Matrimony.Com Ltd

NSE:MATRIMONY

Earnings Call Transcript 2025-Q2

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Matrimony.com Q2 FY '25 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this call is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Abhishek Banerjee from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Hello, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you to the Q2 FY '25 earnings call of Matrimony.com. Representing the company, we have Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, MD and CEO; and Mr. Sushanth Pai, CFO.

Thank you for the opportunity to host this call. Over to you, Mr. Janakiraman, for your opening remarks.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Okay. Thank you, Abhisek Banernee. Good evening, everyone.

In quarter 2, due to seasonality, we had a decline both on quarter-on-quarter basis and year-on-year basis. While we had 2 consecutive challenging quarters, things have started progressing in the right direction. The first thing is the profiles have started to bounce back. We are having the good increase in profiles.

Coinciding with the massive upcoming wedding season, where over 4 million people are expected to tie the knot, we launched a 360-degree great Indian matchmaking fit commercial across India. We are giving special benefit to our paid users like discounts from over 200-plus brands. We also started seeing uptick in the first payment.

Due to 2 quarters of decline, renewal may take 1 more quarter. We see revenue payments to bounce back from quarter 4 onwards. We have taken Anil Kapoor as a brand ambassador to promote community-based matrimony sites. We are strengthening our offerings and the processes to increase the momentum in the coming quarters.

I have to state that we have launched the following offerings. We launched app, Luv.com -- MeraLuv.com, in the matchmaking space to address next-generation serious relationship. The offering will focus on the theme of love before marriage, thereby building a clear differentiation and addressing the market potency in India. We intend to monetize this a couple of quarters down the line.

We are also experimenting a commission-based model in the wedding services under a brand called Make My Wedding in Chennai. This is designed to connect customers with a set of curated experience vendor in the initial phase, and offering exclusive deals and support through a dedicated relationship manager.

Whether the customer is looking to get married, whether looking for a single service or range of services, they need to pay a subscription fee to avail the services. Our relationship manager will then send the requirement and set up a service provider.

The vendors, the customer interested, will also get a better deal, will also get a commission from the service providers. This service has been piloted in Chennai. And apart from the discount and getting the service from the trusted reliable service provider, the customers also get special discounts on the shopping from the top brands. We already tied up the top brands in Chennai, including brands like GRT, to get a special discount on the jewelry shopping.

We launched a new line of business called ManyJobs.com to focus exclusively on frontline and entry-level jobs. The initial launch completed for the Tamil Nadu market in both English and vernacular. The initial phase will build the ecosystem to get traction in Tamil Nadu. We need to keep this until we reach a critical benchmark accept and success.

So this job, it's a sort of India's first grey-collar job portal and focusing exclusively on the frontline entry-level jobs and then focus only on Tamil Nadu at this point in time.

We are in the process of launching a business in the area of wedding loans. The customer-first, advocacy-led lending platform, creating an industry-first dedicated category for facilitating wedding loans in collaboration with the leading institution. This product will be launched during this month.

I'm also excited to -- I'm proud to say that Matrimony.com has officially been a Great Place to Work by an assessment conducted by Great Place to Work India based on the feedback received from all our associates. This recognition reflects our commitment to fostering a culture of trust, respect and the collaboration complemented by dedication and the contribution of leader and all our associates.

Now coming to the results. In quarter 2, due to reasons already explained, the billing of INR 111 crores, a decline of 5.5% quarter-over-quarter and 5.2% year-on-year. Revenue at INR 115.5 crores, a decline of 4.2% quarter-over-quarter and 5.5% year-on-year.

The key highlights for the matchmaking business for quarter 2 are as follows: the billing at INR 109.9 crores, a decline of 5.5% quarter-over-quarter and 4.3% year-on-year. Revenue at INR 114.3 crores, a decline of 3.7% quarter-over-quarter and 4.1% year-on-year. We added 2.4 lakhs paid subscription during the quarter, a decline of 6.4% quarter-over-quarter and 4.9% year-on-year. Revenue for the matchmaking business has been flattish both on a quarter-over-quarter and year-on-year basis. We paid about 30,600-plus success stories.

Now coming to the managed services business and other businesses, which includes the investments in matchmaking and other initiatives. The billings were at INR 1.18 crores, a decline of 2.3% quarter-over-quarter and 47.6% year-on-year. Revenue at INR 1.24 crores, a decline of 37.2% quarter-over-quarter and 49% year-on-year.

