Justdial

Justdial
Type Public
Traded as BSE: 535648
NSE: JUSTDIAL
Area served 240 cities[1]
Founder(s) VSS mani
Slogan(s) India's No.1 local search engine
Website www.justdial.com
Alexa rank Decrease 584 (April 2015)[2]
Type of site Local Search Engine
Available in Multilingual
Launched 16 February 1996 (1996-02-16)[3]
Current status Active

Justdial (also known as JD) (BSE: 535648, NSE: JUSTDIAL) is an Indian company providing pan-India search services via the Phone, Web, Mobile and SMS. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The service represents a large classifieds service where users can call a common number to request a human operator what products or services they are looking for. The available, listed businesses are then communicated to the users by Email or SMS.

Inception

Justdial was founded by V S S Mani who serves as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company.[4] Mani thought of the idea while working for yellow pages company called United Database India (UDI)[5] in 1987. He felt that the information could prove to be much more useful if it could be provided over the phone. In 1996, he came to know that Mumbai's Kandivali exchange owned the number 8888888888. He was well aware of the importance of having an easy to remember number for a service like this and he somehow persuaded the GM to allot the number to him.[6] However, the company could not be started for almost a year because Mani could not afford a telephone connection which used to cost INR 15,000. The other option to wait for many years for the connection. The Company finally started providing local search services over the phone in 1996 under the Justdial brand and launched their Internet and mobile Internet services in 2007. In the beginning, Mani started the company with a few pieces of borrowed furniture, rented computers, a 15 sq. feet garage which he took on hire and a seed capital of Rs 50,000. In fiscal 2012, Justdial addressed over 25.43 crore search queries from millions of users across platforms.[7] As of March 31, 2013 Justdial had 7,457 employees. Justdial has a database of approximately 91 lakh listings as of March 31, 2013 and approximately 1,95,100 campaigns as of December 31, 2012. Justdial's unconsolidated total revenue was Rs. 271.61 crore and unconsolidated restated profits after tax from continuing operations were Rs. 47.08 crore as of December 31, 2012.

Prior to Justdial, Mani started a company called AskMe in 1989 based on a similar concept, but at that time owing to low penetration of telephones in the country, the venture did not take off. After that he worked on a plan "Wedding Planner" in collaboration with The Times of India.[8] The local search engine sealed sponsorship deals with IPL Cricket teams of 2014 season. The Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Hyderabad Sunrisers, Kings XI Punjab & Royal Challengers Bangalore are the teams under its roof of sponsorship.

Business Model

The company with around 9,000 employees in 2014 works in area defined teams, with a combination of Outbound, Sales, Inbound, Technical and QA processes. It is a listing company and receives around 1.9 million calls every day on its number. Users and prospective customers call on its main service number and ask for a particular service provider. Based on keywords the customer is looking for, the lead is passed to many service providers in the local area. The vendors can then call the lead generated through Justdial. The competition is controlled by bidding for the position in the listing. The higher is the amount paid, the more leads you get.

Challenges

Despite holdings a majority of the market share in the tele-listing space in India, Justdial has had to overcome issues such as not being able to control and filter the telephonic spam calls, to not being able to expand its services beyond the telecom industry in India within its current subscription scheme.

The company had been rumoured to make an entry into the highly competitive Indian e-commerce market through acquisitions, which is already dominated by major, established players like Snapdeal, Flipkart & Amazon India. It has opted to delay this INR 1,000 Cr. plan and has instead bought back issued shares.[9]

IPO

On March 20, 2012, Justdial had obtained approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed Initial public offering (IPO).[10] Justdial had initially filed its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI to raise Rs 360 crore in August 2011,[10] however the company shelved its plans in June 2012, due to a sharp fall in the markets and raised Rs 327 crore from its existing private equity investors, Sequoia Capital and SAP Ventures, with Sequoia Capital leading the funding round with a Rs 305 crore investment.[11]

In August 2012, Justdial had re-filed its DRHP with SEBI and was looking to sell 9.55 million shares of face value Rs 10 each, in return for 13.53% stake in the company. This includes 4.03 million shares held by SAIF Partners, 2.51 million shares held by Tiger Global Four JD Holdings, 1.55 million shares held by Tiger Global Five Indian Holdings, 1.04 million shares held by Sequoia Capital, 347,142 shares held by EGCS and 64,779 shares held by SAP Ventures.[10]

In May 2013, Justdial went public on May 20 at a price between Rs. 897-898.[12] Out of 17.5 million shares, 13.5 million shares were offered to the public and 3,936,925 shares have been subscribed to by 15 Anchor Investors at Rs 530 per equity share, for a total of around Rs 208.65 crore.[11] Justdial has reserved 75% of its IPO for institutional investors,15% for high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) and remaining 10% for retail investors.CRISIL has been assigned grade 5/5 to the proposed IPO of Justdial.This grade indicates that the fundamentals of the IPO are strong relative to other listed equity securities in India.[13]

Unlike previous public offers, Justdial adopted a scheme "safety net" for retail investors[14] proposed by the capital market regulator Sebi in 2012 where the company promoters assure that they will buy back shares from the retail applicants at the IPO price, if its stock falls sharply during the first six months after listing.

At the end of day 1[11] A majority of the bids came from Foreign Institutional Investors (65,87,275 shares), around 72% of total shares on offer for QIBs. Retail investor appetite was low, with only 14% (246,200) of shares, whereas 1,749,745 shares were offered to them. HNIs bid for only 3750 shares of the 2,624,618 shares offered for them.

