Classifieds websites, once the backbone of India’s internet sector and a magnet for investors, are increasingly finding it to protect their turf from the incursions of ever more powerful social media networks such as Meta.
“Our real competition in real estate is actually not the other portals,” said Hitesh Oberoi, CEO of Info Edge, which operates a clutch of classifieds websites such as Naukri.com, 99acres.com and Jeevansathi.com.
“It's actually players like Facebook and Google who get a large chunk of the real estate advertising spend,” Oberoi said, commenting on Info Edge’s second-quarter results to analysts and investors.
These websites, including the likes of Shaadi.com and BharatiMatrimony.com, came into existence in the late 90s, before the dot-com bubble, and emerged as one of the few successful Internet-based businesses in India.
Nakuri has over 54 million CVs registered constituting 64% of the traffic share. Its parent company Info Edge reported a 4% increase in its revenue to Rs 626 crore in the September quarter amid weak growth of the billings of its flagship recruitment platform Naukri.
However, increasingly, the new generation prefers to spend more and more of their time on social media apps and networks, giving an edge to these networks as far as pushing classified ads is concerned.
Meta has been the most aggressive of these companies and launched several initiatives in this direction, including Facebook Market Place. LinkedIn has emerged as a formidable rival to Naukri.com, particularly given that it has ‘freemium’ model in which the user can have a basic listing for free, and pays for more advanced features.
In the case of Meta, the Market Place is not estimated to contribute substantially to the company’s revenues in India – given that it is a free service – but it is popular enough to hurt the revenue of established classifieds websites such as Naukri.com, and the usage of players such as OLX and Quikr.
Another player that has found its growth under threat is 99acres, the real estate listing service from Info Edge.
Oberoi was confident that the 99-acre platform could be a game-changer in the real estate market once it sets up a few things in place.
“If we get our products right and execute well, digital space can take away the offline share and even within digital, we can take share away from Facebook and Google," Oberoi said.
“We have a few ideas we're working on. We are trying to execute a lot better than we were executing earlier,” he added.
Speaking on demand, Oberoi said that the real estate market is finally seeing an uptick after being in a period of slump for the last eight years and added that the next three years will be a crucial period for the real estate business.
“Everybody sees a big opportunity in the medium term in real estate. It's come back after a long time. Everybody's trying, we're also trying, but I think, if you ask me, I think it's a little more rational than it was last year,” Oberoi said.