Consim Info Gets Rights To TamilMatrimony.co.in

Consim Info (Bharatmatrimony Group) has been given the rights to the domain tamilmatrimony.co.in, on account of the domain name being deceptively similar to Consim Info’s registered trademark - Tamilmatrimony. Consim had filed a complaint against Mobius Development Group, over the ownership of the domain.

Ravi Venkatraman, via a comment on this post, points us to the decision of the arbitrator, downloadable here.

Interestingly, one part of the complaint was that the domain was being used in “bad faith”:

One more important thing that in the opinion of arbitrator ” respondent’s other website www.iwantahotindiangirl.com should also be stopped because its an abuse for Indian women and I uggest that any NGO should think to file a case of defamation against the respondent for making such vulgar, voluptuous and dirty website on behalf of Indian women.

This is strange, because when we checked tamilmatrimony.co.in when we’d written about it earlier, the domain linked to an innocuous blog, and not to, what is according to the arbitrator, a “vulgar, voluptuous and dirty website”. It could be that the site never redirected to the domain, or perhaps Mobius linked to the blog before StartupDunia wrote about it.

Nevertheless - what matters is not that Consim now has the domain, but what they do with the site. We know about the recent issues around ClickJobs…how’s Bharatmatrimony doing?

Bharatmatrimony Launched On Airtel Live

Bharatmatrimony.com has become the second matrimonial portal to in a mobile operator tie-up, after Shaadi.com launched a host of services with Vodafone launched last month. Bharatmatrimony is offering Airtel customers matrimonial subscription services at Rs. 20 per week, which gives them access to an additional contact.

While the type of services are rather limited, this deal appears to be better than the one that Shaadi is offering Vodafone customers:

But does the price difference really matter?
I don’t think it does. Not many mobile subscribers will be using both Vodafone and Airtel, and selection of an operator is not likely to be determined by which matrimonial service they are providing.

This is more of a distribution deal for Shaadi and BM, and primarily a means of acquiring new customers. A few months from now, we’ll check up with both Shaadi and Bharatmatrimony about usage trends - whether they’re acquiring new customers, or is the service being used by online users. Ideally, both services would like to be live across all mobile operators, and not the exclusive mandate of any one.

This is yet another bullet point in the one-upmanship game between Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony - both announced DTH launches earlier this year - Shaadi with Dish TV and Bharatmatrimony with Tata Sky.

Related:
- Shaadi.com & Vodafone Ink Revenue Share Deal For Matrimonial On WAP, Voice Portal & SMS
– Manorama Group Launches Matrimonial Site; Other Classifieds To Move To Verticals?
– Matrimonial Sites Ink DTH Deals - Shaadi-DishTV, Bharatmatrimony-Tata Sky

Consim Takes On Tamilmatrimony.co.in Over Trademarked Name

The Bharatmatrimony group (Consim Info) has filed a claim with the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) against TamilMatrimony.co.in, reports StartupDunia. TamilMatrimony.co.in has been registered by Anand Sanwal, and is a website about Indian matrimony, and indeed - matrimonial sites, with just a few blog posts.

TamilMatrimony.com is among Consim Info’s portfolio of regional matrimonial sites, and going by the logo, they have trademarked “TamilMatrimony” or “TamilMatrimony.com”. Consim Info also appears to have trademarked the names of all their regional sites - Assamese Matrimony, Bengali Matrimony, Gujarati Matrimony, Hindi Matrimony, Kannada Matrimony, Malayalee Matrimony, Marathi Matrimony, Marwadi Matrimony, Oriya Matrimony, Parsi Matrimony, Punjabi Matrimony, Sindhi Matrimony, Telugu Matrimony, Urdu Matrimony.

If NIXI does rule in Consim’s favour, perhaps Sanwal will receive some compensation as well. Remember that when YouTube got a ruling in its favour, regarding YouTube.co.in, YouTube.co.nz and YouTube.in, they paid around $6100 to the owner of the domains.

