Quikr's Diversification Strategy

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Excerpts

INDIAN ONLINE CLASSIFIED INDUSTRY

The Indian online classified market had grown very fast with the increase in the internet user base and mobile user-base in the country and was expected to grow even further in the the years ahead, according to analysts. By the end of 2014, the estimated market size of the Indian online classified segment was estimated at about Rs. 22.8 billion, and by 2019, it was expected to grow to Rs. 59.4 billion with 21% CAGR. According to analysts, this sudden growth in the user base was spurred by advancements in technology that led to ease in usage and emergence of platforms that could be used by a larger number of people. India had a large population and an increasing prosperous middle class segment whose disposable incomes had also grown. With the increase in disposable incomes and exposure to the global market, the purchasing power of consumers had also increased. Most of the important Indian online classified companies had claimed that approximately 50% of the traffic generally came from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

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STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS AND MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Quikr had entered into several strategic partnerships with various companies to increase its business and provide more benefits to its users. Junglee.com , India’s number one shopping website at the time,was one of the companies with whom Quikr announced a partnership on February 10, 2014...

MONETIZING

Quikr was known as a pioneer in the online horizontal cross classified business in India. It focused on both the consumer to consumer (C2C) and business to consumer (B2C) models. With the C2C model, it targeted individual sellers and buyers whereas with the B2C model it helped the small businesses to expand their business with the help of the Quikr platform...

QUIKR’S DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY

To provide better services to its users, Quikr diversified and on August 10, 2015, it launched a separate portal for buying and selling cars known as QuikrCars...

CHALLENGES

Quikr faced several challenges although it was growing fast. Its operating loss or net loss had reportedly doubled in 2015 to Rs 4.4 billion. Analysts pointed out that for every Re.1 revenue, Quikr lost about Rs 9. There were several factors which led to this loss. Expenditure on employee compensation and salaries doubled to Rs 302 million for the year ended March 31, 2015...

SUCCESS FACTORS FOR QUIKR

Despite the challenges, Quikr continued to grow more than its competitors. The growth was five times in dollar terms in 2013. The company also expected double digit growth in the future. It claimed that as of 2015, Quikr had more than 30 million distinctive users , but the company was expecting that in 2 to 3 years (i.e by 2018), this number would increase to 100 million...

THE ROAD AHEAD

By late 2015, Quikr, which had already established its position as a community-based online platform, wanted to offer all the services required by consumers in their daily lives which were not easily available offline...

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I: Alexa Traffic Figures for Quikr

Exhibit II: The Old and New Logo of Quikr