Loss in the quarter was INR 3.64 crores as compared to loss of INR 2.21 crores in quarter 1 FY '25. Losses increased mainly due to the investment in the launch of new initiatives.

On the billing and revenue outlook for Q3, the matchmaking billing is expect to come back to the growth levels in Q3. However, the revenue declined due to the muted billing growth in quarter 2. In Q4, we expect both billing and revenue growth to move to a better level. Marriage Services, we expect to be at a similar level of Q2.

Now let me pass on to Sushanth to comment on the key profit highlights. Sushanth, over to you.

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Thanks, Muruga. Our EBITDA margin for the matchmaking business in Q2 is at 22.6%, same as in Q1, an increase as compared to 21.3% a year ago. Marketing expenses for matchmaking in quarter 2 is at INR 45.2 crores as compared to INR 47.1 crores in quarter 1 and INR 46.1 crores a year ago. So you would have observed we have optimized the marketing expenses a bit in this quarter.

Excluding marketing expenses, our margins in the matchmaking business is at 62%, same as in Q1 and 60% a year ago. On a consolidated basis, our EBITDA margins in Q2 are at 15.2% compared to 16.7% in quarter 1 and 15.1% a year ago. Tax rate in the quarter is at 23.3%.

Profit after tax is at INR 13.2 crores, a decline of 5.8% quarter-on-quarter and growth of 5% year-on-year. Share of quarter 2 loss from Astro-Vision, which is our associate company, is 3.5 lakhs. Our cash balance is at INR 379 crores, declined slightly as compared to quarter 1 due to the dividend payout. ROCE annualized is at about 13%. On the outlook for quarter 3 margins, we expect the profit after tax to be lower than the levels of quarter 3 of last year due to the investments in the new areas.

I would like to end with a customary safe harbor statement. Certain statements during this call could be forward-looking statements on our business. These involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any such forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company, unless it is required by law.

We can now open the floor for Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Rushabh Shah from [indiscernible] Grock PMS.

[Unknown Analyst]

Am I audible?

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Yes, you are audible.

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes. Questions from my side. Since you were spending more in the non-South markets for the expansion projects, so how have we benefited in the terms of revenue? And what are your further expansion plans?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Okay. Thank you, Rushabh Shah. Actually, so we now started investing now because last we've seen that we have not done much on the North India. And once again, we started investing, we launched Great India and the matchmaking campaign in North India.

We've also taken Anil Kapoor as a brand ambassador pretty much for the North and Western markets. We intend to invest in the North market in particular. So it sorts of -- we see that the market where that overall the advertisement spend has come down. And we also did not invest much in the market for the last couple of quarters.

And [indiscernible] wedding season, we see that from now to March, there are 4 million weddings taking place. And we intend to [indiscernible] wedding season and also that we realized that we started investing in the Northern market. We also see the opportunity in the community-based matrimony. That's the reason we got Anil Kapoor as a brand ambassador. So going forward, we intend to invest in the North.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sir, what I understand from this industry is, is more the marketing spend, more you are competitive and more you are there in the industry. So is it about the survival of the fittest, like who can spend more and who can create more brand image in the eyes of people?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

So the thing is that definitely, in this category, we've seen that a couple of years ago, that definitely not a couple of years ago, we've seen that increase in marketing spend much more than what was warranted. Probably we've seen that some other markets and some other players, that is -- the marketing spend has come down.

It's something in the marketing spend are also player-specific. Generally, the #3 players are fairly now kind of reduced the marketing spend. And #2 player, again, they have been advertising market, some other markets are investing heavily.

And we realized that the competition intensity continue to be there, while it's not all the players not advertising. So in a way that, as I said in the past, the marketing spend may not continue for long term, which you already seen happening in one of the players. We continue to maintain a certain threshold as a leader in the category. So we may actually progress. We hope that things will get optimized.

Having said that, even marketing spend, it cannot go beyond certain limits. There's no point in spending beyond certain threshold. However, as a leader, we need to maintain a certain level of visibility and to ensure that our brands have a sufficient reach and brand visibility.

