How comfortable are you with IT? What has IT done for Naukri?

I am not a technology person. I have an advertising and marketing background and I studied economics in college. However, I have always been an avid user of technology.

IT has always enabled business. In the last three years, we have realized that we need to keep abreast of the competition -- at least in product and tech innovations. Our investments in innovation is what keeps Naukri ahead. Going forward, too, IT's going to be one of the most important factors.

You started a matrimonial site. Why diversify?

InfoEdge has started and has plans to start a number of diverse portals. We've got Jeevansathi, a matrimonial website, we've got 99acres, a real estate exchange, and this quarter we are launching Shiksha, an educational site.

The most important reason for these diverse areas of interest is that we are chasing large markets. The strategy is to launch in unchartered areas and take on unsolved problems. We are trying to enter markets where we believe there is a great possibility to utilize the Internet's efficiency. We know that we have the leadership and the bandwidth to service these opportunities.

What does e-commerce need to take off in India?

There are many things required for the development of e-commerce in India. Basically, there's an issue of Internet penetration itself. Second is the willingness of people to use credit cards on the Net.

The third is question is: do we really have great e-commerce sites with great products at the right prices, with dispatches being delivered on time? Why should consumers buy online? Are we giving consumers something cheaper or better? Or we giving a product to the user faster, or making it more convenient? Are we offering something that is not available in a consumer's neighborhood? Unless these conditions are fulfilled, e-commerce will not take off.

Downtime is a nightmare in your business. How do you tackle this?

You build redundancies, backups, mirrors and replicated servers. That's the only way to minimize downtime.

IT has a lot to do with our daily functions because it's the base of our businesses. Our product runs because of IT. Our entire backend is all IT-enabled, and all processes depend on IT. We also have different product and technology heads for different businesses.

Do they play a role in business development?

Our technology heads play a significant role. For example, we are implementing ERP -- it is a key project moving forward. We are starting with Naukri. Here, Vibhor Sharma is playing a very big role and the entire IT infrastructure reports to him.

What's next at Naukri?

We are planning to launch Shiksha and are investing in a few startups. We will make a few big announcements in the next quarter. We are also planning to expand our Naukri franchise in the Middle East.