RAHUL SINGH MBA 2019-103

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Industry to which BharatMatrimony belongs:
Indian Matchmaking & Wedding Services Industry
Opportunities and Threats for this industry:
Opportunities:
1. India’s wedding services and planning industry stands at 9575 Mn. As disposable income rises,
it is expected that the wedding spend will also increase in time to come. As per Statista report
GDP per capita is expected to reach US$ 3000 by 2022.
2. The Indian wedding market is growing at 25-30% annually, half of India’s population being
under 29 years of age, the marriage market is set to boom like never before over the next five
to ten years. The revenues from NRI customers are also likely to expand by 2.5 times by 2022.
3. India is one of the biggest and fastest-growing digital markets in the world today has around
1.2 Bn mobile subscriptions and 560 Mn internet subscriptions as of September 2018.
In 2018, about 29% of the country's total population were mobile internet users, and this was
expected to grow to over 35% or approximately 500 million users by 2023. All of this together
constitutes a large number of people who are coming into the digital space and thus a huge
market for online wedding services platforms like Matrimony bazaar.
4. The online matchmaking industry is still at a nascent stage and accounts for approximately
6.00% of marriages in India. The online matchmaking industry in India is also a very
fragmented market with thousands of wedding portals, only a handful of players of which
have some scale. Thus it’s a big opportunity for Matrimony.com to leverage its strong
consumer brand reputation and market leadership to offer the best services in segment.
Threats:
1. Cyber Frauds: With online matchmaking getting popular in the country, an increasing number
of cyber duping cases are a matter of huge concern as it damages the brand reputation and
consumers become aversive to using the platform.
2. COVID19 Situation: Due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, the ever-growing Indian wedding
market now comes to a halt as there is now a behavioral shift towards people spending on
weddings in the family, and Matrimony.com has to keep a tab of those behavioral changes to
customize its offerings in this new normal situation.
3. Dating Apps: With the advent of dating applications like Tinder, OkCupid, and TrulyMadly, etc.
a lot of users are taking a shine to these new-age apps and their opinion towards weddings is
also changing.

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Firm concentration ratio:

Firm Sales (in Mn)

Matrimony.com 113.9

Wedmegood 65.1

Shaadidukaan 13.6

ShaadiSaga 19.1

Total sales 211.6 Mn

Total Wedding planning & services industry 9575 Mn

sales

4 Firm concentration percentage 2.20 %

A ratio in the range of 0 percent to 50 percent is considered to have a low concentration and be
competitive. Thus the wedding planning and services industry is highly competitive as it has a
concentration of 2.20%

Market Share:
With 60% of the market share and 135 outlets across India, Matrimony.com has a sizeable chunk of
the matchmaking business in India, followed closely by its top rivals like Shaadi.com and
Jeevansathi.com
Porter’s 5 forces:
1. Competitive rivalry:
Indian wedding planning industry is moderately competitive as there are a lot of players (big
& small) catering to customers with its unique offerings. The majority of the players are
concentrated towards the North region compared to the South. Thus for MatrimonyBazaar,
the competitive rivalry is low in the South Region. Also, it has an advantage of the strong brand
presence of its matchmaking platform i.e. BharatMatrimony
2. Buyers bargaining power:
It is High because Indian Parents across all cities Tier 1 & Tier 2 as per MatrimonyBazaar
market research are highly averse towards using online wedding platforms because of trust &
quality issues and thus if they don’t get a quality service from an online platform they are not
going to use the platform and also ask their friends and families to avoid the platform. This

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type of negative word of mouth marketing will harm the wedding platforms and they will lose
potential customers.

3. Threat from substitutes:

Substitutes in this space are traditional wedding vendors who operate on their own and don’t
rely on wedding platforms for getting new business and the threat from them is low.
Online wedding platforms have an unmatched nationwide brand presence, Technological
expertise, and capital to reach out to millions of customers through targeted marketing &
advertising compared to the traditional wedding vendors.
4. Suppliers bargaining Power:
It is high because the suppliers in this industry are basically the wedding vendors for categories
such as Venue, catering, decoration, etc. and if the online platforms don’t provide them with
good business opportunities then they are not going to stay on to the platform.
This will ultimately harm the wedding platforms as they won’t be able to meet the demand of
Indian parents for availing wedding services. There will be a synchronization issue between
demand and supply.
5. Threat of new entrants to the Industry:
Due to already existing heavy competition in wedding planning space and slim profit margins,
there have been no new entrants in the industry in recent years as it requires significant
investment in terms of Technological setup, huge Marketing & Advertising spends, customer
& vendor acquisitions, etc. Thus the threat of new entrants to the industry is moderate.

