Info Edge: Is there any pick-up seen in IT hiring? Chintan Thakkar answers

“So, non-IT are multiple sectors and there are some pockets where it is still growing at a faster rate. Few sectors where it is not growing as fast as what it was let us say two quarters ago,” says Chintan Thakkar, Wholetime Director & CFO, Info Edge.

AI is surely picking up pace. And because of AI there are some bit of a reduction in terms of jobs, not required in terms of jobs especially in the ITs pack. Now any indication that you are seeing In terms of IT hiring because that was a bit subdued even when we had seen a few months back as well? So any pickup in IT hiring?
So we have been seeing kind of a decline in IT hiring for almost now little more than four quarters. But if you really see the Jobspeak Index that we published it is declining at a receding rate but nonetheless it is still a decline.
And obviously there is a correction phase that IT industry is going through.

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And if you recall the four or six quarters before that there was a great boom in hiring and the attrition rates and pay scale and all that. So I think there is a correction phase that IT industry is going through and that is continuing. Although the rate at which it is kind of receding declining, it is receding.

No doubt in the quarter gone by you have indicated that the non-IT hiring has actually been pretty robust but is that a robust trend continuing even now? Now that we are in the quarter four right now and also has the attrition levels come down even in the BFSI segment?
So, non-IT are multiple sectors and there are some pockets where it is still growing at a faster rate. Few sectors where it is not growing as fast as what it was let us say two quarters ago.

This is where you have been already spending a lot more. Going forward also do you plan to streamline this or could you expect and could we expect this current pace to continue?
Actually if you look at last three quarters numbers in marketing spend in both the brands that you talked about the spend has kind of bit stabilised. So 99acres it is approximately about 25 crore a quarter and in Jeevansathi it is about 15 crore a quarter. So we are seeing that there is a stability and steadiness in terms of the marketing spend, of course, it all depends on how much the competition also spends on that but it is likely that this is getting more and more efficient.

While on the top line, we are seeing certain efficiencies or certain economies of scale and that is why if you overall see the other businesses like Jeevansathi, 99acres and even Siksha they all have reduced their cash burn and increased their efficiency and that is why despite moderate growth in overall for the Info Edge we have been able to uptick in terms of operating cash and we have been able to keep the margin in the same range.Taking a leap forward from there talking about 99acres. We have seen how great the real estate market has been. It has been having a good run over the last two years so in that context, if you could explain how are the fundamentals shaping up for 99acres?
So you are very right I think that is certainly a burned market and we also have seen a growth in our billing of about approximately 25% and quarter on quarter the rate seems to be increasing. So we are hopeful that Q4 would be even better than that but let us see.

Fundamentally, the prices of real estates have gone up but despite that the demand is keeping pace. The ready to move inventories seem to be coming down so that is why there are newer launches are going to happening in the market and this is across all cities.

Could you give us some insight in terms of the renewals as well as in terms of pricing, how is that shaping up? Could you talk to us about that?
Yes, in real estate as well the renewal rate seems to be going up. As I said that the market is buoyant and obviously we are able to take certain price hikes as well. So when we talk about the 25% growth it includes both that there is an increase in number of customers. Particularly these small brokers seems to be coming back in the market and the resale as well as the new launches market seems to be contributing to our growth rates.

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