Interview > Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, IndiaMart.com
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, IndiaMart.com
02 February, 2009
IndiaMart.com is a leading online B2B (business-to-business) marketplace bringing Indian suppliers and international buyers together. Founded in 1996, IndiaMart currently has around 900 employees across 29 offices across India. Recently, the company received an undisclosed amount of funding from Intel Capital.
Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of IndiaMart.com was initially working as a software engineer and had a vision to own a business. In an exclusive interview with AlooTechie, Agarwal shares the story of the launch of IndiaMart.com as a business in India.
Before launching IndiaMart.com, you were working at HCL Technologies in US. What made you decide to leave your job and start as an entrepreneur in India?
When I was working for HCL in US, I already had an experience of around five to six years of working as a software engineer in the IT industry. I had already worked for large organisations including CMC (a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services), C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) and then HCL America.
As I basically hail from a traditional business family, I always had this question at the back of my mind, “Is there a possibility of owning a business based on the IT industry?” I was sure that an Indian business could not be initiated from US as I didn't know the country and I was not connected to the people well. Hence, I decided to take a transfer and come back to India. Then I was working with HCL Technologies and I asked them to transfer me back to India. This is how I took the first step to launch a business of my own.
Why did you choose to launch an internet business and that too around 1996, when internet was quite unheard of in the country?
After coming back to India, I actively started taking part in different trade fairs and shows to know what’s happening in different industries in the country. After roaming in the market for some time, I understood that the software industry was getting very competitive and I didn't have that kind of resource to start a software business. So I used to wonder, after software what would be the next thing that will rule the market!
At around early 1995, internet was being born in US. Yahoo had just begun at that time and I was fortunately one of the first internet users. Thus, I already had an inclination towards internet. There were many instances where I could find the required information only on internet and I was pretty sure that the future belongs to internet and thus I decided to launch an internet business.
Initially, I decided to set up an internet service provider business like Sify, but that was not possible as licensing policies in India only allowed BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) to provide the service in the country. So, I started with a website making business, InterMesh Systems, in 1996.
You started as a consumer product. What made you feel that an online B2B marketplace will be successful in India and thus diversify into this business?
At that time, if I remember well, the desktop publishing (DTP) business was flourishing all over the country. DTP cafes were being set up in every nook and corner and anybody who had to design a card could easily get that done by paying a minimal amount. Somehow, I had the feeling that the website making business would turn out to be another DTP business and website designers would crop up in every corner of the country. So, I started thinking about alternatives of sustaining the website making business.
As I was regularly visiting various trade fairs, I developed a knack of Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). I was impressed by the way these trade bodies maintained a database of several businesses and the way they organised several trade fairs. This made me think whether a similar model was possible in internet or not.
We decided to create our own website wherein we would list websites that were developed by Intermesh Systems. This could give small businesses, whose websites had been developed by us, more visibility. So, we launched IndiaMart.com. We started with an online directory of Indian websites that were designed by us. As the list of websites grew on, we categorised the companies in different sections, including apparel, automobile and engineering, and so it became an online yellow page directory. Thus, instead of starting an IT business, we launched a website making business and to save the website making business we started this website listing business called IndiaMart.com.
How much did you charge the companies for listing?
Initially, we listed all the companies for free and did not charge anything from them. Then as the business grew popular, we started charging companies. Currently, we have around 500,000 free listed companies and a paid user-base of around 15,000.
What were the initial challenges that you had to deal with while setting up IndiaMart?
When we started listing and categorising the websites designed by Intermesh under different business verticals, we saw that many of the categories were either empty or had just two to three listings and that didn't look good. Then we decided to list a few other companies for free and use them as a lead generation mechanism for our own purpose. Thus we started pitching to companies and asking them if we could collaborate. Initially, no one listened to us and so we went to trade fairs and collected free listing form from various small and medium enterprises. Thus, various SMEs (small and medium enterprises) listed themselves online with us.
But the problem was that most of those businesses did not have an internet connection at that time and were not familiar with internet. So, there was a problem in connecting them with the foreign buyers and hence we launched an enquiry forwarding service where we started printing the email queries that came to us and then we would send the printouts of queries to the concerned businesses through local post.
Everyday almost two to three hundred mailers were sent from our office and we did that consistently for about five years. This repeated query generation made the SMEs wonder who IndiaMart.com is and then they would call back to us. We used to take those calls as our generated leads and our marketing guys would go to those businesses and educate them about the online media. Thus, educating the people about the benefits of internet was our key challenge.
How did you convince the SMEs about having an online presence?