Update: Anand, in the comments suggests that we’re supporting the tamilmatrimony.co.in cause. That assumption is incorrect - we’re just reporting on a legal case. It’s for the arbiter to decide who is in the right. Personally, I think tamilmatrimony is just playing to the gallery with the “bullying” angle to it. If it’s trademarked, Consim has every right to file a claim with NIXI

“We Don’t Want To Just Hang In There” Says Consim CEO Murugavel Janakiraman On ClickJobs

Consim Info CEO Murugavel Janakiraman has told MediaNama that they’re open to both strategic and financial investors for their jobs business ClickJobs, contrary to what was reported earlier. They are currently in talks with 3-4 potential investors, and are also open to strategic investments from media companies. He repeatedly emphasized that they’re looking to change ClickJobs’ business model.

Does Yahoo have an issue if Consim brings in a strategic investor for ClickJobs?
“Being an investor, their interest is in making ClickJobs number one. I don’t think they will have an issue. Talks are in very early stages right now, and finally the board will have to approve.”

Muruga said that ClickJobs is number 4 in the market in terms of revenue, with around 2 million resumes over a period of two years, and around 1000 recruiters. To put things into context, Monster has close to 19,000 recruiters, while Naukri had 32500 recruiters last year (Updated). At present, Matrimony and Property account for over 90 percent of Consim’s business, and Jobs accounts for most of the remaining 10 percent.

On why ClickJobs is looking to raise money, he said that there’s no point in being number 4 in the market: “We don’t want to just hang in there”. Growth will be a function of marketing and manpower, though he says there’s no shortage of money from a group perspective - Consim Info had raised (pdf) $11.5 Million earlier this year, but an allocation of just around $3 million of that money for ClickJobs wont be enough. “We want to be number one in the next couple of years.” How will they gain that position? A significant change in the business model, and marketing.

He also denied rumors of a management bandwidth crunch, saying that Consim has a strong management team in place, with a CEO, CTO, CMO, CFO, CPO, all in place.

Also read: Consim Seeks Strategic Partner For Clickjobs; No Plans To Shut Down

Disclosure: I have a few shares of Info Edge

Consim Seeks Strategic Partner For Clickjobs; No Plans To Shut Down

The irony of it all - a classified for a classifieds site.

Consim Info (Bharatmatrimony) is looking to raise money for ClickJobs, and is currently on the lookout for a strategic partner with deep pockets; $3 Million is petty change, and CEO Murugavel Janakiraman says that kind of money is not sufficient to be on top.

They might seek a different business model, and Muruga denies rumours that the site is on the verge of being shut down. Sources tell IANS that this may be due to lack of management bandwidth - note that Uday Zokarkar, Chief Business Officer of ClickJobs, had informed us (reported here as well) earlier this month that he is signing off from Consim Info. In November last year, Michael Bala, formerly Business Head of ClickJobs, had left to join HP owned Snapfish.

But can’t ClickJobs hire management? I find it rather surprising that they’re looking for a strategic partner, when Yahoo is already invested in Consim Info…and if ClickJobs is spun off to raise money separately, will Yahoo and/or Canaan Partners exit?

The market is largely made up of 5-6 players - Naukri (BSE listed Info Edge), Monster, TimesJobs (BCCL), ClickJobs (Consim Info), Shine (HT Media) and Yello Jobs; Sanjeev Bikhchandani, MD of Info Edge mentions Comscore numbers for comparison here, but I don’t think it’s worth even quoting those numbers - they’re an indication of traffic, and marketing spend will have a big impact on that - hence can be misleading. They’re not an indication of numbers that matter - total users, total resumes, active resumes, total job listings etc. We have an idea of Info Edge numbers - here; sure would like to take a look at similar numbers for ClickJobs…try our Anonymous Tip-Off here.

Also note that CyberMedia shut down its tech jobs portal Dice a few weeks ago.

Disclosure: I own an inconsequential number of shares of Info Edge