‘The purpose of Matrimony.com is to build a better Bharat with happy marriages’

Matrimony.com Ltd is India's leading internet conglomerate that manages marquee brands such as BharatMatrimony CommunityMatrimony, EliteMatrimony and Mandap.com, each of which has its own success story. 

Matrimony’s founder and CEO Murugavel Janakiraman was working as a techie in the US in the nineties when he created a website in his free time just to connect Tamil People living outside India. 

When the IT-boom burst, Jankiraman lost his job and was forced to return to India. 

His matrimony website, which he started as a passion in 2001 by investing $10 per month, became his full-time profession in 2004. Two decades down the line, Matrimony.com with Rs 2,300 market capital touches the lives of nearly five millions worldwide powered by a regional network of portals in 17 languages. It was India's first pure play Consumer Internet Company to get listed. 

The internet conglomerate provides both matchmaking and marriage related services through websites, mobile sites, mobile apps and by 130+ company-owned retail outlets. The group has over 300 community and religion-based sites under the brand communitymatrimony.com including christianmatrimony.com, muslimmatrimony.com. 

e4m caught up with Murugavel Janakiraman to understand how he overcame initial challenges and emerged as a market leader, how online match-making has changed over the last 20 years, how has pandemic affected the matchmaking business and his plans for expansion.

Excerpts from the interview:

You were working in the IT sector in the United states in the nineties. Then how and when did the idea of Matrimony take shape?

I was working as a consultant in the IT sector in the US in the late nineties. At that time, there was a frenzy about e-commerce and community portals. I was very good at programming skills and at the same time the entrepreneur in me started showing its sign. I wanted to do something on my own. 

Since I came from Tamil Nadu, I thought of doing something for the Tamil community living outside India. I decided to start some online services for the community. Such was my passion that I worked as a consultant during the day, and in the evening and weekends I was working on the portal to offer services such as Tamil calendar, festival reminder, discussion forum and a matrimony section for the community. 

When I realized the popularity of the Tamil matrimony section, then I decided to launch a full-fledged website for matrimony in 2001. We floated Telugu, Marathi and other community websites as well by 2004 considering the demand. Bharat Matrimony became an umbrella organization to club all communities' matrimony. That’s when the dotcom bubble burst and thankfully, I was laid off. I returned to India in 2004 and since then there has been no looking back. 

I am an accidental entrepreneur. My journey started from no idea phase to an idea which became a passion and then the passion became my purpose. 

The purpose of Matrimony.com is to build a better Bharat with happy marriages. Good citizens make a good country. Good citizens come from good parenting, and good parenting comes from happy marriages.

What were your major challenges as an entrepreneur in the beginning including the funds part? 

Initially, I was investing just $10 per month on my website. I was earning $1,000 a month in the US that time. Later on, when I was laid off and returned to India, the website was able to generate funds as matrimony services were paid. The money I made was put back into the business, primarily into marketing. 

As a bootstrap organization, funding was a big challenge. From 2006 to 2008, I raised nearly 20 million dollars in two rounds. Almost all this money went into my new ventures that were floated as verticals. 

My major challenge was however hiring the talent. People were not ready to join my company because they didn’t want to be associated with what they call a “marriage bureau”. People didn’t realize that it is an IT company.  There were more such challenges such as getting experts to handle the business for various verticals. Tough situations and such challenges strengthened and shaped me.

When did you realize that your business is stabilized now? 

Most of my money was going into marketing and to find the bottlenecks and getting ahead. While we were settling in after getting two rounds of funds, the global recession struck in 2008. Year 2009, especially the nine months, was very critical for us. But we overcame that phase.

How has the Indian marriage market evolved over the past two decades? 

Two decades ago, parents were in the driving seat. Today, parents are in the passenger's seat. In the absence of online matrimony opportunities, most prospective grooms and brides used to be dependent on friends and relatives to get their life partners. Online matrimony has empowered women. Now, they are not restricted by the limited choices brought to them by their parents and relatives. Prospective brides and grooms have a diverse choice now. 

Meanwhile, India also progressed which has changed the way people look at life partners. Category (caste, city, state etc.) used to be the last thing which people looked at before. Now, it’s the first thing which people look at when they search for a life partner.

Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted many businesses. How has it brought changes in the online matrimony business, approach and strategy?   

The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption in India, especially video formats. While many businesses were impacted due to lockdown, online matrimony saw an upward swing. We noticed more people signed up for matchmaking during the first wave of the COVID due to increasing adoption of digital.  

We did launch video profile and video calling features as well as people are comfortable with interacting over video now. Many people who had deferred their marriage plans for a long time, decided to get married in the pandemic. 

How has the business of Mandap.com and WeddingBazaar affected in the third wave which came all of sudden?

The third wave so far has been a mild one compared to the two previous waves. The disruptions are temporary and might go away soon. Wedding management is anyway a very small part of our overall business. 

You are the largest player in the matchmaking segment with two main competitors Shadi.com and Jeevnasathi.com. Do you have any plans to acquire your competitors?

We cover nearly 60 per cent of the matchmaking space in the country. If there is any opportunity to acquire others, we will surely consider. But we have our own solid plans to grow in the category. We have constantly registered double-digit growth in the past four quarters.  That is not the case with other industry players. 

We would like to know your own marriage story. 

I was looking for a partner who was based in Chennai and had an engineering degree; someone 2-3 years younger to me. These were my preferences. However, I was clear that she must be from a good family and must be supportive of my entrepreneurship. 

My father-in-law had created a profile for her. My initial correspondence was with my father-in-law. 

My wife grew up in Gujarat although she is a Tamil, she is six-seven years younger to me. So, my preferences didn’t match but what I expected as must, I found. We have been happily married for 21 years.

What is the biggest deciding factor in matchmaking?

Mostly, men want a pleasant-looking girl from a good family and with good degrees while women look for financial stability in their groom although they also look for loving and caring nature in them. 

What are your plans for the expansion?

We have expanded our business in Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka. Through MuslimMatrimony.com we are reaching out to Muslim dominant countries like Malaysia. 

We consider ourselves as a global matchmaking business group. Although our wedding services are limited to India at present which is itself a huge wedding market.