Leads started pouring in from various western markets including UK and US, which were the frontrunners in internet boom those days. So, the buyer queries were flowing in smoothly and as we were sending the printed version of the queries to different companies, we monitored how many queries were being sent to those companies.
Our internet consultants went to different Indian businesses to make them understand the usability of internet. We made them understand how they could browse from page to page with a click. That was a difficult thing, to make them understand internet, and so we started marketing by results. We asked businesses to register with us for free and see within a month how much business queries they generated through us and see how useful that query was. Thus, we led by results.
Did you charge for lead generation from both the buyers and the suppliers?
No. Our model still runs on listing the companies for free. We just charged them for getting their websites done but did not charge anything for listing. Till date our model remains exactly the same as we started with. If one wants to register with IndiaMart, one can do it without making any payments done. Moreover, one can also update the information for free.
How did you recover the cost of printing the email queries and sending them via post?
Initially, the premium that we charged from companies for making their websites was much higher than what the cost of operation was. The cost of operations actually started rising post 1999-2000 and by that time around 80 per cent of our clients were already having email and so we dropped the practice of sending printed mails to businesses. Thus, the operational costs became much lower at our end. And now we don't list any business which doesn't have an email. All the five lakh companies that are listed with us have an email address with them.
What’s the ratio of leads that come to IndiaMart from within and outside India?
There used to be a time when 80 to 90 per cent of the leads came from abroad and the remaining came from India. Today, we have 40 per cent of leads coming from abroad and the rest 60 per cent come from within India. However, as our business is focussed on the international market, most of the conversions that happen are from our foreign leads.
What was the initial response from friends and family after you started the business?
My family was supportive, though initially they were a little worried that I left the job in US and came back to India to set up my own venture. Friends were also supportive but there were various people who kept on criticising us. Even the media criticised us saying that we won't be profitable. But I am thankful to our critics as their criticisms have made us probably the only company in the internet business being profitable from the start. We have never been in the red ever.
Did you ever get any support from the Government?
People started asking us if we were a Government of India initiative. At that point of time, there was an organisation called Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), which was a government initiative and they had a similar model like us. So, many people who knew about HKTDC thought that IndiaMart was also a government initiative. But we were never supported by the Government. In initial days we were expecting some collaboration from government bodies. But they always considered us as a competition. Now, we have stopped expecting collaborations from the government.
Who were your investors?
Initially, we did not have any investor investing on us. Very recently, we had Intel Capital investing in our company. Now we plan to expand our company's offerings and replicate the same business model in alternate media and work towards venturing into international markets.
Besides, there has been a private equity deal with BCCL (Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd). The deal provided us ad space in the BCCL properties, which include The Times of India and The Economic Times.
Your company has already been in operations for 12 years. Didn’t you ever feel like diversifying into other businesses as well?
We have been playing different roles in the last twelve years. The first four years were given to highlighting the business of IndiaMart. Next four years were given to staying alive in the market and actually prove the worth of IndiaMart. And the last four years were invested in scaling up the business and making it a profitable one. About 90 per cent of our total 12 years’ profit has come in the last four years. Thus, we did not have time to think about diversifying into other businesses.
So, what is the roadmap for the next four years?
In the next four years we want to become a complete B2B business media company in India. For that we will have to diversify into telephone and WAP (mobile web). We have already started with our own print version. Similarly, we have started partnering with trade fairs to make them an IndiaMart show. We have already partnered with around five such shows. We promote these shows heavily through our website.
Are there also plans to venture outside India?
There are plans but they are still in the Alpha Beta versions. This will not be a country specific initiative rather will be an industry specific initiative and will be vertically split into various industries.
Which verticals have generated more business for IndiaMart?
Initially, most of the exporter business was apparel and textile oriented; then Indian handicrafts became popular; and now a bulk of the queries is generated for industrial engineering.
What was your reaction to Alibaba.com entering India? Did it make you change your business strategy?
We have not changed our policies but have cautioned ourselves to stay more focussed towards our business. And we also want to be consumer centric. There are many instances when world biggies came to India but the Indian companies still rule the roost. Monster came in but Naukri is still bigger and better.
What have been your major achievements?
Sustaining a profitable growth has been one of our key achievements. Besides, we have largely been able to hold on to our older employees. We have more than 10 people who have been working with us for the last ten years and more than fifty people who have been with us for more than five years. The people commitment has been very good, probably because they love the company and they share the vision of the company.
Has the current economic slowdown affected your business?
Not yet. But if it spreads to general economy and affects our SMEs to the extent of closing down their businesses, then it might affect us as well. As far as simple internet businesses go, I do not think slowdown has affected much.