So also the way that the media has been moving today is not only TV, there's other forms of media. Also a media shift has been happening. So we have the presence in various mediums. So yes, there is an increase in marketing spend happening in the category because of the other players spending money. If that comes down, we also may reduce the marketing spend.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. So my next question is the Elite or Premium Matrimony. Since those are completely different type of clients we have with more ARPU, so do we have any plans to grow that particular business? It's a very small, but very profitable kind of business for us.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes. You're absolutely right. So you may know that today, we have a presence in various airports. We are the first company to set up SKU experience centers in various airports. Today, we have presence in 8 airports across India for Elite Matrimony.

And we're definitely looking at Elite Matrimony as you rightly said, the premium segment is an opportunity. So it's small at this point of time. So we intend to focus, we intend to grow the business as well.

So the reason for setting up Elite Matrimony experience center in various airports to create the enhanced visibility for Elite Matrimony. So that has been doing it.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. Okay. And my next question, do customers who do not find their match and are in the mid type of service, not in the Elite or even below type of services, in the mid segment move up the service?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, the thing is that for us that it's selling the right package to the customer. What is the appropriate package to the customer? So not all the customers can move up. The Elite Matrimony is intended for the rich [indiscernible] for Elite.

So someone not found a light parter in the mix -- the package -- the lower package doesn't need to move to Elite. Elite needs to have a certain level of net worth or certain criteria for Elite Matrimony.

So our intent has always been our [indiscernible]. Our approach has always been selling the right package to the customer. So the customer can use [indiscernible] package. We'll be happy for those customers to come [indiscernible]. If some customers need assistance or better or faster the match, we may recommend matchmaking service. It's not that people move up. It's based on their economic status and what kind of product they need.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Madhu Rating from Counter Cyclical Investment.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sir, I wanted to understand on your Marriage Services business. So we have been making losses and our revenue has kind of flattened. I guess you mentioned that it will grow going forward. Sir, I'm trying to understand when can our losses reduce? Or do we have any plans for making this segment profitable? And similarly on the revenue side, what kind of growth can we expect from this segment over the next 2 to 3 years?

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

The line was not clear. Are you asking about wedding services?

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, sir, I'm asking about the Marriage Services segment.

[Operator]

Sorry for interrupting you, sir. Your voice is not clear. Can you speak out loud?

[Unknown Analyst]

The question was about Marriage Services. [indiscernible].

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

That question is right, Madhu. Let me explain. I hope that is your question.

So wedding services, so now the wedding [indiscernible] a marketplace model. And while that is at a certain level, and we see that business as a certain level of potential. But we are looking at commission-based model. We believe that can be a better opportunity, which, again, we are piloting in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and in Chennai.

So basically, instead of the wedding bazaar model that we generate the lead and passed on to the vendor and get a subscription revenue from vendor, we are looking at getting a commission from the vendors. So that's the model we're piloting.

We think that is a better model. Again, however, it's still in the early stages. We want to try it out and see whether we could be able to make it successful. So we are confident about pivoted to this model. We believe we're able to make it successful. So probably a better update in the coming quarters. And if this business takes off, then we could able to reduce the losses and also move to a better growth in wedding services.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. Sir, as I understand, sir, this business seems much more lucrative from our main business, and it looks like that it can grow much faster. So on the growth front, at what level can you expect, at least breakeven, from this commission? Or if you can just help us understand how are we planning?

Because I guess, in your presentation, you have highlighted that you have a network of 200,000 vendors. So if you could just help us understand how can this become profitable as well as what kind of revenue growth can you expect going forward over the next 2 to 3 years from this segment?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

See, the wedding services are very miniscule. You're able to get the product market right, make my wedding services, where you get the money from the customer is also [indiscernible]. If this picks up, we're able to make it right, then obviously, we may see a better growth. However, as I said, still in a very early stage. We've just been piloting in the last month or so. So it's too early to comment on that.

Again, we told you, it's very miniscule at this point in the overall scheme of things compared we're talking about building the industry. And the next 4 months alone, the expectation will be that INR 3 lakh crores will be spent on wedding-related services. So that's [indiscernible] opportunity.

However, you have to get the current model of wedding bazaar. It seems to be sort of having certain challenges. We are not piloting this model. Let's see how it progresses. If that progresses, the growth can be much better. However, it's still too early to comment on this one.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sir, just a final question from my side. Sir, we are currently doing a buyback. So why are we doing a buyback at such a premium? There was an opportunity to buyback before, I guess, September 30, where you could have the indexation benefit, but even that I lost. So I'm trying to understand, why didn't we deploy this capital much more efficiently than like right now doing the buyback?

