Local Search in India - Data Woes

The Local Search market in India is heating up. The space is largely taken up by startups at the moment. Considerable hype has been created of late in this space with Guruji getting backed by Sequoia Capital and Onyomo unveiling its SMS search platform.

The primary factors that determine the effectiveness of a Local Search engine are data quality, search relevance and ease of navigation. One of the biggest challenges that players face in this space is the lack of availability of rich local data. Unlike the US, the local data market is highly fragmented and most players are Yellow Page companies whose data is largely outdated. Arguably, the best database of Local listings currently rests with JustDial, a company which serves Local Information primarily on the phone but has recently entered the online fray as well. Ever since its launch, www.justdial.com has had the maximum traffic in this space, rapidly gaining over Guruji.

Most of the other players rely on Yellow Page companies for Local Data. Guruji, a recent entrant sources its data from Infomedia and hence suffers from the problem of outdated listings. Ilaaka, another player in the local space redirects its search to the Indiacom Yellow Pages site while MapMyIndia sources its local listings from GetIt.

Onyomo has adopted a different approach towards data. They have feet-on-street teams which have been collecting local data by street surveys. This is similar to A9’s effort at collecting pictures of Local Listings by feet-on-street except that the economics for such an exercise work far better in India where labor comes much cheaper.

AOL has also launched a local site but its data is very sparse and largely sourced from websites and web directories.

Clearly, the data problem has been solved only by JustDial and remains a huge barrier to entry for any other players who do not wish to take the Yellow Pages route.

One of the ways of solving the data problem over time is to have the user community contribute towards editing and adding new listings. JustDial and Onyomo have already implemented features to facilitate this process.

Over time, data will definitely be one of the key factors to determine success in Local Search.