When are you planning to list your company?
As soon as we reach Rs 100-crore revenue mark, we will go for public listing. We think we will take around three more years to achieve that mark. We are looking to cross Rs 50 crore this year; last year our revenue was around Rs 38 crore.
Could you please share your thoughts on hiring people for a startup?
Every industry has its own fundamentals and it is impossible to find a person who is already trained for any industry. So we hire freshers and train them. We hire people on the basis of their personality and not on the basis of who they are. We hire those people who stay close to our offices and if we see that a person is staying 20 Km away from our office, we discourage him or her to join us. There are some nonsense basics that we follow while hiring people. We do conduct written tests but more than the marks scored, we focus on the thoughts reflected in the write-up.
After hiring people, we treat them as our own brothers and sisters. We retain our employees by treating them like a family.
Please share your experience about different phases of Indian internet industry from 1996 till date. Also, how do you see the industry moving forward?
The initial three-to-four years were more of creating an online presence when people mostly used internet for emailing and chatting along with some news surfing. Then post September 2001 everybody was worried about the response. All sort of online businesses were asking the same question, where is the response? Till 2006, businesses having a good model got the response and those who did not have a good model, they failed.
Post 2006, people want to collaborate, form a community and entertain the user. And the next will be the integration of the response with collaboration. Now people want to know how Orkut can be integrated to Naukri and thus form a LinkedIn. And that is going to happen with all the classifieds sites and all the communitised sites. After everybody has grown independently, the future of all internet businesses depend on the integration and partnering with businesses which are champions in their own fields.
Now, everyone is talking about using mobile as a channel of using internet. Though the industry is yet to reach standard norms for doing the same, mobile has a tremendous opportunity for online businesses. But one needs to clarify the niche verticals of the businesses. I think people will not search for jobs or life partners on the mobile, however people might not mind sending a flower to a friend through mobile. Also, news, cricket scores and financial stocks are going to be the hot favourites on the mobile platform. So, one needs to define the niche before launching the business.
The government bodies need to develop more consumer friendly internet entities. Apart from IRCTC.co.in (Indian Railways’ online ticket booking service), there is hardly any governmental initiative which is widely used by consumers. The banking industry has also done wonders with internet banking, but look at the mutual fund industry in the country. Till today, India does not have a model where one could buy or sell mutual funds online. Again education has a lot of scope in the online fields and any educational initiative from the government can take the number of internet users to 100 million in India.
Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of IndiaMart.com was initially working as a software engineer and had a vision to own a business. In an exclusive interview with AlooTechie, Agarwal shares the story of the launch of IndiaMart.com as a business in India.
Before launching IndiaMart.com, you were working at HCL Technologies in US. What made you decide to leave your job and start as an entrepreneur in India?
When I was working for HCL in US, I already had an experience of around five to six years of working as a software engineer in the IT industry. I had already worked for large organisations including CMC (a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services), C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) and then HCL America.
As I basically hail from a traditional business family, I always had this question at the back of my mind, “Is there a possibility of owning a business based on the IT industry?” I was sure that an Indian business could not be initiated from US as I didn't know the country and I was not connected to the people well. Hence, I decided to take a transfer and come back to India. Then I was working with HCL Technologies and I asked them to transfer me back to India. This is how I took the first step to launch a business of my own.
Why did you choose to launch an internet business and that too around 1996, when internet was quite unheard of in the country?
After coming back to India, I actively started taking part in different trade fairs and shows to know what’s happening in different industries in the country. After roaming in the market for some time, I understood that the software industry was getting very competitive and I didn't have that kind of resource to start a software business. So I used to wonder, after software what would be the next thing that will rule the market!
At around early 1995, internet was being born in US. Yahoo had just begun at that time and I was fortunately one of the first internet users. Thus, I already had an inclination towards internet. There were many instances where I could find the required information only on internet and I was pretty sure that the future belongs to internet and thus I decided to launch an internet business.
Initially, I decided to set up an internet service provider business like Sify, but that was not possible as licensing policies in India only allowed BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) to provide the service in the country. So, I started with a website making business, InterMesh Systems, in 1996.
You started as a consumer product. What made you feel that an online B2B marketplace will be successful in India and thus diversify into this business?
At that time, if I remember well, the desktop publishing (DTP) business was flourishing all over the country. DTP cafes were being set up in every nook and corner and anybody who had to design a card could easily get that done by paying a minimal amount. Somehow, I had the feeling that the website making business would turn out to be another DTP business and website designers would crop up in every corner of the country. So, I started thinking about alternatives of sustaining the website making business.
