Exclusive: comScore data on online jobs, matrimony, realty, auto

If the ad expenditure forecast by ZenithOptimedia is to be believed, online classifieds may well beat search and display advertising by 2009. The online classified market in India is dominated by jobs, matrimonial and real estate portals.

Internet companies such as Info Edge (Naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com), People Interactive (Shaadi.com, Astrolife.com, Makaan.com), Times Internet (Timesjobs.com, Simplymarry.com, Magicbricks.com) and the Bharat Matrimony Group (Bharatmatrimony.com, Indiaproperty.com, Clickjobs.com) are vying for the online classifieds pie in India. Now, agencyfaqs! has exclusive data on classifieds in India from comScore, the leading Internet research firm based in the US.

Jobs

However, Timesjobs has grown by 38 per cent in the six-month period, February-July 2007, while Naukri grew by 20 per cent. BharatMatrimony’s ClickJobs.com is the only jobs site that has declined – by 12 per cent. It has a smaller base and its unique visitors declined from 687,000 in February to 604,000 in July. In fact, the site did witness a surge in unique visitors during May when it had 1 million unique visitors, but that number quickly fell in the following two months.

A little-known career site called Winentrance.com, owned by Genuine Infotech Pvt. Ltd based in Tamil Nadu, has made it to the top five on comScore’s list. Not only that, the higher education career information site registered a growth of 153 per cent, growing to 392,000 unique visitors in July. The site picked up in May – the period when most entrance exams are held. On an average, Naukri received 335,000 daily visitors in July. Monster and Timesjobs received 193,000 and 126,000 visitors, respectively.

Going by page views, Naukri is the undisputed leader, charging ahead with 259 million page views in July, while Monster trails at 66 million.

Matrimonial

However, Shaadi and Bharatmatrimony have seen a decline in unique visitors between February and July. Bharatmatrimony’s decline is the steepest, 18 per cent. On the other hand, Jeevansathi’s unique visitors grew by 19.6 per cent. An online dating site, Jhoos.com, is the surprise, growing by 181.6 per cent, with 289,000 unique visitors in July.

Though Shaadi leads by unique visitors, it is Jeevansathi that has more traction. At 119 million page views, Jeevansathi is far ahead of Shaadi with 49 million page views. Jeevansathi also received 108,000 daily visitors in July, compared to Shaadi’s 88,000. The site has shown a jump of 35 per cent in unique visitors from April to May. Interestingly, this is also the period Bharatmatrimony has seen a 32 per cent decline in unique visitors.

Real estate

Real estate is a category that is still growing in classifieds. Here, Bharatmatrimony’s Indiaproperty.com has shown the highest growth – 86 per cent over the six-month period. It is also the leading site in the category according to comScore, with 799,000 unique visitors. Magicbricks.com follows distantly with 553,000 unique visitors; 99acres is next with 366,000 unique visitors.

Indiaproperty.com is the only site in the category that has shown remarkable growth. Magicbricks has grown by 13.5 per cent, though it spurted 230 per cent from February to March and then continued to decline. The site was revamped in July, though there was no increase in traffic. The average number of daily visitors on Indiaproperty is 78,000, followed by Magicbricks with 27,000 and 99acres with 19,000.

In terms of page views, 99acres leads with 17 million page views in July. Magicbricks is almost half that number, with eight million page views. Indiaproperty stands at six million page views.

(UPDATE: comScore has informed agencyfaqs! that there is an error in its data for Indian automobile sites. comScore has requested us to remove that specific data, adding that it would share fresh numbers on this segment by mid-October. In the interest of accuracy, we are removing the data till updated numbers are available.)

Download the entire report here.