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Basically various ways to [indiscernible]. And so these were the second buyback. And we discuss the Board, and we thought that it was better to a second premium and request [indiscernible] and on the buyback. Again, as I say, one of the ways to reward the shareholders.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Mr. Abhishek Banerjee.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Sir, in the matchmaking services business, the billings number growth has still been subdued, though your commentary kind of suggested that there are going to be a lot more weddings over the next few months. So how will you kind of correlate those 2 data points?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes, basically, Abhishek, so we are just focusing on the new model of wedding services. That's where the focus is. So we want to cut down the losses in the other form of wedding services and we want to focus on the negativity.

So this model, again, we told you with this thing kind of piloting only in Tamil Nadu. We just want to get the product right and offering right before you take it to other markets. The reason for the decline is because of the way we're optimizing the cost, optimizing certain things.

So we want to run the wedding services at a certain level and drive the -- sorry, the existing business at a certain level and try to achieve the breakeven and profitability and reinvest in the new offerings in the wedding services. So that was the reason we set that...

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

I'm talking about matchmaking services...

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Matchmaking. Sorry. I thought it was on the wedding services. So matchmaking, what we've seen is that the last couple of quarters, some of the markets, particularly in India, there's a prolonged no days of weddings, particularly a market like [indiscernible] some other markets.

So one of the reasons we also saw that post-COVID, the spike happened after that some subdued in terms of profile growth. However, as we speak, the things have started to bounce back. The profits have started growing, and also wedding season has started. And we also made some changes in the way we do things.

So the good thing is that the profits have bounced back and fresh payment, even the month of October, there's an increase in fresh payment. Even the month of November, as we speak, the increase in the fresh payment. But the renewal may take us 1 more quarter because things are 2 quarters of decline. It may take 1 more quarter to bounce back.

So while this quarter we may move to the growth level, it's still maybe very, very marginal. But starting Q4, we see that both fresh and renewal have moved up, we moved the growth levels in both -- in quarter 4 on both on billing level and revenue level.

We believe that I think the first half, things happened in the matrimony. We hope we don't get into any degrowth against for. I think that's where you are strategizing and working out things. So we also [indiscernible] new ideas, new things. I believe you are in the right path. I think we'll be on -- starting now, we'll be getting into the growth trajectory.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Got it. But sir, just to understand, what kind of volume and what kind of realization growth are we expecting going ahead?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

We may expect some increase in ARPU slightly, possibly because -- quarter 4 onwards. And volume may also increase. But we are not giving a number at this point of time. Again, we have to wait and see how the whole thing will work out. But definitely, this outlook is for us, increasing both in ARPU as well as...

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

It will volume led that we can assume, right?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes, there will be volume growth. Both will grow. We expect the volume growth also, but we also expect some -- maybe some margin increase in ARPU.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Got it. But sir, how does that -- I mean given you are also extending your presence in northern markets, how do you expect suddenly to increase ARPU on top of that? So are there any additional services that you're going to be offering within matchmaking? How will you manage to do this?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

See, one thing about online matchmaking, we also have the premium services. You have [indiscernible] service, the elite service. And also Q4 normally is a good quarter. So the combination of the increase in the [indiscernible] services. So we expect there is some margin increase, but mostly it will come from the volume growth.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Okay. Sir, one of your competitors seems to have -- seems to be doing slightly worse off because of whatever fall out with their backers and all. Do you really see any consolidation happening from that side?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, we don't see anything at this point of time. But if at all, any opportunity, we'll evaluate. But we don't see anything at this time of time.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Understood. Now if I come to the billing services part of business, there are start-ups, which are doing -- which have gotten into it and they seem to have found product market fit of some sort. Is there anything that you're learning from there? Is that new strategy kind of based on that? Or is it something we are trying on an experimental basis?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

So the category is, Abhishek, large enough. So different models can evolve. At this point of time, we initially began with the marketplace model. Now we are thinking on this commission-based model.

So when the category is large enough, different models may evolve. But based on our experience, based on that large number, based on what we have studied, we, at this point of time, we think this is a model we want to go out with. And -- so let's see how it actually evolves.