As I was regularly visiting various trade fairs, I developed a knack of Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). I was impressed by the way these trade bodies maintained a database of several businesses and the way they organised several trade fairs. This made me think whether a similar model was possible in internet or not.
We decided to create our own website wherein we would list websites that were developed by Intermesh Systems. This could give small businesses, whose websites had been developed by us, more visibility. So, we launched IndiaMart.com. We started with an online directory of Indian websites that were designed by us. As the list of websites grew on, we categorised the companies in different sections, including apparel, automobile and engineering, and so it became an online yellow page directory. Thus, instead of starting an IT business, we launched a website making business and to save the website making business we started this website listing business called IndiaMart.com.
How much did you charge the companies for listing?
Initially, we listed all the companies for free and did not charge anything from them. Then as the business grew popular, we started charging companies. Currently, we have around 500,000 free listed companies and a paid user-base of around 15,000.
What were the initial challenges that you had to deal with while setting up IndiaMart?
When we started listing and categorising the websites designed by Intermesh under different business verticals, we saw that many of the categories were either empty or had just two to three listings and that didn't look good. Then we decided to list a few other companies for free and use them as a lead generation mechanism for our own purpose. Thus we started pitching to companies and asking them if we could collaborate. Initially, no one listened to us and so we went to trade fairs and collected free listing form from various small and medium enterprises. Thus, various SMEs (small and medium enterprises) listed themselves online with us.
But the problem was that most of those businesses did not have an internet connection at that time and were not familiar with internet. So, there was a problem in connecting them with the foreign buyers and hence we launched an enquiry forwarding service where we started printing the email queries that came to us and then we would send the printouts of queries to the concerned businesses through local post.
Everyday almost two to three hundred mailers were sent from our office and we did that consistently for about five years. This repeated query generation made the SMEs wonder who IndiaMart.com is and then they would call back to us. We used to take those calls as our generated leads and our marketing guys would go to those businesses and educate them about the online media. Thus, educating the people about the benefits of internet was our key challenge.
How did you convince the SMEs about having an online presence?
Leads started pouring in from various western markets including UK and US, which were the frontrunners in internet boom those days. So, the buyer queries were flowing in smoothly and as we were sending the printed version of the queries to different companies, we monitored how many queries were being sent to those companies.
Our internet consultants went to different Indian businesses to make them understand the usability of internet. We made them understand how they could browse from page to page with a click. That was a difficult thing, to make them understand internet, and so we started marketing by results. We asked businesses to register with us for free and see within a month how much business queries they generated through us and see how useful that query was. Thus, we led by results.
Did you charge for lead generation from both the buyers and the suppliers?
No. Our model still runs on listing the companies for free. We just charged them for getting their websites done but did not charge anything for listing. Till date our model remains exactly the same as we started with. If one wants to register with IndiaMart, one can do it without making any payments done. Moreover, one can also update the information for free.
How did you recover the cost of printing the email queries and sending them via post?
Initially, the premium that we charged from companies for making their websites was much higher than what the cost of operation was. The cost of operations actually started rising post 1999-2000 and by that time around 80 per cent of our clients were already having email and so we dropped the practice of sending printed mails to businesses. Thus, the operational costs became much lower at our end. And now we don't list any business which doesn't have an email. All the five lakh companies that are listed with us have an email address with them.
What’s the ratio of leads that come to IndiaMart from within and outside India?
There used to be a time when 80 to 90 per cent of the leads came from abroad and the remaining came from India. Today, we have 40 per cent of leads coming from abroad and the rest 60 per cent come from within India. However, as our business is focussed on the international market, most of the conversions that happen are from our foreign leads.
What was the initial response from friends and family after you started the business?
My family was supportive, though initially they were a little worried that I left the job in US and came back to India to set up my own venture. Friends were also supportive but there were various people who kept on criticising us. Even the media criticised us saying that we won't be profitable. But I am thankful to our critics as their criticisms have made us probably the only company in the internet business being profitable from the start. We have never been in the red ever.
Did you ever get any support from the Government?
People started asking us if we were a Government of India initiative. At that point of time, there was an organisation called Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), which was a government initiative and they had a similar model like us. So, many people who knew about HKTDC thought that IndiaMart was also a government initiative. But we were never supported by the Government. In initial days we were expecting some collaboration from government bodies. But they always considered us as a competition. Now, we have stopped expecting collaborations from the government.
Who were your investors?
Initially, we did not have any investor investing on us. Very recently, we had Intel Capital investing in our company. Now we plan to expand our company's offerings and replicate the same business model in alternate media and work towards venturing into international markets.
