How Astrotalk is making CRORES! : EXPOSED Bussiness Case Study ?

Last year, about 100 startups became unicorns in our country. And along with that, 2000 startups shut down. This year, the trend is speeding up. Popular ed-tech startup, Doubtnut, was acquired by Allen in a fire sale. Inc. 42 showed that this year, 15 prominent Indian startups shut down completely. But this shouldn't be surprising because according to a study, 90% of Indian startups shut down in their first 5 years. But there's one startup that hasn't shut down, but making crores of rupees.  "Astrotalk has acquired 80% market share." According to Astrotalk's audited report, in the last financial year, they made 282 crores. Of which, 27 crores was their profit. 

The founder of this company is Puneet Gupta was a regular engineer and worked in the IT service industry. In 2015, he quit his job because he wanted to launch a startup. But his startup didn't work, so he had to go back to his job. But back at his job, he was feeling a bit stuck. So Puneet's senior colleague asked him to meet an astrologer. Puneet didn't believe in astrology, but he thought, why not give it a try? Puneet said that he was shocked to learn that many of the predictions made by the astrologer came true. After this Puneet got an idea for a startup. And in 2017, he started Astrotalk. Today, Astrotalk is the most successful astrology startup in our country. In such a tough economic environment, where many startups are sinking, how has Astrotalk been so successful? lets study in depth. In Astrotalk's website. There  you'll find many services. Like daily horoscope, free Kundli, and you can check compatibility with your romantic partner. To check your horoscope, you just need to enter your name and your birth details. Astrotalk's UI is very simple and addictive. The app gives you many nudges, which keep provoking your curiosity. Many of these nudges have targeted our youngsters. Many questions are already on the screen. When will she unblock me? Will my ex come back? When will I find my true love? These are free services that give you a taste of Astrotalk. But if all of this is free, how is Astrotalk making money? There are three ways to make money. 90% of the money comes from one-on-one consultations. As soon as you sign up, you're redirected to a screen where you're given a 5-minute free chat with an astrologer as a trial.

PUNEET CEO OF ASTROLOGY STARTUP

 If you like the trial, you can pay more later. When you're choosing your astrologer, you're shown several badges to boost your trust. Top Choice, Rising Star, Astrologer's Rating, Languages, Expertise, and Years of Experience. These badges boost your trust that they're a qualified astrologer. By showing so many badges, you feel empowered because you can choose your own astrologer based on their expertise, experience, or language. Astrotalk's founders said that such one-on-one sessions make the most money. The second source of revenue is live sessions. These are like Instagram stories where many astrologers give general advice and predictions. You can get paid consultations through this feature if you like an astrologer. This feature gives Astrotalk 5% of the revenue. The last 5% comes from AstroMall. It's like Amazon for astrology. If you need worship items, e-pooja services, evil eyes removal items, or healing oil, you can get all these at AstroMall. The impressive thing about Astrotalk is that they've earned so much money with very little funding. Last year, they earned more than Rs. 280 crores. But they raised only $800,000 in funding. That's around Rs. 6.5 crores. This is impressive for any startup because most startups' revenue is less than their funding. This was about their revenue. If we talk about expenses, it's obvious that their biggest expense is astrologers. The money they have to pay astrologers is the biggest expense for Astrotalk. The second biggest expense is marketing cost. If you've watched Shark Tank, you must have heard of CAC. CAAC stands for Customer Acquisition Cost. It's the amount of money a startup has to spend to attract a customer. For Astrotalk, it's $6-9. It's relatively high. But that's because many of their customers aren't in India. They're NRIs. Astrotalk's founders said that their 1/6th revenue comes from NRIs living in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and other English-speaking countries. Astrotalk says that they can cover this cost in 6-8 months. Because according to them, they can retain their customers. The founders say that 80% of their customers are repeat customers. So the stars are definitely shining for Astrotalk. But the question is that astrology services have been in India for centuries. So what did Astrotalk do to grow so fast? The first thing is digital convenience. Astrotalk is being released at a time when many of us are digitally native. That means we're very comfortable using any app. We all wanted India to win the Cricket World Cup this year. Many fans even performed a Pooja. A spiritual startup founder said that some Indian fan s spent Rs 25 lakhs on E-Pooja for the Indian cricket team. The world of faith has been in India for centuries. But digital convenience is now entering this industry. And don't think that this industry has no future potential. A research showed that the value of the Indian religious and spiritual market is now $58 billion. In 10 years, it'll be almost 3 times i.e. $150 billion. That's why many startups related to spirituality are opening up in India. One of the biggest problems of many startups in the Indian market is monetization. Because the per capital income in India is very low, many startups realized that you can create a high-margin business only if you're targeting India ,India one lives in the city, speaks English and has a lot of money.

