Info Edge’s recruitment segment had billings of Rs 163.2 crore during the December quarter (Q3FY18). This was an increase of 13% year-on-year (YoY). However, the recruitment revenue was at Rs 169 crore, a growth of 20% (YoY).

Hitesh Oberoi, Managing Director & CEO of Info Edge said in the call that revenue growth in Q3 was higher than billing growth as skew in Q2 billings towards the quarter end is now being recognized completely in Q3. He also said that slowdown in IT hiring impacted growth rate of its recruitment business in markets like Bengaluru.  “Going forward we expect an increase in marketing cost for recruitment in Q4 as we have launched our new TV ad campaign for Naukri, which is running across various TV channels,” he added.

Naukri’s operational numbers

  • In Q3 Naukri added an average of 14600 resh CVs everyday Vs 13000 last year
  • The Naukri database grew to around 56 million CVs.
  • The number of CV modifications stood at 294000 per day Vs 211000 per day last year.
  • In Q3FY18, Naukri’s traffic share continues to be about 72%

On a question of blue-collar jobs segment, Oberoi said, “Naukri platform works very well when you want to hire people who have a CV right… So to the extent that there are some sort of blue collar jobs where CV is very valuable for example if you are a mechanic or if you are an IT professional so actually the premium blue collar job… but let us say if you are just looking to hire a driver or a maid for your house or from very, very low skilled or unskilled workforce, then I do not think Naukri or any online platform is a right platform for that right now.

99acres

In 99acres, billing grew 54% Y-o-Y in Q3 FY18 to Rs 37.8 crore while revenue grew 31% Y-o-Y to Rs 34.1 crore. Oberoi said that a key reason for high year-on year growth billing growth was, of course, the lower base in Q3 of FY2017 on account of demonetisation.  “Our traffic share was about 40% larger than our nearest competitor on time spend on our platform as per similar web and now have traffic leadership in all major markets except Bengaluru,” Oberoi added.

Also, the company increased marketing spends during the quarter resulting in a Q3 EBITDA level loss of about Rs 7.6 crore versus a profit in Q2 FY2018 where it had negligible marketing spend.

On Jeevansathi

In Jeevansathi business, billings grew 19% year-on-year in Q3 FY2018 to Rs 16.8 crore while net sales grew 19% year-on-year and reached Rs 16.6 crore. Operating EBITDA losses in Jeevansathi increased to Rs 4 crore in the quarter versus a loss of Rs 2.1 crore in Q3 last year.

“In Hindi belt, our market share continues to grow…Mobile traffic in Jeevansathi is around 90% and the Jeevansathi Mobile App continues to be the best in the category. We expect increase the marketing cost of Jeevansathi in Q4 as we believe this is the right time to invest our future growth in the matrimony business,” Oberoi said.

On Shiksha

In Shiksha business, billings grew 13% y-o-y to Rs 10.6 crore while net sales grew 32% y-o-y and reached Rs 7.4 crore. In this segment, Info Edge made a loss of Rs 1.2 crore at the EBTIDA level versus a loss of Rs 4.2 crores in Q3 last year.

On Zomato

Speaking about its recent funding of US$150 million from Ant Financial. Oberoi reiterated that the company have sold 15% of its holding in Zomato to Ant Financial for a consideration of US$50 million (which is 6.7% of Zomato shares equivalent to 15% of Info Edge’s stake in the company). He said that additional funding by existing investee companies would be required from time-to-time and that the company will continue to evaluate new investment opportunities as well.

Download: Call Transcript here.