Besides, there has been a private equity deal with BCCL (Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd). The deal provided us ad space in the BCCL properties, which include The Times of India and The Economic Times.
Your company has already been in operations for 12 years. Didn’t you ever feel like diversifying into other businesses as well?
We have been playing different roles in the last twelve years. The first four years were given to highlighting the business of IndiaMart. Next four years were given to staying alive in the market and actually prove the worth of IndiaMart. And the last four years were invested in scaling up the business and making it a profitable one. About 90 per cent of our total 12 years’ profit has come in the last four years. Thus, we did not have time to think about diversifying into other businesses.
So, what is the roadmap for the next four years?
In the next four years we want to become a complete B2B business media company in India. For that we will have to diversify into telephone and WAP (mobile web). We have already started with our own print version. Similarly, we have started partnering with trade fairs to make them an IndiaMart show. We have already partnered with around five such shows. We promote these shows heavily through our website.
Are there also plans to venture outside India?
There are plans but they are still in the Alpha Beta versions. This will not be a country specific initiative rather will be an industry specific initiative and will be vertically split into various industries.
Which verticals have generated more business for IndiaMart?
Initially, most of the exporter business was apparel and textile oriented; then Indian handicrafts became popular; and now a bulk of the queries is generated for industrial engineering.
What was your reaction to Alibaba.com entering India? Did it make you change your business strategy?
We have not changed our policies but have cautioned ourselves to stay more focussed towards our business. And we also want to be consumer centric. There are many instances when world biggies came to India but the Indian companies still rule the roost. Monster came in but Naukri is still bigger and better.
What have been your major achievements?
Sustaining a profitable growth has been one of our key achievements. Besides, we have largely been able to hold on to our older employees. We have more than 10 people who have been working with us for the last ten years and more than fifty people who have been with us for more than five years. The people commitment has been very good, probably because they love the company and they share the vision of the company.
Has the current economic slowdown affected your business?
Not yet. But if it spreads to general economy and affects our SMEs to the extent of closing down their businesses, then it might affect us as well. As far as simple internet businesses go, I do not think slowdown has affected much.
When are you planning to list your company?
As soon as we reach Rs 100-crore revenue mark, we will go for public listing. We think we will take around three more years to achieve that mark. We are looking to cross Rs 50 crore this year; last year our revenue was around Rs 38 crore.
Could you please share your thoughts on hiring people for a startup?
Every industry has its own fundamentals and it is impossible to find a person who is already trained for any industry. So we hire freshers and train them. We hire people on the basis of their personality and not on the basis of who they are. We hire those people who stay close to our offices and if we see that a person is staying 20 Km away from our office, we discourage him or her to join us. There are some nonsense basics that we follow while hiring people. We do conduct written tests but more than the marks scored, we focus on the thoughts reflected in the write-up.
After hiring people, we treat them as our own brothers and sisters. We retain our employees by treating them like a family.
Please share your experience about different phases of Indian internet industry from 1996 till date. Also, how do you see the industry moving forward?
The initial three-to-four years were more of creating an online presence when people mostly used internet for emailing and chatting along with some news surfing. Then post September 2001 everybody was worried about the response. All sort of online businesses were asking the same question, where is the response? Till 2006, businesses having a good model got the response and those who did not have a good model, they failed.
Post 2006, people want to collaborate, form a community and entertain the user. And the next will be the integration of the response with collaboration. Now people want to know how Orkut can be integrated to Naukri and thus form a LinkedIn. And that is going to happen with all the classifieds sites and all the communitised sites. After everybody has grown independently, the future of all internet businesses depend on the integration and partnering with businesses which are champions in their own fields.
Now, everyone is talking about using mobile as a channel of using internet. Though the industry is yet to reach standard norms for doing the same, mobile has a tremendous opportunity for online businesses. But one needs to clarify the niche verticals of the businesses. I think people will not search for jobs or life partners on the mobile, however people might not mind sending a flower to a friend through mobile. Also, news, cricket scores and financial stocks are going to be the hot favourites on the mobile platform. So, one needs to define the niche before launching the business.
The government bodies need to develop more consumer friendly internet entities. Apart from IRCTC.co.in (Indian Railways’ online ticket booking service), there is hardly any governmental initiative which is widely used by consumers. The banking industry has also done wonders with internet banking, but look at the mutual fund industry in the country. Till today, India does not have a model where one could buy or sell mutual funds online. Again education has a lot of scope in the online fields and any educational initiative from the government can take the number of internet users to 100 million in India.