[Abhisek Banerjee, analyst]

Okay. And just one last question. This one is on the new business that you have started in the employment space. So that is also kind of taking on one of your competitors head on. And that company has notoriously been increasing their ad spend in the last couple of years.

So any reason why you are suddenly getting aggressive on this? Is this a planking strategy? Or is it something that you really believe can become a growth driver for you in the future?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, we definitely think it can be a growth driver for the long run because we've been in the business for almost 2 decades. We understand the consumer segment fairly very well.

We have not launched another job portal. So in a way, we launched sort of first-of-its-kind. It's focus on frontline and entry-level jobs. So we are keeping this at this point of time limited only to Tamil Nadu because we see most of the openings or most of the attrition is pretty much in that segment, frontline and entry-level jobs.

We are bilingual. We want to tighten one market. We are, in a way, competing with any player in the space. So we are not competing with the other established players. We are just focusing on the one segment of the frontline/entry-level sort of grey-collar jobs. That's our focus.

So again, we want to keep it at this point of time to free, and we are getting a decent number of resumes on a daily basis. And once you reach a certain threshold, based on the acceptance, then we may intend to monetize, take it to other markets.

Time being, it's more of a -- we saw an opportunity, keeping a long-term outlook of opportunity in India. And based on our experience, we feel there's an opportunity in this space.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Darshan Shah from Multicity Consultancy Private Limited.

[Unknown Analyst]

So my question is regarding this comment that you made with respect to profit for the next quarter. So you mentioned that the profit could be lower next quarter. So just wanted to understand this is because of certain investments that we are doing? And would they be in the existing segment or it would be in the new segment?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

So it's a combination of both. So because of the reason the profit will be slightly less, on account of one is that the billing growth, degrowth in quarter 2, that will translate to the billing in quarter 3 may move up, but the revenue will be down on account of the lower billing in quarter 2.

Plus that's some of the new initiatives launched that new initiative may call for some investment. So plus also the quarter 3, the wedding season has started. So there will be some increase in marketing on our core business also. It's a combination of some increase in marketing in the core business, plus also investment in new business, which may lead to some drop in the revenue compared to the earlier year.

So we are making an investment. We expect that quarter 4 things will move back, and both revenue will move up and billing will go up. So the profit also starts more from quarter 4.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. And with respect to the Google -- so there was this benefit that we were supposed to get, right, around 3 percentage points. So when should we see that kind of flowing through?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Actually, we are not on the thing we know the cost with Google at this point of time.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sorry? Sorry, I missed that.

[Operator]

Am I audible?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes, yes.

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Yes, yes, I think what you're referring to is that last year, we had Google, right? And this year, we don't have. The benefit has not come. So this year, what has happened, like Murdah discussed, quarter 2 has been a muted quarter. There has been billings fall. And in this year, quarter 1 also had unusual number of inauspicious days. So both, put together, the quarter 1 billing also fell.

Otherwise, usually, quarter 1 is a strong quarter for us. So that created a lower revenue in quarter 2. And therefore, the overall PAT has come down as compared to -- or rather that Google benefit has not come back to us. So we believe that, as we go along, when things bounce back, we are seeing, like we said, the fresh ship coming back, the renew may bounce back in quarter 4.

And with all of these new initiatives, with focus on personalized services, creating this great Indian matchmaking fest, all this put together, in quarter 4, we believe that some effect of the profit should come back.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Rushabh Shah from BagalrokPMS.

[Unknown Analyst]

Since you have a question, what...

[Operator]

Sorry for interrupting you, sir. Your voice is not clear. Could you speak loud?

[Unknown Analyst]

Am I audible?

[Operator]

No, sir.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Can you speak a little louder?

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. Sir, what is the criteria for Elite Matrimony? Suppose a person wants to show his profile on the Elite Matrimony, so is there a huge screening process or anyone can be on the Elite Matrimony profile?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, not anyone can be Elite Matrimony. You have to be elite to be part of the Elite Matrimony, based on network or income above certain threshold or based on your education or profession. Only in meeting certain criteria, you can be part of Elite Matrimony. It's a private database. It's a confidential database. It's [indiscernible]. So paying money doesn't get you to Elite.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. And sir, one question on the profile. Safety is one of the most important things for us in the Matrimony platform because we hear a lot scams related to this. So what are we doing on those fronts, like the profiles getting leak, safe profiles, and what are we doing...

