Article · 12 min read

Inc42 UpNext: How Looking Inward Changed Everything For IndiaMART

Aditya Kondalamahanty · Inc42 Free Beginner India

IndiaMART started serving overseas buyers, lost that market after 2001, and rebuilt around Indian SME buyers posting requirements. A twenty year lesson in how a marketplace's ICP can flip sides and geography and still work.

  • IndiaMART's international B2B revenue slumped by more than half after 9/11, which forced the pivot to the domestic market.
  • It refocused on India in 2007 and became a buyer-dedicated forum by 2011, rebuilding the model twice.
  • By March 2018 it had 5.5 million supplier storefronts, 60 million listed products, and 59.81 million registered buyers.
  • FY18 revenue was 540 crore rupees (74.7 million dollars) with 46 crore operating profit, on 40,000 rupees of founding capital.
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The question it answers

  1. We are a marketplace with buyers on one side and sellers on the other. Which side is the ICP?

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