On 19/03/2010 INDIAMART web consultant (!) Mr. Niraj Sharma drew a contract with us, i.e. M/s Raico Engineers by raising a Proforma Invoice DT. 19/03/2010.
On 23/03/2010 a C.D. containing all the matter related to website matter was handed over to him with an advance cheque.
Matter contained fully prepared text with photographs.
All that was needed was to format the matter on to their template (which was also selected and mentioned on their contract).
Unprofessional as they are, their WEB DESIGNER (SIC!) could not complete formatting the website.
In spite of repeated spoon feeding the entire matter, over and over again, through emails and CDs, in different versions, they could not progress and complete the site.
Our opinion of their staff is-- they are uneducated in the task, inexperienced in communications and downright unprofessional.
Their ONLY AIM is-- to get money out of potential customers, without providing the service.
Turnover of their staff do not create a regular business channel, and customers are left to deal with multiple people, who visit you and vanish without any result.
Till writing of this complaint that is 23rd August 2010, my website is not formatted or posted on to Indiamart site.
Multiple letters have met with unsatisfactory or no responses.
Through this complaint, I wish to draw the attention of other potential customers, to be aware, before parting with money.
Also, if the people who count at INDIAMART, happen to see this complaint, and are conscious and professional businessman, hopefully they will do needful to right the wrongs done by their underlings
MR Dinesh,
Your organisation is probably the worst organisation I have ever seen. Your people just collect the money and then they dont offer what the commit. I have suggestion, please stand on the road with some mirchi powder in hand and snatch bags, chains etc. at least you will be called what you are doing a Thief or dacoit. your men just keep on committing and they dont do a single thing.
i had worked into this company n i left in 3.5 months, i joined here as sales manager into ahmedabad branch, but there is no support no training , as i was from banking background, i was not knowing abt the process , market of b2b . i have worked with icici, scb, hdfc as sales manager , i know the working atmosphere, but in indiamart if u have been recruited as sales manager they treat u as executive, people who want to spoil there career may join this company. i left this co. on 31st march 2010 n after lot fallups to noida head of office i received my salary just two days back,thanx to indiamart for that, i m not blaming to company or to his directors bcos they must b not knowing this that whts going on in the ground level..i also tried to contact to mr. dinesh agrawal, but he was not availabe at that time so i gave me mobile no to that receptionist n told her that its very urgent n personal which i cant disclose to u, so please convey this message to mr. dinesh agrawal..
Thanks
amit chawla
The best company is vAngelz Technologies. Khali 2 maheene ki salary rok ke rakhti hai.
Wake UP!!..Theres time for everything rather being a looser for the rest of your life!..
Sorry to say but all the supporters of IndiaMart, either u guys are living on 9th cloud or You people have been mislead. As a matter of fact let me clear you through all your beliefs and disbelief. First of all the complaints regarding the salary and the incentives are true to the fact that company is a like Kings court where every slave has been fooled and blindly mistaken with the fact that he is wrong in his part. So, here is a tip for all you happy supporters , thank god that your day has not yet been shown to you..just wait for your day to come when you will be left with reasons, that are viable to not your unattented failure but you wont be in a condition to blame the company...And your definition will be a "LOOSER"!!..Just wait for that day!!..
I visit n read most of the articles...One point which indeed to say, Dinesh Sir's Vision down to earth by touching sky.
Its not gud to criticize him for basic things...Every system has their own Values. You can't improve system until deserve on management eye.
We Mango People should b dynamic n think as a Team.
Company n You are vice versa for each other. We are in Family.
Just gone through the interview and after reading all this I just want to say I will not join by any means... MNC's are good atleast they pay you on every 30th or 1st of every month. Indian pvt companies like India Mart are suckers....they suck and grow like mosquito, so we should thrash them and those are working with India Mart should leave asap...dont work with a selfish company like India Mart... I am lucky that i got this informations in here otherwise I would have joined this comp... bach gaya thank you all... :)
hi
As a x employee in indimart i said that its not a good company to work every person is in the company is only a labour in this company
the salary structure and the behave of the seniors are very bad and they treat like that the person is a dog or an animal for then the animal who always work and never get reward for this this is the company of friends and relatives that every body knows who work even 2 month in this bad organization i will suggest that never join that company and even newer refer any person and spoil their future
check this link also about their complaints
http://www.consumercomplaints.co.in/indiamartcom
god helps the person who worked there
because they will die soon when they worked like this
Truly a Pioneer and a successful one for that....
