Quikr aspires to become India's Craigslist

An Indian answer to Craigs-list is drawing millions of monthly visitors to its website, exchanging items as diverse as used iPads and cows, in a country where secondhand goods have traditionally been sniffed at.

Quikr, a startup launched in 2008, has become the leading online classifieds portal in India, where the e-retail market is exploding thanks to a vast young population with growing Internet access.

Like Craigslist, Quikr allows users to post ads for free and browse for furniture, apartments, pets and even potential spouses before closing the deal offline - a system that founder and Chief Executive Officer Pranay Chulet believes is well-suited to India.

"We Indians are very price-conscious. And there are peculiarities, like we love to haggle. So I thought a platform like Craigslist for India would make sense," Chulet said.

Today, Chulet said, more than half of Quikr's 3.5 million to 4 million goods listed at any one time find buyers within 90 days - a feat that has helped the firm to attract investments from top private equity firms such as Warburg Pincus.

The firm began life as Kijiji India, a subsidiary of US giant eBay. It was turned into the rebranded separate entity Quikr by Chulet and co-founder Jiby Thomas.

"We want to do things quickly. That is partly where the word Quikr comes from," Chulet said.

He said that leaving customers to seal their deals offline keeps costs low and avoids regulatory hurdles - "I don't have warehouses or people running around making deliveries".

Instead the Mumbai-based firm, present across 900 cities, gets its cash by tapping small businesses to advertise on the site. So far, half a million have paid to be on Quikr, Chulet said.

'Missed call' strategy

People who want to sell their goods on Quikr but lack Internet access can ring up the firm's call center - or, rather, its "missed-call center" - where employees return calls to save the customer costs.

"India loves missed calls. Especially the low-income groups like the drivers because the call from our side does not cost them anything," Chulet said.

"And we are happy because we can handle more customers' calls with less staff."

Quikr's marketing strategy has included a television and billboard advertising blitz, asking people to sell their used goods at their "MSP" - or maximum selling price - that they can calculate for free on Quikr's website.

Quikr has also capitalized on India's cricket craze by becoming the sponsor of a team in the Indian Premier League.

The firm is yet to turn a profit, and remains reluctant to charge customers, but Chulet is confident of the "long run" value of the firm in a country whose online retail market is exploding.

Craigslist, which started in the United States in 1996, has shown that such a business can make money, after maintaining profit margins at around 80 percent of its $166.5 million revenue this year.

E-merchandise retailing sales in India stood at $1.6 billion in 2013, according to analysts, who believe they will reach $14 billion by 2018.

(China Daily 07/10/2014 page10)