There is one word used over and over again in India to describe JustDial
The idea is simple: You call up and within the first ring a real person picks up the phone, you ask them for any business listing – in any category – and within 45 seconds they email or text you the information or, if you prefer, connect the call.
The company will end its fiscal year at the end of March with some $32 million in revenues having answered 72 million calls in the last year. That call volume is increasing by 40%, so the company expects to break 100 million calls in the next year. In a country where nearly everyone has a mobile phone but just 50 million people have Internet access, JustDial is essentially Google and 411 rolled together.
The move is a direct volley at a service like GOOG-411, which has opted to do the same thing, but using voice recognition software. But Founder and CEO V.S.S. Mani (pictured above, in one of his call centers) is betting that nothing beats a human voice with a quick answer.
For now, JustDial’s US operations will be handled out of India, where the company employs some 4,000 people but, in a twist to the direction most call center jobs are flowing, Mani plans to hire up big in the US—up to 1,000 people mostly in under-employed, rural areas. “We need a big presence in the US very soon,” Mani says. That right– an Indian company will be creating call center jobs in the US
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