At the end of day 2[15] Retail investor participation increased almost fivefold after a fairly low key participation on day one of Justdial’s IPO: Total bids from retail investors increased to 1,224,725 shares from 246,200 shares at the end of day 1. Thus, around 70% of the total 1,749,745 shares that retail investors were allowed, have been bid for, and most of them have been at the cut-off price. Participation from Qualified Institutional Buyers (FII’s and Mutual Funds) also increased, with Mutual Funds finally participating, but bidding only for 56200 shares. FII’s have bid for 8141850 shares in all.Participation from Corporates and Individuals other than retail investors has been insipid.All in all, around 69.62% of the shares on offer have been bid for, mostly by QIBs, which sets the stage for day 3. On day 3 of issue, Justdial IPO was over-subscribed 11.63 times.[16]

Services

Search Plus

Justdial launched the Search Plus engine for desktop and mobile for services such as delivering flowers and grocery shopping.[17][18] The service is aimed at enabling Justdial's users to undertake several everyday tasks conveniently from a single platform. Justdial is transitioning from being solely a local search engine in India to being a service provider facilitating transactions between consumers and providers of various products and services through its online platform.[19]

Online Food Ordering

Justdial's online foods ordering service is currently operational in 16 cities:[20] Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Howrah, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Pune, and Thane.

Through online food ordering service, users will be able to browse the restaurant's menu, view the most ordered items and place their order online. Food is delivered to the address at the time and date selected by the user. Food ordering can also be done in advance by placing the order six days prior to actual delivery date. Confirmation of the order is sent to the customer via mobile and email, and payment is collected at the time of the delivery in cash. Justdial also mentions that it doesn't charge anything over and above the restaurants' usual food prices.[21]

Helpline

Web

Justdial had launched its first local search engine in the year 2007 [22]

WAP

The Mobile[23] WAP version of Justdial was launched in August 2007, and is designed for users to access information on their mobile browsers. The mobile platform of Justdial permits location-based search that divulges details of listed businesses in and around the user’s location.

Mobile Applications

Justdial released its Android application in 2011.[24] and followed by launching its iOS application in 2013 with similar functionality as the earlier Android variant.

Adding to the existing services that Justdial offers, the new version of the company's Search Plus app on Google Play Store[25] integrates 28 services, as was informed by means of a notification on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The all new Android app featuring large tiles has an updated user interface.[26] This Search Plus app aims at providing users an experience that caters to a number of user requirements including information retrieval, search as well as online transactions. The app also has a voice search option. The company claims the revamped app to be faster than before in carrying out searches and transactions. The various transactions available in the app include Ordering Food, Booking a Table, Booking Movie Tickets, Cab Booking, Booking Doctor's Appointment, Booking Flights, Ordering Flowers, Online Shopping, Recharging Mobile and Paying Mobile/ DTH and Gas Bills among others. Users can make online purchases in electronics, televisions, mobile phones, furniture, white goods and many others. According to The Hindu Business Line,[27] it is said that through this app Justdial could evolve from a search company to a full-fledged e-commerce player.

References

  1. ↑ "America Calling". business.outlookindia.com. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  2. ↑ "Justdial.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  3. ↑ "Whois justdial.com". Whoisdomain.me. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  4. ↑ "Justdial on Moneycontrol".
  5. ↑ "V.S.S. Mani Dialling Success". Livemint. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  6. ↑ "VSS MANI, Founder, Justdial". DARE. 18 August 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  7. ↑ "Just Dial files IPO papers with SEBI again". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  8. ↑ "V S S Mani, Justdial". DARE. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "Justdial shelves plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore, will buy back shares instead - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  10. 1 2 3 http://www.medianama.com/2013/04/223-justdial-sebi-approval-ipo/
  11. 1 2 3 Nikhil Pahwa. "JustDial IPO Bids At 50% On Day 1; Anchor Investors Invest Rs 208 Cr". MediaNama.
  12. ↑ "Justdial model similar to Google: management". ndtv.com.
  13. ↑ "CRISIL assigns grade 5/5 to Just Dial IPO". moneycontrol.com. 16 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Just dial offers safety net to retail investors, co to buy back shares at IPO price if stock falls". The Times Of India. 2013-05-20.
  15. ↑ Nikhil Pahwa. "JustDial IPO Bids At 70% On Day 2". MediaNama.
  16. ↑ "JustDial IPO over-subscribed 11.63 times on last day". ndtv.com.
  17. ↑ "Just Dial - Announces launch of Search Plus Services". moneycontrol.com.
  18. ↑ "Amitabh Bachchan at Justdial's Search Plus launch in Mumbai - The Times of India". The Times Of India.
  19. ↑ Brindaalakshmi K. "Update: JustDial’s Marketplace Goes Live; Adds Flower Delivery, Grocery Shopping & Others". MediaNama.
  20. ↑ Anupam Saxena (13 August 2013). "JustDial launches online food ordering service". NDTV Gadgets360.com.
  21. ↑ "Just Dial goes beyond business listing, adds online food ordering service". Techcircle.in.
  22. ↑ "'Just Dial Services' is Now Online". Archive.techtree.com. 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  23. ↑ "Justdial introduces WAP Mobile Search Services on Mobile Phones". TechShout. 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  24. ↑ "Justdial Launches Android app [Appnomy Review]". Pluggd.in. 2011-11-25. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  25. ↑ "Just Dial launches 'Search Plus' a new Android app". DNA India. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  26. ↑ "JustDial launches new version of Search Plus Android; iOS coming soon". Medianama. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  27. ↑ "Just Dial: Ringing in revenue". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
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