COMPANY ANALYSIS
Type of Organization:
Public Limited
Source of financial information:
Matrimony.com Ltd. Annual report 2019
Company size:
1. Market Capitalization: 8.72 Bn Rs.
2. Turnover: 3.5 Bn Rs.
3. Gross Fixed Assets: 72.5 Mn Rs.
4. Number of Employees: 4000+

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Financial Analysis:
Revenue Revenue FY 2019-20 (Rs. lakhs) EBITDA FY 2019-20 (Rs. lakhs)
Matchmaking Services 36,044.35 8,421.52
Marriage Services 1,139.18 (1,699.37)

• Marriage services accounts to only 3.06% of overall revenue of Matrimony.com

• Also it has a negative EBITDA, and the vertical is loss making.
Since Matrimony.com doesn’t publish its wedding services business vertical financial data separately
in its annual report, detailed financial analysis of this vertical couldn’t be done.
Also, all its competitors are privately listed companies thus, their financial performance data was not
available for analysis.
Opportunities:
1. Convenience/outsourcing: Indian weddings are highly elaborate, personalized & tailored,
thus requires significant effort & time from the family and community of the marrying couple.
So there is a huge opportunity in the outsourcing & planning of weddings and online wedding
platforms can tap that market.
2. Rising disposable incomes: Indians prefer to spend a large part of their income & savings on
the wedding of their children. Also as the disposable income rises, it is expected that wedding
spend will also increase in time to come and online wedding platforms can create a value to
cater to Indian parent’s needs & preferences.

Threats:
1. Local Networks: About 30% of Indian parents prefer to take wedding services through
traditional local networks that are recommended by family and friends because of established
trust. Online wedding platforms need to win the trust of Indian parents and ensure quality
delivery of services.
2. Behavioral Change: Pandemic situation like CORONA has effected the big fat Indian wedding
industry and there have been up to 55-70% postponements or cancellations of weddings
across the country. Also, Govt. mandates and restrictions have led to smaller weddings, and
people are slowly going for intimate weddings, thus online platforms have to rethink their
offerings and try to cater to the changing mindset of the consumer.

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT:
Title of the project as per the organization:
Stakeholder research, Competitive Landscape & Business Model Strategy for “Wedding Services”
Business unit of Matrimony.com
A sensible title of your project that conveys to the layman what the project is about:
Analysis of competition in the wedding services industry, to reshape/redefine the existing business
model of Matrimonybazaar and Mandap platforms for Matrimony.com

My project objectives were related to the company’s balance scorecard as below:

Financial Perspective Learning & Growth

● Financial Result & Growth
1. Since wedding services business was
operating at a loss, the objective was to
improve the financial position and
make the business profitable
● Proper Revenue mix
1. The other objective was to identify
business opportunities that were more
likely to grow and add to the overall
revenue of the firm.
● Proper Knowledge management and
strategic information to all
1. The project involved the sharing of data
inputs and insight with all the business
functions such as product, marketing,
social media so that all work in
cohesion with the same strategy.

Customers Internal Business process

● Increased customer satisfaction & ● Proper CRM
loyalty 1. The project emphasized better CRM
1. The wedding services business is very implementation to generate more
competitive and customers switching business.
cost is low, thus my project was to
study the customer preferences &
expectations in detail so to improve
overall satisfaction & loyalty.

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2. Customer preferences & expectations

were gauged through both Quantitative
& Qualitative research

● Increased sales revenue per customer

1. My project objective was to identify the
target customer and increase the user
retention time on the platform by
providing them with unique offerings
and thus to improve sales revenue per
customer

● Competitive pricing & product offering

1. The other objective was to offer
services at competitive prices and
diversify the product and services for
the customer as per the changing
industry landscape.
2. Identify customer needs and
understand their pain points wrt.
discovery, decision making & fulfilment

Currently, Wedding services business vertical of Matrimony.com is making losses over the years and
the project objectives are to study the preferences of Indian consumers towards weddings, so that
appropriate strategy could be formulated to make the overall business vertical profitable.

Deliverables for your project:

● Analyzing competitive landscape in terms of Market Entry, Financial position, Customer
offerings, Value proposition & Segmentation,
● Analyzing the Product & Pricing Strategy.

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● A detailed study of consumer preferences & expectations towards online wedding platforms
through Market Survey.
● Developing an in-house Market survey tool by collaborating with IT Team
● Launch of the Market survey across geographies through an email campaign.

Measures of performance for your project:

● Timely Completion: My project was completed within the designated time frame of 2 Months.
● Quality of Work & Satisfaction: My mentor was satisfied with my overall performance and
provided me with the opportunity to give my final presentation to the company CEO.
● Feedback received from CBO Mr. Suresh V at Matrimony.com for my work-

It was our pleasure working with you.

You have done an excellent job and have shown loads of commitment and maturity during the entire
internship. Best Wishes to you for a rewarding career and life ahead !!
Will be more than happy to give good references to you in your future career endeavors!!

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Time taken from start of SIP to start of your project vs total duration of the SIP:
● Time taken for the project to start from the starting date of SIP = 2 days
● The total duration of the SIP = 60 days

Clarity of expectations from the organization:

● Frequent Update: It was expected of me to regularly update my mentors and domain experts
about my work progress.
● Ownership & End to end Execution: It was expected of me to take complete ownership of the
task and execute it fully across different functions.
● Collaboration: It was expected of me to collaborate with all the departments of the wedding
services business unit such as Product, IT, Marketing & Social Media.