But some startups can make money from everyone. They're religious and devotional startups. Because they're the kind of startups that we don't hesitate to spend money in. The Shree Mandir app is another popular app that many people use. You can spend some money on that app and offer flowers to your favorite temple. But there are many societal reasons why Astrotalk has been so successful. For example, uncertainty and anxiety have increased in India. In 2020, during COVID-19, Google Trends Searches for Kundli and Astrology reached their 5-year peak. Many astrologers reported that their business boomed during the lockdown. Because in an environment where no one knew what was going to happen in their lives, Astrology gave people certainty. It assured them that everything would be fine. Puneet Gupta, the CEO of Astrotalk, told the Times of India that his company's future changed due to the pandemic. In March 2020, he was earning Rs. 10 lakhs a day. By December, he was earning Rs. 23 lakhs a day. People were worried about their relationships, health, job security, and financial struggles. To find answers to these questions, many of them chose Astrology. Aside from the popularity of Astrology, anxiety has also increased among our youth. Puneet said that many anxieties are due to relationships and marriage. Many young people ask about their exams. Others ask about their income. It's understandable why people ask such questions.  There was a common question that I didn't want to depend on my parents. I want to supplement my income. Astrology won't give that answer. You'll have to work hard for it.  Another thing that benefitted Astrotalk is loneliness. Astrotalk's Instagram ads target lonely people. An astrologer who works for Astrotalk said that most people who talk to him are lonely. He said that such people just want to talk to someone. It's better to talk to an astrologer than to talk to walls. India is going through a loneliness epidemic. In 2021, a survey was conducted in 28 countries about loneliness. It showed that 43% of Indians often feel lonely.

This ranked India third after Brazil and Turkey. There are many reasons for the loneliness epidemic. One reason is that migration has increased in our country whether it's for work or education. Another reason is that the family structure has changed. In the past, there were joint families. Now, there are nuclear families. Morning Context showed in their report that Astrotalk is not a normal offline astrology business. It's very different. They say that if you spend a lot of time on the app , you'll realize that it's not a normal astrology game. It's for anxious and lonely youngsters who just want to talk to someone. These people are between the ages of 18 to 35. They have a lot of basic questions. Who will they settle with? Will their ex come back to them? Does their partner like someone else? Is their job in danger or not? They're looking for confidence that their future will be fine. Astrology is definitely a part of such questions. Actually, Astrotalk offers astrology and counselling. To target such youngsters, they're using celebrities. If you go to their blog, you'll find such articles where it's written that stars like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Angelina Jolie use astrology. But there was a time when astrology wasn't that popular. In the 19th century, there was an English astrologer, Alan Leo, who made astrology popular among people. He made it simpler by linking people's characters to their sun signs. Social media is currently doing what Leo did in the 19th century. Making things simple. That's why many astrology startups have opened up in our country. Astroyogi, GaneshSpeaks, etc. But the success of Astrotalk comes from its simple UI-UX. Astrology apps weren't user-friendly before Astrotalk. They made things like horoscopes very complicated. Astrotalk has simplified it so that anyone can understand. But Astrotalk has many major problems. First, they're solving astrology through therapy. As I said, Astrotalk has one-on-one sessions with astrologer s. Many customers are 18-35 years old. Founder Puneet Gupta says that people come to the app with questions of their lives. They feel alone, frustrated, and want to talk to someone. Many people don't want predictions from astrology. They want counselling. They just want to talk. But astrologers aren't counsellors. Many psychologists have said that pseudosciences like astrology and tarot readings don't give people relief after one point because they can't give the necessary objectivity that a therapist can provide. For example, Pranav was diagnosed with autism at the age of 30. Before his diagnosis, he went to an astrologer for mental peace. Astrology can't solve a medical problem. Pranav said that it didn't help. If he hadn't asked for professional help, who knows what would've happened to him. A tarot reader in Mumbai said that many people come to him who have problems that require professional psychological attention. That's why people need to realize that tarot readings and astrology can solve your problem to a certain extent. After that, you must consult a psychologist. The second issue is that astrology has no modern scientific proof. Astrology does look like science. In the 17th and 18th centuries, astronomy and astrology were studied together. Many great scientists like Galileo and Kepler practised astrology. As many stars and planets are shown with factual accuracy, astrology may look like science, but it isn't. Astrology is based on a simple principle. The position of planets and other celestial objects has a direct impact on your life. But we don't have any evidence to prove it. Some of you may say that if astrology isn't proven, it doesn't mean it's wrong.

Maybe science hasn't advanced enough to prove astrology. But scientifically, this argument is invalid. For example, Einstein proved the existence of gravitational waves in 1916. But only recently did we get physical evidence to prove the existence of gravitational waves. But science accepted this ,But the placebo effect can only solve a few problems. It can give you confidence and boost your morale. But it can't tell you when you'll get married and how many kids you'll have. So when our generation is lonely and anxious, should we treat them with the placebo effect or with a better solution? But the better solutions won't solve all your problems. That's why astrology, betting, and  apps make the most money in our country. Because they can solve problems instant.