Murugavel Janakiraman is the Founder and CEO BharatMatrimony.com launched the service in 1997. The company has been recognized by Limca Book of Records for record number of documented marriages online. Murugavel has also been honored by the Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 5 Asian Indian Businessmen in the United States (US) below the age of 35. He was also honored by the India Today Group as the “Business Icon of the Year” and “Udhyog Rattan” Award by Institute of Economic Studies. In an exclusive interview with India Digital Review, Murugavel Janakiraman shares the BharatMatrimony story and the company’s plans going forward.

In 1997, internet was a luxury in India. What was the idea behind relocating from US and launching BharatMatrimony at that point of time?

Internet changed with the ISP policy in 1998 that opened the doors to private ISPs.  My initial vision was small i.e., to build a simple website in my spare time targeted at the Tamil community that would include a forum and relevant news. I also added a small and very rudimentary matrimonial section that encouraged users to put up bride and groom profiles. The focus of the site shifted from a generic community portal to matrimonial, since that was the section that was gaining the most eyeballs and interest. More importantly, it was a niche that I could compete effectively in and be a leader in since there were no major competitors in the online matrimonial space at that time.

What were the initial challenges that you have faced while setting up BharatMatrimony? How did you convince your consumers in order to build trust and make online payments?

When I started, there was no clear business model in mind. I tried to spread the word about the site through emails to friends and relatives.  It took a full 30 months of dedication, hard work and sleepless nights before the world started taking notice of my efforts. Another huge challenge came up when, after 9/11, I lost my job as a consultant and had to weigh the risks of running a start-up full-time, with a family to look after and a house under construction. There was no clear revenue stream for the site to be sustainable. Being an engineer, I focused on building a feature-rich and useful product and had set aside little thought for anything related to balance sheets and income statements. But I was sold on the opportunities that the Internet offered. It was a great medium with immense possibilities. I was sure that I could leverage its strengths to provide a really useful service to help people find their life partners.

I had full faith in my service and self-financed the site, for which the upkeep costs were rapidly rising, from US$ 50/month to over hundreds of dollars. This was during the dot-com bubble era, when investors were throwing their cash at any product with a domain name but I didn’t see the need for external investments at that stage.

With the site gaining stability and traffic, I took the decision to start charging users for placing profiles, a move that brought about two major benefits: (a) BharatMatrimony became profitable and (b) the company was able to ensure quality in profile submissions, which was a result of users paying to set up their profiles. This, in turn, attracted more users to the site. Looking back, it was a bold move for a little-known site to start charging without marketing muscle or big traffic. Whatever revenues we garnered were ploughed back into the site to grow the business from the early days. We did not chase investors and focused on providing a useful service. Initially, we had to make the idea of online matrimony itself attractive and credible in India. Even among those who signed up, many were reluctant to post their photographs online.

Payment collections posed another set of problems. There were doubts in the minds of many people about making online payments. We were a very small team trying to overcome these roadblocks while at the same time working to provide a useful service. It was also very tough for a small company to attract much-needed talent that would help it to grow.

Our focus on technology and innovations paid off.  We faced another huge challenge during the recession in 2008. It was a period of uncertainty and a crisis was looming large for us. We had limited cash and the external factors were not at all favourable to us as the booming economy began to slow down. The investors were literally breathing down my neck and the time was running out for us. I had to make one of the most painful decisions of my entrepreneurial life when I had to rightsize the manpower and tighten the belt. Non-essential costs were trimmed or slashed completely and employees who were not critical to the operations were identified and informed about the rightsizing. I used to go round the company meeting the key leaders and their teams exhorting them to not lose hope and to stay focussed on the job at hand.

My focus was on keeping the spirit up across the company and urging the technology and product teams to come up with innovative products that offered opportunities for us during a lean period. Innovative services that we launched just as the market was coming out of the recession all proved to be huge successes and helped us ride the storm.

How has the scenario changed in the last 15 years?

The last 15 years was a period of explosive growth and success driven by innovations and pioneering products like EliteMatrimony and PrivilegeMatrimony as well as the retail outlets that have transformed the matrimony industry.  We were the first to segment the market because we believed that each segment is unique and requires a fresh approach. Some of the innovations from us that have transformed the matrimony business include:

EliteMatrimony:  A unique service for the truly elite customers comprising celebrities/who's who of society and the uber wealthy.  Currently, has a database of 150000+ registered profiles. It’s a totally new service for the wealthiest and most privileged Indians in the world and geared to meeting their special needs in terms of privacy, exclusivity and ultra premium benefits. Is the first such product in the matrimony market for this premium segment.

PrivilgeMatrimony.com: The first assisted-matchmaking services for busy professionals who do not have the time to do their own partner search and prefer to hire an expert to find suitable matches. PrivilegeMatrimony service introduced the concept of relationship managers in India. Customers of PrivilegeMatrimony are assigned an exclusive relationship manager who will spend time with the member understanding his or her needs and will help find suitable matches for the member.

Retail Operations: We have set up retail outlets in more than 160 locations across India. They have opened another channel to reach out to more customers. We have taken the benefits and convenience of online matrimony in an offline mode to reach out to millions of people in their neighborhoods!

Online Matrimony Meets: We have built the capability to conduct 100 matrimony meets in one day and at one time for different communities.  These meets enable all participants belonging to different communities to connect to prospects, chat live and find their perfect match.

International markets: SrilankanMatrimony.com, PakistaniMatrimony.com and BanglaMatrimony.com offer matrimonial services for our neighbours.  The new services have been designed and launched keeping in mind local tastes, needs, preferences and societal requirements. The high level of customization and understanding of local markets help us provide more value and benefits to our customers in these three markets.

After BharatMatrimony.com, you have launched IndiaProperty.com, ClickJobs.com, IndiaList.com etc, which didn’t do as well as the BharatMatrimony. Do you reckon you lost it to the early movers? What are your plans for these businesses?

IndiaProperty is the leading real estate portal in India with a focus on new properties. It has over 2.5 million registered users and 600,000 listings. For builders, IndiaProperty offers ground-breaking innovations unlike any other on the web to reach a highly qualified, active and engaged audience. We have very big plans for IndiaProperty and also our other platforms.

What are your priorities at Consim Group right now?

We are going to focus on several areas including international business, retail centers and look at opportunities beyond match-making. My long-term vision is to build a better Bharat.  As an organization, we believe the future of a country depends on its citizens. Good citizens emerge out of good parenting. Good parenting can happen only in a good marriage. And we are the gateway to happy marriages.

Do we see Consim going for an IPO soon?

We will talk about it at the right time.

One good decision and one mistake that you have made in your entrepreneurial journey!

Our focuses on people, technology and innovations have paid off.  I have tried to learn from my mistakes.

What would be your suggestion to budding online entrepreneurs?

People starting out today need -an understanding of the market and the technologies, a positive attitude and a mindset to face challenges and criticism and Self-confidence and a strong will to succeed. One should try and do something innovative or customize the existing models to suit the Indian audience. One should ensure that a strong revenue model is in place.