Accessibility of your guide (in the organization) to you:

My guide was easily accessible through phone, emails, and WhatsApp group.

Frequency and duration of your interactions with your guide.

Bi-Weekly interactions were done through Webex/Zoom Meetings to share updates on progress and
understand the next objectives.

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Extent of your achievement of goals of your project.

● Timely completion of the project deliverables.
● Design & development of an in-house survey tool in 4 days (generally takes 2 weeks). This
survey tool would be beneficial to the company for future market research projects.
● Market survey questionnaires were accepted in one go.
● Opportunity to present my final work to the senior management and CEO of the company.

Learning
Knowledge about the domain
1. The online wedding planning & services industry is very fragmented and unorganized,
presenting a potential opportunity for an organized aggregator to provide these services.
2. Wedding Services & Planning is a growing market segment and all players have seen an
increase in overall revenues.
3. Despite seeing increased growth in revenues, online wedding platforms have not been
profitable. This is primarily due to the expansion of the business portfolio by venturing into
new categories and newer markets.
4. Also, players in this segment require huge investments (i.e. Marketing & Advt. , New Office &
Rent & Technology) to scale up and offer a unique value proposition to customers.
5. Value proposition for all is Discovery, Quality service, Trustworthiness, Time savings, Cost
savings & One stop shop.
6. All the players in the segment are primarily into the North Region with a focus on cities such
as Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Goa Kolkata, Jaipur & Ahmedabad.
7. Customer App is a must-have in this space to engage customers on the platforms. All players
actively promote their customer apps. Vendor App is required to enable vendors to manage
their listings and do business with ease.
8. Daily/Monthly active users, Open Rate, Sessions/user & Time spent/user are a few critical
parameters for both website & app that signify the success of the platform in terms of
engagement and building the traffic.
9. Quality content in terms of Blogs/Pictures/Stories leads to customers spending more time on
the platform.
10. Social Media presence is extremely important to compete in this space and a lot of new
customers are targeted through this medium. Pinterest seems to be the most effective
medium for engaging with customers followed by Instagram & Facebook

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Information about the domain

1. Parents, Relatives, and friends are involved a lot in wedding planning and thus it is important
for online platforms to keep them still involved in the wedding planning process but in the
digital medium.
2. Traditional wedding vendors are mostly preferred for wedding services in the family as they
are the most trusted compared to online platforms and their services have been used earlier
in the families. Online wedding platforms are preferred by only 3-4% of the population.
3. The Venue, Catering, Wedding Clothes, Photography & Jewellery are top categories where
most of the wedding budget is spent.
4. People who have higher wedding budgets are averse to using online wedding platforms for
their wedding needs.
5. Vendor Discovery, Trusted vendor Support & Discounts are the major expectations of people
from online wedding platforms.
6. Advisor help for categories such as Venue, Catering & Photography
7. Region-wise wedding spends are as follows: North > South > West > East
8. East & North take more time in wedding planning compared to South & West

Functional know-how:
Competition Analysis, Stakeholder Management, Market Research, Product development &
Management.
Skills - Technical:
Tableau, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint
Skills - People related:
Presentation Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration & Team Bonding skills

INTELLIGENCE
Which other colleges do this organization recruit MBAs from:
Great Lakes, Indian School of Business
Which other colleges does this organization take interns from:
None (This was their first year of internship program)
What job profiles are available in this organization for MBAs:
Product Manager, Data Science Manager

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FEEDBACK
To the organization – what they should do to improve their value obtained from SIP.
Matrimony.com should offer internship opportunities in other domains as well such as Data Science,
Social Media Marketing, Operations & Product development so that they can get all-round
perspectives & ideas from young management students which will eventually help them to shape the
online wedding platform in all the areas collectively. Live Project opportunities for management
students can also be explored.

To yourself – if you could go back in time

To the first year, what would do you differently for a better SIP experience?
Subjects like Market research and Strategy are also extremely important while working on projects
involving new business models, so I would have paid extra attention to them. I would have also worked
more on my communication & presentation skills as these are crucial elements when working with
teams from varied backgrounds. Taking ownership of the task and committing towards its quality
execution is also very important, and I would have certainly improved upon those areas.

To the start of the SIP, what would do you differently for a better SIP experience?
I would not hesitate in asking questions to my seniors and would also try to understand the reason
behind a particular strategy & approach. It’s also important to ask for feedback so that the efforts are
aligned towards organizational goals & objectives, and I would gather as much feedback as possible.

To IFMR GSB
What should we teach you which is currently not being taught in 1st year?
Excel Course could be more extensive as it is highly useful in our internships. Visualization Softwares
such as Tableau, Power BI are also useful for presentations in terms of charts & graphs.
1.5 credit Course offerings for these subjects can be offered.

What changes should we make to the process we follow while placing students for SIP?
IFMR GSB should ask its students soon after 1st Semester on what roles they are actually looking for
summer internships so that companies offering those roles could be tapped early. There are certain
roles for which students are actually interested such as Product Management, Business Strategy, Data
Analytics apart from the traditional Marketing & Finance roles.

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