Organization: Just Dial
Achievement: This local search engine made people’s life more comfortable in India as it caters for 57 million users in the nation. It provided great employment opportunities by employing over 4,500 people and it also commenced its operations in the USA from 2010.
In a developing country like India, the common citizen is faced with a plethora of choices in many issues: from planning a tour to buying an article. This problem of choice which perplexes the common man needs a solution and that solution is the right information. That too with just a phone call! This is the concept which gripped V.S.S. Mani. He wanted to provide all kinds of information help through a call. Aptly, his company is named “Just Dial”.
V.S.S. Mani was born in Jamshedpur and grew up in Kolkata. He completed his C.A. there itself. “Yellow Pages” started making a name for itself with a similar concept. The thing is that it works for just a part of the day. In 1987, while he was working, he thought of a new firm which would operate all through the day at any time. So, he started a small company in New Delhi. In those days, to get the telephone connection, it took nearly 1 to 2 years. So, the atmosphere was not exactly encouraging at the time for his start up. So he closed it. With a cash of Rs.50,000 he went to Mumbai. Due to lack of funds, he struggled a lot to bring his abstract idea to life. He started a Matrimonial Magazine which became a hit.
It was after this that he started “Just Dial”, in 1994. He increased the quality of service by categorizing the information and also serving the customers in less time. Just Dial serves the customers through 3 means. They are:
q Phone Calls
q Internet
q SMS
Whenever a customer asks for a piece of particular information, they will make him stay on the line for a while. In the interim an advertisement is played. This way money is made. This kind of a unique service model attracted many people. That’s why a small investment of Rs. 50,000 is now worth around Rs. 100 crore!
The company started with just 100 employees. Right now, it boasts of having around 2,600. It extended it’s services in 45 cities and has branches in 13 cities.
Because of it’s exponential growth, “SAIF Partners” from Hong Kong invested Rs. 50 crore and “TIGER GLOBAL” organization from America has invested in Rs. 77 crore.
Recently, V.S.S. Mani started www.JustDial.com to serve their customers through the internet as well. Just Dial receives nearly 1,00,000 phone calls per day from our country.
