Matrimony.com to dial down on wedding services, grow match-making business

One reason for the reluctance to expand could be the simple fact that Matrimony.com’s non-core businesses contribute just five percent to the company's annual revenues, which stood at Rs 335 crore in FY19. But Murugavel isn’t denying that there is potential to be bigger and better. “As we progress, that contribution could even be thousands of crores, because the market opportunity is in billions of dollars,” he said, “But you have to get the model right before you aspire for this."

The company expects its Wedding Services vertical to register anywhere between 50 and 100 percent growth in FY20, on account of the smaller magnitude of business done.

With the growth in the Wedding Services vertical on auto-pilot and localized to South India, the company is now training its sights on expanding market share in the online match-making space, from 60 percent to 80 percent, in the medium-to-long term. This, even as it hopes to capitalise on a wedding market in India that’s valued at over $50 billion, with an estimated 10 to 12 million weddings happening every year.

The fact that merely 10 percent of all Indian weddings see their matches occur online, there’s still a large chunk of the pie that is up for grabs. Matrimony.com isn’t backing down.

“While there are around 10 to 12 million weddings that take place every year in India, 60 million people are looking for a life partner at any point in time,” said Murugavel, “While I don't expect all 60 million people to come online, we can reach over 30 million people. So, our 6-7 million customers could see a five-fold growth in the online matchmaking business.”

In keeping with this estimate, Matrimony.com expects to add a million profiles, every quarter in FY20. The company has credited the healthy growth in new profiles, to better smartphone penetration and a healthy internet ecosystem. "We are expecting a 4 million profile registrations this year, and the next year could see profile acquisitions at 5 million or more," said Murugavel.