Netting gains remain an online dream

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: Rs 30 lakh is all one needs to float in the virtual world, and if the marriage business doesn’t work, one can use it to sell something else. This makes sense. A survey conducted by Synovate for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions across 10 markets in Asia corroborated that portals are the second-most used resource on the Internet (55%), followed by search engines (44%) and product review websites (41%).

Despite promising macro numbers, marriage portals are struggling as they bring together individuals whose capacity to pay for the service is quite limited, especially in smaller towns where Internet is expected to grow the most.

Job portals, however, have fared relatively better since recruiters are ready to dole out a few extra bucks for using the online platform for headhunting. Experts say that broadly, matrimony is not related to growth of the economy unlike jobs and real estate. The Internet and Mobile Association of India estimates that the number of online job seekers has crossed 9.2 million in 2006-07, with the market size of the Indian online recruitment industry touching Rs 241 crore.

Matrimonial and job portals are growing at 50-100%. But real estate portals are the fastest growing at about 200%, although on a small base. Aided by advertising campaigns, portals like 99acres.com and magicbricks.com have significantly increased their visibility over the last few months. To cash in on the real estate boom, a host of other portals have also mushroomed, promising to serve as a one-stop platform for property buyers and sellers.

The online travel industry is the largest contributor to the B2C e-commerce industry, worth Rs 5,500 crore in 2006-07. It is expected to have risen to Rs 7,000 crore by the end of 2007-08 owing mainly to the entry of low-cost carriers. But, the biggest issue facing this industry is the limited penetration of credit cards, coupled with consumer apprehensions towards using plastic money online.

Most of the portals are focusing on youth since the young form a major chunk of the growing Internet user base in India. There has been an unexpected decrease in Internet use by older men and non-working women. This may be due to a lack of sticky applications for this segment and greater growth rates of other segments clouding growth in this market.