Slowdown has not slowed marriages

PUNE, INDIA: People don't stop marrying or searching for partner in a slowdown. On the contrary, the segment that was so far too busy with careers and jobs to spare time for marriage search, will find more time to do the same.

"People chasing career, interestingly, would have more time for their personal lives," opines Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO, Bharat Matrimony Group, that is now working on new aisles like elite candidates, HNI individuals, celebrities and even people who don't have enough time to do the partner search.

Heralding outsourcing in the matrimony market too, the group has come up with BM Privileged Services three months back and claims to be getting a positive response.

"Rich category of candidates can outsource the search task at a certain fees to a relationship manager who would work as per the desired criteria and unique requirements," he shares. This is something aka the portfolio managers for HNIs in the investment industry and could be an interesting experiment to watch in a space like matrimony.

The group has also rolled out Elite matrimony concept a month back, with fees as high-bracket as one lakh.

"The idea is to allow the special segment of Elite individuals, sports-stars, celebrities etc to interact in a pool that matches their unique profiles and standards,” says Janakiraman

The group could possibly venture into international waters this year and the initial markets would be from South Asia.

This January, it has started tapping the other side of matrimony with the launch of BharatMatrimony.tv that will attempt to engage people even after marriage or those with marriage not on the radar at all.

"This would be done through videos that will create an engaging, informative and compelling experience for audiences across the globe. It would also be producing capsules covering news, events and developments in the world of marriages. Video clips featuring weddings of topnotch celebrities, fashion, style and bridal wear are also available.”

The video polls, launched for the first time in India, capture the opinions of the youth across the country on various issues related to marriage, he says.

The impact of slowdown would only be on spending on marriages, and not on the search per se, maintains Janakiraman.

The online matrimonial industry was projected this October to reach 20.8 million registrations with revenues of $63 million by 2010-2011 as per a report by EmPower Research, LLC.

Te market has recently witnessed segmented action with launches like secondshaadi.com, or doosravivaha.com that targets divorcees, widows and widowers.

Another segment now paid attention to is the HIV affected individuals

the Gujarat State Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS (GSNP+) an NGO working in the state have taken a new move to help HIV/AIDS victims in finding life partners and adding happiness in their lives using IT.

Now, any HIV/AIDS person seeking a partner can submit his/her profile along with other details on the NGOs website, www.gsnpplus.org, that will act as an online marriage bureau, and helps to find suitable match for the HIV/AIDS people. Around its launch it had about 400 plus people who had already applied for this free matchmaking service.