Rough Quarter for 99acres.com

Indian online classifieds company Info Edge (India) Ltd, which owns real estate portal 99acres.com along with job portal naukri.com and matrimonial website jeevansathi.com, has announced its financial results for the quarter ending 30 September 2009.

Profits before tax rose by 6.3 percent to 219.45 million INR, however total income was down 10.8 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year, coming in at 645.11 million INR. Operating income was also down 14 percent compared to last year.

medianama.com reports that 99acres.com had an unexpectedly poor quarter, with a drop in both the number of paid listings and the number of transactions.

Info Edge chief operating officer Hitesh Oberoi told the website that the number of junk and false listings on 99acres.com has resulted in the scrapping of its unlimited listings plan, leading to a decline in net sales of around 33 percent.

“Despite the number of listings having moved down substantially, the number of inquiries is still the same,” Oberoi told the website. “It validates the point that some of these listings were not required.”

Oberoi went on to discuss 99acres.com’s place in the Indian market:

“The major competitor continues to be magicbricks.com. The other two players – makaan.com and indiaproperty.com – are losing out because they’re not investing enough. Our market share continues to be [around the] 35 to 40 percent mark in this segment.”

Info Edge founder and CEO Sanjeev Bhikchandani remained positive about 99acres.com in his interview with CNBC-TV18, quoted on moneycontrol.com:

“99acres.com the real estate portal has been challenged in the first half because the first half last year was very good and in the first half of this year has seen some difficulty but in last two to three months we have seen some improvement and I think what we will see in the second half which is a further improvement which should take us in the positive territory in the second half of the year for 99acres.com.”

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