Online Matchmaking

The business of online matchmaking

Online matchmaking might be a moneymaking business, but is faced with the greatest problem—managing customer expectations. This becomes harder because the ‘product’ that portals are dealing with is the hopes and expectations of people who are advertising

The business model

The business model of online matrimonial sites is very straightforward: Create a large database where individuals post their details, including ideas on preferred partners. Individuals may also be able to search online through the database to find and screen suitable matches and then contact them. While searching is generally open to public and is free, portals generally require a subscription or membership if one wishes to contact a person listed in the database. The subscription fee ranges from $10 for a “basic” membership to hundreds of dollars depending on the services being provided. Most Indian portals surveyed charged anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and there are some sites like www.SuperShaadi.com which are just FREE, where you can write personalized email also without paying anything. The subscription fee model is a huge revenue-spinner for portals if one were to consider the fact that most portals claim to have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Competitive landscape
If the online matrimonial business model were as straightforward as I have made it sound, thousands of entrepreneurs would be jumping in to rake in the big bucks, right?

Very recently we have seen one site called www.SuperShaadi.com , which is providing all the services just free of cost. Their business model is quiet interesting. On SuperShaadi.com you can register your profile free of cost and you can write an personalized email too, if the other member accepts your initial contact. It’s very interesting and secure also. I could not understand their business model and how they are making money from that.

Well, the challenge most portals face is from the human angle—managing customer expectations. Though most of these websites have automated registration and payment processes, they try to build manual checks and balances. Says Muruga of Bharat Matrimony: “Ours is a technology driven company but we manually authorise the profiles to make sure the profiles are genuine.” Sure, you want to make sure that the Sridevi or Amir’s profile you are looking at does not have the actor’s picture next to it; that is, Amir is an architect based in Boston, not Amir Khan from Bollywood.


Managing customer expectations becomes harder because the “product” or “commodity” that portals are dealing with is the hopes and expectations of individuals. Also, individuals have a wider choice when it comes to online and offline advertising, and posting one’s details on the Internet is just one of the several medium available. The big players in this market—including BharatMatimony.com and Shaadi.com—have cornered a niche for themselves in the cyber world, ranking high in search engines. BharatMatrimony.Com also has an alliance with MSN.Com so all Indian Hotmail users see ads and text links of this website whenever they login to their Hotmail account. They also have huge advertising budgets, given that ads for matrimonial portals regularly appear in TV, radio and print. Alongside, the traditional avenues for matrimonial advertisements—newspaper classifieds, continue to eat into the overall market share. Interestingly, most newspapers also post their print adverts free in their online editions, further competing with pure-play online portals. Large portals also have sub-portals catering to different ethnic sub segments of the society; for instance, the BharatMatrimony is actually an umbrella of 14 matrimonial websites based on the major Indian languages.

Lower barriers to entry have lead to intense competition in this space, especially because of the number of players who have jumped the bandwagon.


Steps to make a success story !! If you're going to take the time to come up with a resolution for the new year ahead, why not make it a serious commitment? Treat it like a real goal that you plan to achieve. Make sure you are Realistic about the GoalThe reason many goals are not achieved is because they are unrealistic. If you are currently earning $40,000 per year, with no savings, and you want to be a millionaire within the next 12 months, you may be setting yourself up to fail. Lottery should not be a part of your goal setting as you have very little control over winning money. Your goals should be ambitious enough to get you out your comfort zone, but realistic enough to be achievable. Get Clear about your GoalWrite your goal down in detail with time frames and specific numbers or objectives. If you want to lose weight this year, your goal could be to lose a set number of kilos of pounds each month, with a total to be lost before the end of 2007. Or you may choose to increase sales by 50% for the year. Set Mini GoalsRather than just focusing on one major goal like saving 20 percent of a home loan for a deposit, have mini goals that are regularly achieved. If you have set yourself 12 months to save $12,000 your goal could be to save $1000 each month. Which means your one goal of $12,000 should be divided into 12 mini goals of $1000. Be CommittedUnderstand that if your goal or resolution is even slightly ambitious, it will take time, possibly money, dedication, persistence, and a lot of commitment. It may require further education, more work, risk, and a lot of sacrifice on your part. If you are serious about achieving your new year's resolution for 2007 it is worth taking the extra time necessary to get clear about what your resolution is and how it will be achieved. Don't be flippant about the next 12 months and use it to achieve something worthwhile. Some of the most common new years resolutions will be to lose weight, save more money, get out of debt, improve education, find a better job, join the gym, quit smoking, and to spend more time with the family. A lot of these changes will take a lot of commitment and dedication to achieve. Sanjay TiwariNew Delhi, India------------------------- Are you still single and looking for?If yes, then register your profile on www.SuperShaadi.com.www.SuperShaadi.com a 100% FREE site including personalized email messages without paying anything. You can find hundreads of single from your area and from your community. register, Search and send email on www.SuperShaadi.com just for FREE !!!