We received the first front of funding from ICICI Venture in 2000 and that was one big turning point for the company. We were able to utilize that funding to expand the company. We grew right through the last meltdown, we bought JeevanSaathi??, we launched 99acres; last year, we launched a brand called Shiksha which is an education portal. Recently, we have launched a site called firstnaukri??? which is for campus hiring. We were listed in November, 2006.

Our business is now profitable; it is fairly large as far as Internet business goes. It is a very small company, otherwise. We did a turnover of Rs. 240 crore, last year, which is big for an Internet company but small by other standards in India. We employ about 1,600 or 1,700 people, all over India, across all our nine businesses. The bulk of our revenues – more than 80 per cent -- still comes from naukri. The other sites are still in investment mode.

The slowdown has impacted us. Hiring is down. Fewer companies are hiring as compared to earlier and they are hiring fewer people and our revenues come from companies who want to hire people. But having said that, we are still profitable and we are still growing, although slower than before. In our opinion however, the worst is over as far as hiring is concerned. What we have discovered in the past is that hiring is a lead indicator for the rest of the economy. So, we see a slowdown, maybe six to nine months before it gets reported in the media and we see a recovery may be six to nine months before it gets reported. What we are already witnessing is that December was the bottom. So, barring another external shock, it is likely that the worst is over and you are going to see a recovery. It may be a slow recovery or may be a fast recovery. But already January-March has been better than October-December for us. So, we expect gradual improvement every quarter and we expect returning to reasonable rates of growth in the economy, may be in the second half of the financial year.

... contd.