Quikr Cuts Down Losses, Revenue Hikes Up 75%

Bengaluru-based online classifieds marketplace and hyperlocal services provider Quikr has managed to narrow down its losses to INR 230.04 Cr in the financial year 2019, ending March 2019, compared to INR 237.43 Cr last year.

Quikr has also registered a 74.6% hike in its revenue. In FY19, Quikr generated INR 191.22 Cr versus INR 109.5 Cr in the previous year. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Quikr spent INR 436.83 Cr in FY19, compared to INR 375.95 Cr last year. The company has noted a 16% rise in its expenses.

Quikr generated INR 85.15 Cr in FY19 from “marketing and management service fee” from its home rental product. In addition, Quikr generated INR 50.1 Cr from paid advertising revenue, INR 49.54 Cr as commissions, INR 39.2 Cr from lead referral fee, and INR 24.48 Cr from on-demand beauty services “AtHomeDiva”.

Founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet, Quikr is a classifieds website that has also marked its presence in various verticals like cars and bikes, jobs, Quikr Realty and Quikr homes. The company claims to have over 20 Mn monthly unique visitors and is present in approximately 1,200 cities in India.

Last week, Quikr discontinued its AtHomeDiva service, keeping in mind the customer demand.
Quikr spokesperson told Inc42 that it conducted studies of the unit economics of its various verticals. In the study, Quikr zeroed down on the verticals that were not functioning as per its expectations.

The spokesperson added that AtHomeDiva did not prove viable in terms of the return of investments (ROI), therefore the company decided to discontinue the service. In addition to this, Quikr also laid off 30% of its workforce of 3000 across various verticals, which means around 900 employees lost their jobs.

The company’s spokesperson told Inc42, “We [Quikr] have been talking to our customers over the period of time and now we have a good view of how the economics are working in our various categories. Based on this, we decided to rationalise some of our workforce and some things in our operating model. We have changed some things in our market offerings also.”

The mass layoffs and discontinuation of AtHomeDiva services come two weeks after three employees from Quikr were alleged to have scammed Quikr by forging business transactions to fictitious clients to earn a commission. Inc42’s sources said that the company had lost over INR 20 Cr as a result of the scam.