Q2 2009-10 – Infoedge (Naukri) Results – Revenues Dip by 10%

Infoedge which runs Naukri.com, Jeevansaathi.com and 99acres.com has announced its Q2 results.

Highlights of the Quarter are:

• Total Income in Q2 of FY 09-10 at Rs.645.11 mn, a 10.8% drop over the corresponding quarter in FY 08-09.
• Operating income is 561.61 mn, which is 14% lower compared to last year.
• EBITDA is at Rs 235.15 mn compared to 223.99 mn being 5% higher as compared to last year.
• Operating EBITDA is at Rs 151.65 mn which is 2.17% lower as compared to last year.
• Profit after tax was Rs. 147.36 mn compared to 156.72 mn last year.

On a quarter on quarter basis there has been improvement in the topline as Q1 had reported a topline revenue of Rs.529 mn

Commenting on the results, Ambarish Raghuvanshi, CFO and Director, Info
Edge (India) Limited said, “The hiring environment continues to improve, albeit gradually. The drop in topline revenues and operating income reflects the changed scenario from the last year and is in line with expectations. However, the improvement is reflected in growth based on sequential quarter.”

Other verticals still in investment mode
Naukri’s other vertical continued to be in investment mode as apart from Naukri.com other verticals still incurred a EBITDA loss of 33.21 mn as compared to 86.29 mn for the same quarter last year. Though on the brighter side Jeevansathi.com has achieved a growth in revenues at 15.8%.

Is It Recession Or Social Networking & Niche Portals?

We have questioned whether the highly social nature of the web with applications like facebook, twitter etc would have any impact on a business like naukri? Also niche sites that provide free job posting and free database access have been growing steadily. They can’t compete with naukri on scale but can provide niche resumes. For example there is mbanaukri.com which Ive used personally and it provides relevant resumes if you are only looking to hire MBA’s. There are  a bunch of community job boards here as well.

At this same time last year Sajeev Bikhchandani, CEO Infoedge was quoted as saying that there would be slow growth and a year has gone by and revenues continue to dip. Maybe Naukri needs to relook at its model a bit and experiment a little before its too late. The internet consumer is far more social today than 10 years ago and Naukri needs to take this into consideration and experiment with social features into its portal.