With easing lockdown restrictions in emerging markets, Naukri and 99Acres are back to “minus 20% to minus 15% levels from before the lockdown”, InfoEdge Managing Director Hitesh Oberoi revealed during the company’s earnings call on June 23. “Q1 [of FY21] has been terribly impacted by the lockdown,” Oberoi said. “Most of April and May were shut for business. … We saw our traffic dip by almost 80% in April on 99Acres, and by 60%-70% dip on Naukri,” he said. Naukri’s job seeker index was down 60% in April and May and may “degrow” billings by close to 50% in Q1FY21, he said. 99Acres saw billings decline by 86% in April and by 72% in May. While Q1 will be bad, it is difficult to estimate for Q2 since it will depend on how restrictions will ease up, he said. InfoEdge’s classified businesses include Naukri.com, 99Acres.com, Jeevansathi.com, and Shiksha. In addition, it owns a 22.71% stake in Zomato, 15.1% stake in PolicyBazaar.com, 42.3% stake in Ustraa, the men’s grooming portal owned by Happily Unmarried, and has investments in a host of other technology companies. Impact of COVID-19 on InfoEdge's investments, including on Zomato, is discussed here. Impact of COVID-19 Naukri and 99Acres more affected than Jeevansathi and Shiksha: Hitesh Oberoi, managing director, said that since B2B markets, such as the job and property markets, “which are both directly indexed to the economy”, Naukri.com and 99Acres.com will witness greater stress compared to B2C businesses such as Jeevansathi and Shiksha which are in…