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes. No, there's -- it's not Elite profile. By the way, Elite is private. We are not [indiscernible] Elite profile.

[Unknown Analyst]

Not just talking about the Elite Matrimony, in general, sir.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

In general. Sorry, okay. In terms of -- yes, there is a thing about while there are like security measures where people need to -- highly verified profiles are there and profile -- each and every profile go through OTP mechanism.

However, there are some challenges. That's a fact. So there are some people misuse of photos. Sometimes there are fraudster who try to use a photo [indiscernible] and try to scam people. But our -- the net millions of profile. There are 65 million people added to a platform.

The number of such things are very miniscule. However, as a brand into a trusted player, leading player, being a pioneer in this pace, we need to continue to evolve and figure out ways to do that.

We'll continue to evolve, but still there are some challenges at this point of time. In fact, a year before we got [indiscernible] as a brand ambassador to educate people on this online matrimony camp. So our numbers are small, miniscule.

However, it's a concern. It's one of the challenges the industry is grappling with. So there's not an online matrimony. The various forms of online industry are facing various forms of fraud. So there's a lot of challenges.

Our category is about this kind of some fraud and all of things. We figured it out. I'm sure as we progress, we could be able to figure out a way to address these users.

The other challenge is not only the profile [indiscernible], there are patterns and also user profile. It's not just [indiscernible]. But there are some challenges. We continue to indicate. We also continue to evolve and figure out how to completely stop. But at this point, there's no full-through mechanism to address this one.

So our measures we take, it's about user being diligent about it. And while our education will communicate to people that don't send money to any prospect for whatever reason, but still some people will end up in getting [indiscernible] and all of that. So yes, fraud is one of the challenges. So small, but it's a problem that we need to address.

[Operator]

So my next question is what -- sir, after someone has got married on Matrimony, so do you meet with them or do you call them for their feedbacks? And how do you improve on the negative ones?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, we have definitely that -- we constantly get feedback from customers and customers also give feedback to us. So we -- the product improvement is a continuous process. Service improvement is on an ongoing basis. So that's happened regularly. We also reach out to people who are getting married to us.

[Unknown Analyst]

Sir, any of the negative feedback would you like to say if you've got and you've corrected them?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, no, we are dealing with millions of users. And the particular service category, we are offering any product. So definitely, there are ongoing feedbacks. So on the product side and how to -- that's an ongoing thing. So there are nothing one specific is ongoing, suggestion ongoing happening because we are talking about dealing with millions of users.

[Unknown Analyst]

My next question is we had stated in 2022 that the wedding bazaar will be a INR 100 crores business in the next 3 to 4 years. So are we on that path? And how far are we from that, sir?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No. As you know, we are planning for a new model. So it depends on how successful the new model is going evolve into. So at this point of time, we are piloting it. It's too early. So the business picks up. Again, you are talking about a very large industry.

And if it comes successful, yes, we can achieve it, but it depends on how well we execute and how well that people are accepting this opportunity. And it all depends. But we believe there's a big opportunity, but we have to execute well and ensure that these opportunities, when we launch, [indiscernible] early success.

[Operator]

Okay. So my last question is, as you said, you were in this business for a couple of decades. So how has the transition been in the online marriages in the past, let's say, 8 to 9 years? Have people been more accepting to do a marriage online, which they didn't think about it before?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No. Absolutely. So today, online matrimony is one of the most preferred source of finding life partners for anybody who is looking at getting married. So the industry is doing more than 2 decades, and it's well accepted and the most preferred method of finding life partners. So that has already happened.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Amit Saxena, an individual investor.

[Unknown Attendee]

Sir, I understand that we have a market share, we are a market leader, and we have a market share of close to 60% pan-India. But when it comes to the region-wise split, would like to share the -- I would like to know what kind of market share we have regionally? So I understand in South, we are at the top, but probably in North, we are weaker. So can you give us a sense of the market share in the region -- in the 4 regions?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

So very difficult. Definitely, we have a very high market share in South and definitely our leader in West as well as in the East, very difficult to quantify what level of leadership in the West and East.

