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Informist, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025

By Shakshi Jain and Sunil Raghu

MUMBAI/AHMEDABAD – Demand for recruitment remains uncertain, making it a tough market for undertaking price hikes, Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and chief executive officer of Info Edge (India) Ltd., said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday. The company is fighting for sales, deal renewals, and upgrades, he added. 

"... a lot of our big customers are not hiring as much as they were hiring till sometime back... And that's impacted Naukri growth more than anything else, core Naukri growth," Oberoi said. He added that information technology companies, which contribute notably to the company's revenue, continue to remain cautious about adding to their workforces. 

The recruitment business accounts for around three-fourths of the company's overall top line. In the September quarter, revenue of the recruitment solutions segment grew 3% sequentially and 12.8% on year to INR 5.6 billion.

A bulk of the company's recruitment business revenue comes from the Naukri platform, which is currently under pressure because of the slowdown in hiring by IT companies, Oberoi said. However, business in most non-IT sectors has been growing well for the company. For instance, billings in the global capability centre segment grew 18% on year in the September quarter and 17% on year in the June quarter.

In the September quarter, the company's billings in the technology, IT, and business process management industries grew 7% year-on-year, while those in the recruitment consultant category rose 9%. 

The company anticipates growth in demand for premium talent, as well as blue-collar and grey-collar workers, over time. "And that's why the investments in iimjobs and Hirist, which are our premium tech and premium MBA hiring platforms, and the investment in JobHai, which is our blue-collar and grey-collar hiring platform," Oberoi said.

The company is burning around INR 400 million per year in the JobHai business, according to Oberoi. "But we've started monetising now. So, last year, I think we did about INR 5 crores (INR 50 million). This year we'll do at least, we'll try to grow this business, you know, INR 15-17 crores (INR 150 million – INR 170 million), let's see where we end up," he said.  

Among other businesses, the real estate platform 99acres is recording gains in traffic share and seeing growth across segments, Oberoi said. For Jeevansathi, Oberoi said the company is not focussed on profitability but wants to gain market share.

Info Edge's Shiksha business has been recording a decline in traffic due to artificial intelligence-generated summaries on search engines, according to Oberoi. He said the company is working on strategies to mitigate this decline in traffic, but it could take a few quarters before the company figures things out.

Answering a query on turning a profit in 99acres, Oberoi said: "A lot will depend on, of course, how much we want to keep investing to gain share, number one. And number two, a lot will also depend on when revenue growth actually moves up. We've been in the mid-teens for a while now. We need to get to the 20-25% level, and we need to stay there for several years."

Wednesday, shares of Info Edge ended 2.6% higher on the National Stock Exchange at INR 1,376.40.  End

Edited by Saji George Titus

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