Digital classifieds could become $1.2-billion market in India by 2020: Report

New Delhi: The digital classifieds industry in India will grow three-fold to become a $1.2 billion market by 2020, a report published by Google India and KPMG on Wednesday said.

Quikr, Sulekha, Just Dial and OLX are some of the leading digital classifieds websites in India.

“The ecosystem is ripe for the emergence of digital classifieds. Spurred by the smartphone penetration, online users are expected to grow to a whopping 650 million by 2020”, said Nitin Bawankule, industry director, Google India.

The report, Digital Classifieds in India 2020, said the next phase of growth in digital classifieds will be driven by horizontal classifieds such as online services, real estate and automobiles, even though these will make up only 30% of the total market share of digital classifieds. Google search trends reveal that local searches across these categories have grown by four times in the last four years, led by cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kochi, Coimbatore, Indore and Jaipur.

Classifieds on real estate is expected to grow four times, while online services are forecast to grow seven times, including dining, auto rentals, relocation services and home services like beauty services, repair and tutoring.

The online jobs market is expected to double by 2020 with 63% consumers accessing jobs listed on digital classifieds. Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad are the top cities for online job searches and with maximum searches pertaining to government jobs.

The report points out that a consumer searching online has become willing to make payments for value added services—59% of used goods buyers are willing to pay for quality verification of goods or home delivery; 43% of job portal users are willing to pay for auto application for jobs and 40% of consumers searching for real estate are ready to invest in legal verification and property check.

“As the digital classified segment undergoes a rapid transformation it is facing a few challenges like unverified listings and low customer loyalty. However, it is expected that there will be convergence of online businesses since the end customer is the same.... This would further enhance revenue streams, monetizing possibilities and reduce overall cost of customer acquisition”, said Sreedhar, partner e-commerce and start-ups, KPMG.