Sulekha

Sulekha.com is an Indian internet and mobile company offering a digital platform of marketplaces anchored around multiple consumer needs in over 50 Indian and North American cities. Chosen by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in 2012 as India’s best multi-utility website, Sulekha integrates Local Search, Classifieds and Ecommerce services, enhanced by member blogs, answers, reviews and ratings in these marketplaces: Property, Cars, Home Needs, Office Needs, Education/Training, Lifestyle, Movies, Gadgets, Travel, Eatouts, Buy/Sell, Deals. With operations in 11 cities, Sulekha employs more than 1300 employees; its marketing slogan is: “Delightful discoveries. Everyday.”

Company background

Sulekha.com was founded by Satya Prabhakar and Sangeeta Kshettry, and was incorporated in India as Sulekha.com New Media Pvt. Ltd. in 2002. Sulekha has received investments from Indigo Monsoon Partners, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Mitsui & Co. The directors on Sulekha’s Board are Param Parameswaran (Chairman), Satya Prabhakar (Founder and CEO), Harish Raghavan (IMG), Promod Haque (NVP) and Yasushi Okazaki (Mitsui & Co.)

Operations

Sulekha has its presence in 29 Indian cities (Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Coimbatore) and at least 9 North American cities (Chicago, New York, Toronto, Austin).

Revenue model

Sulekha has over 25 million unique visits per month.^{[citation needed]} Sulekha has served over 75,000 Small to Medium Business (SMB) customers, 1500+ agencies and brands and has around 500,000 transacting Internet users.^{[citation needed]}

Sulekha derives revenues from four sources:

• Response and impression advertising revenues from Small to Medium Business (SMB) customers
• Advertising revenues from major brands and services
• User fees for premium classified ads
• Commission from e-commerce revenues

Marketing

Sulekha had significant word-of-mouth publicity. It developed some television and internet commercials later.

The Red Arrows

This is a 40-second TV commercial that made the famous “red arrow” the creative mascot of Sulekha. The basic premise is that whatever one wants in his or her city, he/she can find it by shooting a red arrow at Sulekha.com. The TVC captures a family moving from one city to another, with all family members shooting ‘red arrows’ at Sulekha.com to fulfill their respective needs.

Arjuna the Archer

Taking off on the “red arrows” concept and inspired by a 1000-year old story-telling art of Patha Chitra Katha (painting on palm leaves), Sulekha created an animated commercial “Arjuna the Archer” to a traditional Indian background score. The commercial told the story of a young archer, besotted by a girl across town, who achieves his heart’s desire by simply shooting red arrows at Sulekha.com. This commercial won international acclaim through multiple awards:

• 2008 Cannes Bronze Award for “Animation under film craft” (JWT)^[2]
• 2009 Adfest Lotus Roots Silver Award in Film (JWT)^[3]
• 2009 Adfest Lotus Roots Bronze Award in Film Craft (JWT)^[3])

Yellow Rippers YouTube Viral

Sulekha.com launched a viral contest asking people to submit videos of themselves ripping up phone books in a dig at the fading importance of printed books and the emergence of digital medium. More than 250 videos were submitted with some tearing up fat books with bare hands, often in strange positions (e.g. hanging upside down). The contest spread fast with millions of views of various videos.^{[citation needed]}

The viral campaign won this award of recognition:

• 2007 Adfest Gold for Sponsored/Promotion category (JWT)^[4]

Everything but Babies Member-Inspired Commercial

A member of Sulekha scripted, shot and posted a video commercial showing a couple talking about how they were able to do multiple things through Sulekha, including finding each other except, they both agree, babies.

Sulekha.com raised over a Million dollars from its members within a few days of the Tsunami that hit Tamil Nadu and other parts of India during Dec 2004.^[5][6]

US edition

• us.sulekha.com has launched its new look on Oct 9th,2013 for the Users' convenience. For the needs of Indians living in the US and Canada. NRI users can avail the services offered by Sulekha,US Classifieds &Indian Roommates. Sulekha has also created a blog section Sulekha.com(Indiapulse) for the users to share their thoughts and ideas.

Awards won by Sulekha

• Internet and Mobile Association of India (2011): rated Sulekha.com the Best Multi Utility Website.
• Financial Times (UK): “Sulekha.com…the world’s largest online Indian community…is extraordinarily sticky – some visitors call it addictive…”
• PC World^[7] (June 2008) rated Sulekha.com the Best Local Search Site in India.
• Comscore (Jan 2009): Ranked most popular Classifieds and Yellow Pages in India
• CNBC (Oct 2008): Sulekha.com…the largest online Classifieds and Yellow Pages in India.
• MSN (July 2008) rated Sulekha.com the Best WAP Site in India for Local Commerce.
• Venture Beat (May 2008): “A merger between Facebook and Craigslist may seem like a pipe dream — but in India it’s already happening. The web community Sulekha has quickly grown to become India’s largest user-generated content site…with 6 million members”^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Satya Prabhakar
• Norwest Venture Partners
• Facebook
• Alexa
• Indian companies
• Business-to-business
• Online classifieds

References

Additional sources

• Indian social site Sulekha gets $10M from Norwest, VentureBeat
• Sulekha merges Facebook and Craigslist in India, VentureBeat
• A portrait of India, at home on the Web, The Austin American-Statesman (subscription required)
• Sulekha to monetize on local commerce, The Economic Times
• Sulekha.com opens office, The Hindu
• Classified magic, The Financial Express

External links

• Sulekha.com (company website)
• Sulekha Lifestyle (Lifestyle Website)
• Sulekha Property (Real Estate Website)
• Sulekha Business Yellowpages (Local Search Yellowpages Website)
• Sulekha Social Media (Social Networking Website)