But not definitely one of the player we need to definitely catch up. That's the reason how we have, once again, started to invest in the North Indian market. As I said, we got a brand ambassador [indiscernible] matrimony and we also started investing behind this for the Great Indian -- for the upcoming wedding season, we launched a Great Indian matchmaking.

So we hope that, going forward, with the focus on the North Indian market with both community [indiscernible) Bharat Matrimony, we believe that we could increase the market share in North India.

So at this point of time, what is the exact [indiscernible]? Yes, one thing -- one market, we need to catch up, but we hope we can inroads in the market.

[Unknown Attendee]

So sir, related to that, the marketing expense that we do on a yearly basis, which is probably from INR 150 crores to INR 200 crores run rate. Is it right to assume that a larger portion of that goes to the North Indian market where you want to capture should that reading is correct?

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, it's not -- North is definitely an expensive market. Yes, some portion go in the North market. Again, the marketing spend also sometimes based on seasonality, we also do some adjustments. It's not a strategic investment of so much it goes to North India.

We just -- within the marketing thing, we try to -- it depends on seasonality. It depends on the opportunity. We do some kind of adjustment in the marketing campaign. The last couple of investment in the North Indian market. Now we see [indiscernible] in the North Indian market.

So this kind of adjustment we do. And again, our budget is broad base across India. So not only it goes to the North Indian market. We do spend some amount of money in the North Indian market, but it's not in any way quite expensive market also, and GECs are quite expensive.

It's -- it depends on the region. It depends on the opportunity in the market and depends on the media Yes, the budget gets allocated accordingly. So we don't have any sort of proportional allocation, okay, this much budget. If we try to double the marketing according to the opportunity, according to the seasonality also.

[Unknown Attendee]

Okay. Okay. Sir, on the ATV, the average transmission value, which you report roughly INR 4,500 per year. So -- I mean -- is it blended -- I understand it was blended average. But you do -- our new initiatives, like [indiscernible] within will be much, much lower or like metro, which will be much, much higher than the average.

So is it right to assume that the blended average of INR 4,500 per our basis of the starting product and is not kind blended because of the other products, like Elite Matrimony because they have very different price trends.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, it's a blender because obviously, Elite and all, very part of our revenue. So it's a blend. It's a combination of all the packages [indiscernible].

[Unknown Attendee]

Yes. But will be the 3- or 6-month cycle in the normal space of which we are [indiscernible]?

But what I wanted to ask is that jewelry to distort this average number? I mean are they as big as that it can distort the average number?

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Smaller business, it doesn't distort the number. No, there is a proportion of Elite as well.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Yes, there's a proportion of Elite. There's a proportion assisted as well this, so which had higher ARPU. So at this point of all is blended, including jewelry online assisted and it. It depends on which segment So it depends on which segment of the category grows. So accordingly, ARPU may move up or move downwards.

[Unknown Attendee]

One last question from my side. So if you see the last 5-year trend, we do see that the number of users are going up probably from 7.5 lakh 5 years ago probably 10 lakhs now on a yearly basis.

But our average transaction value has been more or less [indiscernible]. So is it right assume that -- I mean we don't have much pricing power on the average transaction value, given that the kind of inflation we see going on in the last 5 years, we don't see any improvement there. Let the presence over there.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

No, basically, I think I say it differently because it was not the case 5 years ago. We didn't have [indiscernible], which is a price very low. So we didn't have an offering.

So we include Jodi, obviously, that's very price very low. So the blended ARPU also includes or aspects. So shatter, obviously, the ARPU would be better. What you're seeing in the blend of all this [indiscernible] and everything. That's the reason [indiscernible] at this level.

Yes, [indiscernible] one thing to look at, that we also not increased the price in some other segments. So we try to -- in some segments, we try to sell it at a different price. So yes, today, online is operating at [indiscernible] ARPU, which have not increased the price for some time, which is right.

But however, we see the opportunity in the premium statement, and that has been going up. So we may [indiscernible] products, we may increase couple of years have not done much on the price, as all remain look in the scope to fine-tune the price.

[Operator]

Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

[Sushanth Pai, executive]

Thank you, Mr. Thank you, ICICI securities for hosting this call. If you have any further questions, you can write to us. Have a good day.

[Murugavel Janakiraman, executive]

Thanks so much and look forward to coming to you the next quarter. Thanks so much.

[Operator]

On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.