I worked with Indiamart for a year. Salary was low, but work environment was ok. At least I got a chance there to understand the internet business.
as far i know about indiamart it is worst company anyone can experience in his lifetime, dinesh improve conditions or company will die, no company can survive in this market if employees are not happy, you have made enough money now run company :)
I worked in Indiamart for 2 years and it was my first job as well. It was like joining a military academy whereby you have to refer to all your seniors with sir, madam. Noone will listen to you and seniors behave very badly with new joinee, in other words they had a horrifying way of interaction with juniors. At the end of the day you will go to your senior stand in vishram mode and they will monitor what you have done and no matter whatever improvement you made they will harass you.
The were many problems with Indiamart. Peoples in marketing dept never gets their salary on time and people getting salary after 2-3 months was a very common practice. Salary revision use to be like you are a peon. The first increment i had was of INR 500, Second of INR 800 and 3rd of same as well. Another problem is employee are assigned only a part of the job and burdened with work, so no-one gets opportunity to grow. In other words they make you dumb. I worked for 2 years so it shows how dumb i became their and its only when some of friends left and they started getting twice / thrice amount of salary than they use to get in Indiamart, i got waked up and left. Another problem is Indiamart promotes friends and relatives at senior position no matter whether they deserve or not. Yes, there are other peoples in senior position as well apart from relatives but relatives are treated with special care. Timing use to be 9-6 P.M. but you were burdened with so much work that you can never leave before at least 8 PM. Girls are exception here. And if some guy leaves at 6 P.M. he use to be seen as he had done some SIN and next day he will get double the amount of work. There was reward for staying late and that was bread pakora at 7 PM. Also when you get Team Leader you are asked to hire ******* so that they work long and don't leave.
Having said all that there are few positive points as well. Indiamart offers job security, i mean if you somehow manages to work for 1 year and if you have no real ambitions you can stick for as long as you want. It is growing every year as they had the advantage of first movers in their field. It has become a brand and after 1-2 year you can get a good break somewhere else.
Nice and honest words by the man who founded Indiamart.
Hiring policy however seems a bit erratic. Residing outside 20 km wont get u a berth in Indiamart. Does not it imply they probably donot need high end knowledge worker. May be the model is like that.
About salary, yes i hv heard they pay less. But then again you have to see they are not hiring from campuses. You get what you worth.
For starters, it can be a platform. Longterm i dont know unless u r a housewife and living within 10-15 km and happy wid 1750 rs increment YoY.
Ppl in senior management are like any other co. I heard abt a man who is in senior management, this person joined d company as an image cutter while IMart started and today he holds an important position and highly respected in the organization and the industry.
Why they hold last month salary i dont know, may be they desperately want to bring down the attrition because delhi n NCR (and splly noida) is filled with web companies.
For everything that happens in the co you can not blame the CEO. A lot of times he may not aware of the ongoing events. There are multi layered management structures and decisions formed while looking at broader perspective or goal.
Intel Cap also invested in 123greetings...another successful start up by another marwari...you hate them or like them you have to give them their due.
New gen Marwaris have come out of A2Z brick and morter shops spread all across the country (even in interiors of india where none of us would visit even for a week) and setting up businesses. They are educated, polished (entrepreneurby birth) and mind you they achieve it by sheer hard work and determination.
Dinesh babu, you are not approachable. aap ke mobile par phone karo, toh koi ladki utathi hai....may be ur secretry..and she asks kya kaam hai...u r running an internet originastion and operating like a sarkari babu. U might be missing business deals or media coverage too......a mobile is a personal device..think over it..
Hello friends,
Every coin has two faces. Many criticizer always criticize the policy of Mahatma Gandhi and many person say that we got freedom due to his sacrifices. May be some of his policies were wrong, as we think at our level. But some time think according to him(Mahatma Gandhi) w.r.t that situation, environment and condition of our country that time. was he wrong? I don't think so.
Same here, we have a family of 900 employees and definitely some of them criticize the policy of company. I want to share an example of my friend, worked here as Sales executive. He always said, "Here, Sales target is very high.We are not able to achieve that" I replied,"Sales target is same for all sales person and a lot of them not only achieve that, while more than it than why not you." First month my friend couldn't achieve 50% of his his target. same 3 months continue. After that company took his resignation letter. May be lot of people think this is not right still company has given him chance up to 3 months. But i want to ask one question. in your family, one family member is mentally retired. How much time will you take care of that person after marriage, when will you have a lot of responsibility?
And definitely 99% people left that person at any mentally retired hospital.
Plz. think about it.
I am also the employee of this company and i am very happy with my job.I can give you a lot of reason, for the IndiaMART is best.
