals is leading brand in its sector that Naukri. The future plans and strategies
of investing a good amount in business to grow, are planned really well and ready
to execute. With presence in more than 1000 cities now the company is planning
to expand further. Lastly it can be said that, although there are some loopholes
but still Quikr India Private Limited is on its growing path.

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 Bibliography

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
 https://jobbuzz.timesjobs.com/company
 https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privca
pId=28803068
 https://www.owler.com/company
 https://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews
 https://www.zaubacorp.com/company/
 https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Reviews/India-Reviews-E502035.htm
 https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/cover-story/e-commerce-online-
classified-market/story/218863.html
 https://www.indeed.co.in/cmp/Info-Edge-Ltd/reviews
 https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Reviews/Info-Edge-India-Operations-
Executive-Reviews-EI_IE502035.0,11_KO12,32.htm
 https://www.owler.com/company/info-edge
 https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/it-technology
 https://www.medianama.com/2015/04/223-info-edge-to-enter-the-highly-
competitive-online-real-estate-segment-good-idea/
 http://www.infoedge.in/
 http://www.infoedge.in/corporate-overview.asp

Books:

 Marketing Management by Philip Kotler.

 Principles of Marketing by Prof. Kabita Sharma.

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