Info Edge Sees Revenue Increase and Losses Widen for Indian Portal 99acres in Q2

The Indian online classifieds and media company Info Edge has released its results for Q2 of the Indian financial year. Relevant highlights of the company's performance for the three months ended September 30th include:

• 44% year-on-year revenue growth for 99acres ($8.5m)
• Pre-tax losses for 99acres widened by 30% to $4 million
• Total company revenue grew 46% to $66 million driven primarily by the jobs vertical

As well as leading recruitment vertical Naukri.com, Info Edge operates the 99acres real estate portal which is one of three competitors claiming leadership in the Indian market.

The real estate vertical saw revenues grow but saw listings volumes and paid listings both fall year-on-year. An investor presentation highlighted the portal's strategy of building out user-generated locality reviews to increase the rich data available on 99acres and improve SEO.

On an investor call, Info Edge CEO Hitesh Oberoi did mention that 99acres saw growth in traffic when compared to the comparison period and that the revenue growth seen for 99acres came from across all listing types.

A big reason for the slump in 99acres' financial metrics over the last couple of years is the inability of 99acres to monetise listings. Not only was the volume of listings on the portal regularly higher in the years before the pandemic but the percentage of listings that were monetised regularly hit the 60-65% mark.

That percentage hasn't reached 60% for the last four quarters but did climb to 59% in over the summer, a three percentage point increase on the comparison period.