Just Dial to launch mobile-based price comparison service Quick Quotes

Mumbai-based Just Dial Ltd, which runs an India-specific local business listings site Justdial, is all set to launch a price comparison service for mobile phones, 'Quick Quotes'. As the name suggests, it will provide its users with quotes from different vendors for a product they are planning to purchase. Medianama first reported the development.

So how does the service work? Users will have to inform Justdial about a product they are planning to buy, along with a convenient area of purchase. Once contacted, the company will send quick price quotes to the user from vendors near their locality within a few seconds (at least that is what they claim). Additionally, if a vendor revises his quote for any reason, an updated quote (most probably lower in value) will be sent as well.

The service is free of cost.  Users can call/SMS on 08888888888 or 69999999 and ask for the product they wish to buy. 'Quick Quotes' will be sent to them via both SMS as well as e-mail. Alternatively, users can visit the website/WAP site and browse through popular brands and categories. They can also 'search' for a particular product and price quotes for the same will be displayed instantly on the website. At the time of writing the post, the website was inaccessible.

A number of price comparison sites are already present in the market (like MySmartPrice, CompareIndia and CompareRaja, etc.). Some of them also have a mobile presence in the form of apps. However, we don't think anyone is offering an SMS-based solution as of now, which could turn out to be the differentiating factor for the service. But we personally don't agree to Justdial's claim that it will offer instant quotes, since the process of contacting merchants, getting price quotes and then forwarding them to the end user will definitely end up taking more than a few seconds (our guess is at least a few minutes).

In August, Just Dial re-filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that is set to give its venture capital investors a multi-bagger exit. Investors like SAIF Partners, Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital are set to make over 10x (10 times the capital invested), according to VCCircle analysis. The filing came weeks after Just Dial raised Rs 327 crore ($57 million) in one of the largest pre-IPO round of venture funding, from existing investors Sequoia Capital and SAP Ventures.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)

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