Although the COVID-19 lockdown severely affected business, Just Dial intends to shortly launch a separate website and app focused on B2B vendors and products, CFO Abhishek Bansal revealed during the earnings call on May 26. The company used the downtime during the lockdown to “create enriched content” for their B2B listings", he said. The company is banking on “optimization and efforts on the B2B side” to improve its traffic and revenue in coming quarters, Bansal said. Growth affected by lockdown, lack of ad spend: Just Dial CFO Abhishek Bansal attributed the impact on growth to COVID-19 lockdown in March, and the fact that Just Dial spent lower on advertising. “For the quarter, we spent about ₹12.6 crore on advertising, verses about ₹18 to ₹19 crore a quarter, which we were spending during the first half of the year,” Bansal said, a cut of almost 90%. COVID-19 severely affected traffic, revenue, customers As soon as the lockdown started, Just Dial saw a 55%-60% drop in traffic. Bansal specified that in April, Just Dial’s average daily traffic dropped about 49% from December to February levels. They have seen some recovery in May and traffic was back to about 65%-68% of pre-COVID-19 levels. This was because of cut in advertising expenditure which they directed towards categories that monetise better. As things improve, Just Dial will step up its advertising. Most indirect traffic is free for Just Dial: Bansal said that 20% of all traffic comes to Just Dial directly while of the remaining…
