Days after Netflix released Indian Matchmaking, the series chronicling the life of Mumbai-based matchmaker Sima Taparia, the shares of a matrimonial website in India have seen an unusual surge. The shares of Matrimony.com have been on the rise over the past week with the stock surging over 50%. Matrimony.com is a network of online matchmaking services, and its flagship brands include BharatMatrimony, CommunityMatrimony and EliteMatrimony.
Even after the company’s shares were locked in the upper circuit of 20% for two straight days on Tuesday and Wednesday, the shares rose by another 10% to Rs 613 on Thursday, which meant that trading was again frozen. An upper circuit is the maximum price to which a stock is allowed to move upwards. Once a stock hits its upper circuit, trading is frozen.
From a low of Rs 384.55 on July 16, which is when Indian Matchmaking was released, the stock surged by 59.4% to hit an upper circuit of Rs 613.10 in just a week. It had hit an upper circuit of 20% at Rs 557.40 on Wednesday.
However, there is no hard evidence to suggest that the show is directly related to the sudden surge in the stock price. Reports had earlier stated that with the lockdown in place, the website saw more people signing up. According to The New Indian Express, the website saw over 30% increase in new customer registration during the lockdown.
Through the lockdown, from a 52-week low of Rs 251 on March 23, the stock of Matrimony.com is now up by 144%. While disclosing its financial results for FY20, the company said in May that it had added 5.28 million free profiles and 7,04,259 paid profiles during 2019-20.
The company’s Chairman and Managing Director Murugavel Janakiraman said that Matrimony.com saw a double-digit growth in revenues in matchmaking in the January-March 2020 quarter despite the challenging situation caused by COVID-19.
Netflix’s new series Indian Matchmaking has become the latest binge-watch that has taken the internet by storm. The show follows Sima Taparia as she sets out to find life partners for eight adults in India as well as those living in the US. With its cringe-worthy but realistic depiction of the arranged marriage industry in India, the series became a major talking point over the weekend, with many people also criticizing Netflix for showcasing regressive and patriarchal notions without a trigger warning.