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Just Dial Limited
Justdial
FormerlyA&M Communications Private Limited (1993–2006)
Just Dial Private Limited (2006–2011)
Company typePublic
ISININE599M01018
Industry
Founded1996; 28 years ago (1996)
FounderV. S. S. Mani
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra,
India
Area served
India
Key people
ServicesLocal search
RevenueIncrease ₹844.7 crore (US$100 million) (FY23)[3]
Increase ₹162.7 crore (US$19 million) (FY23)
Number of employees
10,984 (June 2020)[4]
ParentReliance Retail
Websitewww.justdial.com

Justdial is an Indian internet technology company that provides local search for different services in India over the phone, website and mobile apps. Founded in 1996 by V. S. S. Mani,[1][5][6] the company is headquartered in Mumbai, India.[5] In addition to its headquarters, Justdial has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Pune. In 2020, Justdial had 10,984 employees,[7] and a database of approximately 29.4 million listings and 536,236 active paid campaigns.[8][7] On 16 July 2021, Reliance Retail acquired a 66.95% stake in Justdial for ₹3,497 crores.[9][10]

History

[edit]

In 1987, while working for a yellow pages company,[5] V. S. S. Mani thought of replacing yellow pages with a database of information that users could call to receive current information about local business listings. To launch his venture, Mani acquired[7] the Mumbai landline phone number 2888-8888. After several years of seeking financial backing for his idea, Mani launched Justdial in 1996 with a seed capital of ₹50,000, five employees, a few rented computers, and borrowed furniture.[5][11][12][13]

In 2007, an Internet and mobile app version of the database called Justdial.com was launched.[14]

On 20 May 2013, Justdial went public at a price between ₹897 and ₹898.[15][7] Of the total 17.5 million shares, 13.5 million of them were offered to the public, while the rest were given to fifteen previous investors at ₹530 per share.[7] To encourage retail investment, Justdial had promised that they would buy back shares from retail investors at the IPO price if Justdial's share price fell sharply within the first six months.[15] By the close of the market on the day of the IPO, the majority of new investments had come from foreign institutional investors. On 5 August of the next year, Justdial's share price reached a high of ₹1,894.70, subsequently decreasing to the triple digits[quantify] in 2015.[16] On 16 July 2021, Reliance Retail acquired a 66.95% stake in JustDial for ₹3,497 crores.[17] As per the deal, Reliance Retail will hold 40.95 percent, and will make an open offer to acquire up to 26 percent in accordance with takeover regulations.[18] The deal also mentioned that Justdial will allow Reliance access to the 25-year-old listings company's merchant database and Mani will continue to lead Justdial as managing director and chief executive officer.

Products and services

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Justdial's service is a database of business listings that users can either access by phone or online. The company also operates "Justdial Social", a service that aggregates content from social media websites, TV broadcast, news, and other sources; and "Search Plus Service", a service that manages online transactions via the web and mobile apps.

Security flaws

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On 10 October 2019, Indian-based independent security researcher Ehraz Ahmed detected a major security flaw in eleadmarket's Register API. The flaw allowed competent hackers to log into any eleadmarket account by simply placing the phone number in the username parameter. By doing so, this granted the hacker access to any person's Justdial account. This vulnerability puts the user's personal data at risk, but also compromises the user's social profile since the hacker could use the system ID generated by exploiting the flaw to access the JustDial Pay account, and post on the user's social profile.[19][20] Justdial acknowledged that there was a bug in one of its API.[21][22] There was no loss of any data or financial loss reported.[21][22]

Acquisition

[edit]

Justdial was acquired By Reliance on July 20, 2021.[23] [24] On July 20, 2021, RRVL acquired 1.31 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each of Just Dial for Rs 1,020 per equity share from VSS Mani, founder and chief executive of Just Dial, in a block deal.[25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Company Overview of Justdial Limited". Bloomberg. 14 November 2016.
  2. ^ "Just Dial bets on search plus service to boost revenues". NDTV Profit. 27 December 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Justdial Results". Inc42. 18 April 2023.
  4. ^ "JustDial to hire more than 4,000 people for sales this year". Medianama. 24 February 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d "VSS Mani, the man who dialed the right numbers". The Economic Times. 11 April 2011.
  6. ^ "Just Dial: New World, New Game for VSS Mani". Forbes India. 15 September 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Justdial Corp Information". BSE India.
  8. ^ Srinivasan, Supraja (2018). "Just Dial reports 80% improvement in EBITDA margin, revenues up 9% in third quarter". The Economic Times. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  9. ^ "JustDial Acquisition". Businesstoday.in. 16 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Just Dial founder Mani sells 21% to Reliance Retail in Rs 1,332 crore block deal". The Economic Times. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  11. ^ "How Justdial became a Billion Dollar Company?". Delhi School of Internet Marketing. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  12. ^ "How Justdial founder VSS Mani built the 'Indian Google'". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Success on call". www.businesstoday.in. 25 December 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  14. ^ "Is Justdial late to the app party?". Outlook Business. 23 September 2015.
  15. ^ a b "Justdial model similar to Google: management". 20 May 2013.
  16. ^ "The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Just Dial Shares". 1 February 2016.
  17. ^ "Realiance acquires Just Dial for $466 million". www.petrolplaza.com. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Reliance Retail's open offer for Just Dial shareholders to start on Sep 13". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  19. ^ "Exclusive: eleadmarket security flaw may allow hackers to breach pay accounts of 156 million users". Money Control. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  20. ^ "A bug in Indian local search app exposed over 156 million accounts". The Next Web. 10 October 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  21. ^ a b "Exclusive: Justdial security flaw may allow hackers to breach pay accounts of 156 million users". Money Control. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  22. ^ a b "JustDial Accounts Of 15 Crore Users Breached Via Security Flaw; JustDial Says No Financial Loss". Trak.in. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  23. ^ https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/reliance-retail-completes-acquisition-of-just-dial-11630591621808.html [bare URL]
  24. ^ "Reliance Retail buys Just Dial for Rs 5,710 crore". The Times of India. 17 July 2021.
  25. ^ "Reliance Retail acquires sole control of Just Dial". The Economic Times. 2 September 2021.
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