Going to marry? You could soon be seeking assistance from a foreign company for a fee!
And, even if a marriage is not made in heaven, it can certainly be planned in cyber space!
For, foreign majors are evincing keen interest in the colorful Indian wedding market, currently worth an estimated $50 billion (around Rs 3,30,000 crore) with an annual growth rate of 20 per cent. India is the world’s second largest wedding market after the US’s $70-billion market. According to some other estimates, the Indian wedding market was worth Rs 100,000 crore in 2015 and growing at 25-30 per cent per annum.
Most Indian marriages have a budget ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore. An average Indian spends an estimated one-fifth of his/her wealth accumulated in a lifetime on weddings.
To tap into this huge market, Zankyou, a leading global wedding website with a presence in 23 nations, set up shop in February 2017. Currently based in Delhi and Jaipur, it plans to expand to Mumbai and Bengaluru soon.
“Basically, we are a virtual wedding planner, aggregating the services required in a marriage on our platform. We have tied up with vendors such as photographers, music arrangers, mehndi artists, event managers, wedding venues, honeymoon destinations, etc,” Abhishek Shekhawat, India Country Manager, Zankyou, told BusinessLine.
Zankyou is the leading website in Europe and Latin America with over 350,000 registered couples annually and more than 50 million annual visits. In India, Weddingplz, Wedmegood and Weddingz, among others, are also in the fray.
By 2020, Shekhawat said, many people are expected to go high-tech in marriage matters. They would manage their guest and gift lists, send invitations, use social media extensively, and buy everything required online. “Shopping malls, already sick at many a place, are fast becoming a thing of the past.”
With the trend of hiring a wedding planner growing — and many affluent people looking at destination or theme-centric weddings — a local affair like marriage is taking on global colours.
Zankyou, incepted in 2007, provides customised online and mobile tools to help customers plan the wedding the way they like. It personalises and plans wedding gifts, builds a wedding website, sends updates, a seating plan at receptions, tracks RSVPs and the like. It also has a business directory and list of wedding vendors.
A user can even contact its free dating service or get inspired with ideas found in the wedding magazine, available in 10 currencies and 9 languages for international guests. He/ she can also create a personalised wedding website and communicate with its team in real-time to share information.