Matrimonial sites turn wedding planners

After match-making, matrimonial websites now want to grab a share of the Rs 70,000 crore wedding management market.

Last year, shaadi.com started a pilot wedding planning service in Mumbai and has plans to launch it across the country in 12 months. The company also launched its Shaadi Service directory two days ago, wherein vendors provide details on catering, venues, rental services, etc.

Even bharatmatrimony.com is mulling offering pre-marriage services such as booking marriage halls, catering and decorations. Bharatmatrimony group founder and Chief Executive Officer Murugavel Janakiraman said, "By 2008, we will launch pre-wedding services." Other websites are likely to follow suit.

Interestingly, parents and siblings who flock the matrimonial sites far outnumber individual registrations.

"Earlier, over 90 per cent of the profiles posted online were by individuals who were looking for like-minded people, dating, love and eventually marriage," Info Edge India Senior Vice-President Vivek Khare said. Info Edge India has marriage portal jeevansathi.com under its belt.

"Over 70 per cent of the profiles of women and 30 per cent of the profiles of men are posted by parents and siblings at jeevansathi.com," he added.

To tap into this segment, shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com have announced offline centres too. Shaadi.com has 140 offline centres called Shaadi Point, which it plans to increase to 500 over 18 months. Similarly, bharatmatrimony.com has over 80 centres, which it plans to increase to 300 centres by March 2008. "Over 70 per cent of registrations in the offline centres are posted by parents," said Vibhas Mehta, business head, shaadi.com, emphasising the complimentary nature of the offline strategy and online services.

Matrimonial websites are also witnessing an increase in registrations from tier-II and tier-III cities. The number has increased "from 30 per cent in 2002-03 to 50 per cent of the overall database in 2006-07", Khare said. Mehta said, "By 2010, profiles from the smaller cities and rural towns will overtake the metros."