SHADI.

COM

Since 1996, people have trusted Shaadi.com, one of the world's oldest and most
popular matchmaking services, to help them discover their right life partners.
Hundreds of thousands of people have found their life partners and countless
others have acquired some very special friends as a result of this groundbreaking
matchmaking service.

Shaadi.com was founded by Anupam Mittal in the year 1997. It began with the name of Sagaai.com but its
name was changed in the year 1999, as Mr Anupam thought it to be a more marketable name. Initially, it
became popular among the Non-Indian Residents as the Indian parents were hesitant to arrange
marriages using a startup.

By 2008, it was successful in becoming the world’s leading matrimonial website for Asians and had
around 20 million users by 2011. Its main objective is to provide a superior matchmaking experience to
Indians all over the world.
By promising a higher level of matrimonial success, the online agency has been attracting attention and
sign-ups. Shaadi.com has been connecting profiles with potential compatibility for over 22 years, and its
marriage success stories have surpassed 5 million.

Every month, it adds over 1.5 million active users to its subscriber base, with about 12000-15000 sign-ups
per day. That explains why it is the largest online matchmaking service in the world.

History of Shaadi.com
While sitting in his father’s office, Anupam met a traditional matchmaker who was giving his father the idea
to match him off. But while thinking about how to get rid of him, it suddenly struck him that he could make
the entire process of matchmaking online, taking away all the inefficiencies.

In 1997, he launched the first version called Sagaai.com. (Sagaai means engagement in Hindi) as
an experiment. He invested all his money into the business. In 2001, he left his job in the U.S. and
moved back to India, and changed the name to shaadi.com shifting all his attention towards the
requirements of the platform to make it successful.

Sh
aadi.com Vs Other Matrimonial websites

Earlier, it used to take 5-6 hours to upload the photos and activate them on the profile as all of it was a
manual process. Shaadi.com has currently 394 employees as the platform does not require too many
employees for the work that is to be done. They have an automated feature, which detects fake profiles,
gender mismatches on profile photos or profiles where users have put up their contact details. They have
algorithms running on Amazon Recognition to identify these user behaviours. With this technology
feature, their first impressions have improved and they have witnessed a 95% reduction in photo
screening time.

Now meet your Matches over

video call

How Does Shaadi.com Charge Money?

The platform charges money for its users for a premium membership with various plans. The registration
over the platform is free of cost but if the user is interested in a person's profile, they will have to take the
premium membership for contacting that person. There is a variety of premium membership available on
the platform. The portal started as an experiment but now has touched the lives of around 35 million
people around the globe. India’s matchmaking market’s size is around $1 billion whereas Shaadi.com
holds almost 40% of it.
Pricing Tier Available At Shaadi.com
Duration Package Subscription Price (INR)
12 months Platinum Plus 7900
12 months Platinum 6301
6 months Diamond Plus 4900
6 months Diamond 4301
3 months Gold Plus 3100
3 months Gold 2701

Shaadi.com - Business Model

The years 1995-1996 were seen as a digital revolution in India. There were new websites coming in and
people were slowly getting familiar with the term 'Internet'. Mr Anupam took advantage of this period and
created a user-friendly platform where one can fill in their personal details including all parameters like
height, caste, education qualification, etc, and their choices regarding the kind of a life partner they were
searching for and the platform will find the perfect match for the user. The platform acquires its customers
using Newspapers, advertisements on television, and digital marketing. Once the user registers on the
platform, there is a personal contact created between the platform and the user via regular phone calls to
inform them about the different packages available, which eventually increases the conversion rate.

Shaadi.com - Marketing Strategy

To increase its customer base and to keep the users entertained, the firm has taken several initiatives
which include the opening of more than 100 Shaadi.com centres in over 70 Indian cities with headquarters
in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Games are hosted regularly on their social media platform to keep the
customers engaged along with creating awareness in society. It used a ‘Dowry calculator’ for highlighting
the social evils prevailing in the society which was appreciated by people from more than 35 countries.

It launched a game ‘Angry Brides’ on its social media page to generate awareness about the
dowry culture and child marriage to educate people for stopping dowry in marriages and showed
the number of dowry deaths in India in place of the worth value of their dowry. This campaign
received considerable media attention and was appreciated by over 600,000 people across the globe.

Challenges Faced By Shaadi.com

Initially, it had to face a lot of challenges as internet adoption across India was poor in those times and
conservative parents were sceptical in arranging marriage through an internet-based startup and there
were a lot of cultural barriers. The mentality that prevailed at those times was a big hindrance. The next
and the most difficult challenge the firm had to face was to hire the right people for the job as people did
not understand what was the work actually.

Shaadi.com has been massively successful in gaining trust in the market and has created a reputation for
itself by recording approximately 3.2 marriages across the world through its platform and has almost
12000-15000 sign-ups in a single day being India’s most trusted matrimonial site.