Indian digital classified industry to grow to $1.2 bn by 2020: Report

New Delhi: The Indian digital classified industry is set to grow three times to $1.2 billion by 2020 -- driven by the rapid growth of e-services, real estate and automobiles, Google and KPMG revealed on Wednesday.

Launching a report titled `Digital Classifieds in India 2020` that gives a comprehensive overview of the current trends in the industry, they added that horizontal classifieds will still continue to lead with about 30 per cent market share of total digital classifieds in 2020. 

"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 and with every second consumer willing to pay for value added services, the digital classified segment is expected to touch $1.2 billion by 2020," Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, Google India, told reporters here. 

Google search trends reveal that local searches across digital classified categories have grown by 4 times in the last four years, led by non-metro`s like Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kochi, Coimbatore, Indore and Jaipur.

Real Estate and e-services are expected to increase by 4 times and 7 times, respectively, by 2020. 

"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," added Sreedhar Prasad, Partner- E-Commerce and Start Ups, KPMG India.

This will further enhance revenue streams, monetising possibilities and reduce overall cost of customer acquisition. 

Within the e-services classifieds, vertical dining, auto rentals, relocation services and home services like beauty services, repair, tutoring, personal trainers are the most popular segments. 

"Online jobs market is set to double by 2020 with 63 per cent consumers accessing e-classified. Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad are the top ranked cities for online job searches and with `Sarkari Naukri` as one of the top searched Indic terms," the report added.

The report further highlighted that the digitally-savvy consumer is happy to pay for value-added services. 

For instance, 59 per cent of used goods buyers are willing to pay for quality verification of goods or home delivery; 43 per cent of job portal users are willing to pay for auto application for jobs and 40 per cent of consumers searching for real estate are ready to invest more for legal verification and property check.