Thanks Regards
Shashank Dixit
Quality Executive
(IndiaMART InterMEASH ltd.)
Good to hear that there are some employees who are satisfied with IndiaMart salary but on an average you cannot deny the fact that the salary is indeed very low. U have given an example of a mentally retired person which I think is a very illogical example to be given in this regard. Firing an employee who is not performing well is very logical but deserving candidates should be given a justified salary. Here justification does not mean an increment of just Rs. 1500 or 2000. Everyone here is working to sustain a family and not for pocket money as college goers. The company indeed has a very good working environment but in near future hope it changes the pay structure so that everyone lives as a happy family.
Yes, its very rite that IndiaMART dont give good salary to its employees. It is the only bad thing Indiamart have. Otherwise, working environment is so good. And i wonder after receiving huge amount from Intel, They have not increased anybody's salary. Salary offered is just too low at this organisation.
All the best to Dinesh Agarwal and IndiaMart. Wish and pray that the company grows further and together with it the future of IndiaMART's employees also reach the height of success and prosperity.
well said manish....but dont consider indiamart as a machine....it is an organisation n for your kind information, u can take employee survey n u'll get d rite figure....80% of employees r not satisfied with their work culture n hr policy...u will find 9 out of 10 employees left indiamart in first 3 months of their joining n that too without getting their last month salary....
sudhir kumar
jaipur branch
ex-employee, indiamart.com
(Reporting to vikram mishra & nishith verma)
Dear Mr Sudhir, it seems that you are the former employer. Anyway, every company has its own problems and I have not seen any company grow without firing employees who are not worth it. Sorry to say, you appear to be among the complaining lot of people who can never think well about a company. You feel pained of the one month salary u did not get but u forget about the previous months that u have fed ur family on the company's money. So please shut up. Indiamart is known to retain its employees and DA is a business icon. The company has done well to fire you or else it could not have reached the heights it has done today. People like you should be fired and sacked as u dont have time to work and go on bitching about the company.
Hi There,
Sorry for being into your matter, but I must advice you that if you are into online reputation management of your organisation then you must use words carefully. Do not forget that there are millions of people out there who are keeping a note of every word, especially from within the organisation, and any strong word can backfire.
So handle the matter carefully as this seems to be a matter of actual seriousness.
Good Luck to both the sides.
Indiamart will win in any situation and nothing can beat forever...MAY GOD BLESS INDIAMART AND ITS VISION & MISSION TOWARDS SMES..
There is always two sides of the coin...some say IMART is not good to work with but many says it is...Even a new machine dont gives 100% efficiency...
In my view, Mr Dinesh Agarwal is a very visionary person...pioneer of internet marketing in india, he has provided a gateway of world market to Indian SME,s and that too in an efficient manner thus reducing costs in terms of marketing...its a company which provides performance oriented growth and i am very much satisfied as an employee.
Mr Agarwal can be a real role model to be followed for any entrepenuer.
Thanks Alootechie for this article n providing clear insight of Mr. Agarwal vision and his journey.
Mr. Dinesh Agrawal has provided a nice platform to Indian SME's to take there products directly to international market.
All the best to Dinesh Agrawal & Indiamart.Com.
Indiamart.com is not a employee frendly company.....it does't pay employees salary on time....i worked for 2 months n got 1 month salary....at that time mr.vikram mishra was my senior manager n i wrote a mail to everyone starting from ceo, coo n hr dept. but nothing happened...if u want my name then i can reveal it....i was in jaipur branch...its totally an unethical company....
Dinesh Agarwal is a visionary businessman. He started in the mid 90s- the world laughed-- now he is having the laugh and the world is saying hope we had that farsightedness. KUDOS DINESH and INDIAMART.
Good work Alootechie.
Everything said and done, why doesnt than indiamart pay its employee good sallary and treat them in a descent manner. Why do they have to slog for every whing. Why dinesh, WHY
Dinesh has shown that practicality & perseverence pays off in the long run. His thoughts provide insights into how to successfully run a company by creating the demand & capitalise on the opportunity.
He deserves kudos for making Indian SMEs accessible to International markets & in the process, boosting Indian Exports. All the best to Dinesh & Indiamart.
Government has got up & taken note of the wonders internet can do & hopefully we will see some great consumer oriented initiatives in the near future (apart from irctc).
Hi
To add to the govt initiatives, NIC-National Information Centre has taken many initiatives. Govt has irctc.co.in as well as indianrail.gov.in another property which they are monetizing
Cheers
Dinesh Aggarwal is futuristic & brilliant person. I wish good luck to IndiaMART for its future ventures.
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