What is TractorGuru and what is the aim of TractorGuru?
TractorGuru was formed with the Purpose of Simplifying Mechanization for farmers in India. We want to leverage the power of affordable mobile internet to enable the farmers to select and buy the farm machinery that is right for them.
Our web portal TractorGuru.in provides a content-rich platform to access high-quality information about more than 300 Tractors models sold in India. Users can search, discover, compare, select and buy tractors on our website TractorGuru.in.
We also provide digital Classifieds services for sellers of pre-owned tractors. We have the only dedicated Used Tractor classifieds platform in India and that we have served over 2000 sellers out of which nearly 500 sellers have sold their tractor through our services.
How is TractorGuru being received by farmers?
We are fast becoming the information source of choice for the farmers. Our website www.TractorGuru.in is specially designed to load quickly on low-cost phones and patchy internet connectivity. In addition, we have used a color scheme especially suited to bright outdoor conditions. We introduced content features such as algorithm-driven ratings and genuine product reviews. All these factors combined propelled the growth of the platform in a very short span of time. In addition, we respect the privacy and contact information of each visitor.
Our target audience is more comfortable consuming content in the form of videos than through reading. This is why we produce very high-quality video content on our YouTube page which has achieved more than 1.8 Mn views with each video averaging more than 30k views.
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| Manik Mital, Founder and CEO of TractorGuru |
What is the target audience for TractorGuru and what problem is TractorGuru addressing?
Our primary audience is the more than 120 Mn farmers in India who operate more than 140 Mn land holdings in India. Farm Mechanization is a key driver of increased productivity and it also improved the quality of life for the farmers. In addition, we serve the entire mechanization ecosystem, which includes NBFCs, Dealers, Intermediaries, and OEMs.
We are “Simplifying Mechanization”. To elaborate, we make it easy for farmers and other buyers to search, discover, compare, select, and buy tractors that are most suitable for their needs. Our platform lists more than 300 tractor models with accurate specifications and genuine user reviews to assist potential buyers in narrowing their choices. The users can watch tractor review videos from our growing collection of original Youtube reviews. We are saving time, money, and increasing the trust in the process of buying Tractors for the farmers of India.
Who are your current competitors if any and what do they do?
The farm mechanization space in India is a $ 14 Bn industry. The digital opportunity in this industry is quite new and is growing exponentially. It is large enough for many differentiated players. We are focused on our customers and aim to make their lives better each day. We are the fastest growing and now the second-largest platform for Farm Mechanization in India. I am confident that we will keep up this momentum in the future as well.
Our guideline is to attach the customers with the farm machinery that’s right for them. We respect the privacy of our users and only capture customer information when the customers identify the products that they are interested in. We also minimize the number of intrusive phone calls to customers.
In addition – we have full confidence in our team. We have the most experienced team which is driven by our Purpose.
Are you able to share a story of how any of your customers benefited from using TractorGuru in any good review?
I travel a lot to meet customers and dealers in the key tractor markets in India. It is always a pleasure to meet people who have used TractorGuru.in. Recently, a dealer told me that he was able to sell many non-moving used tractors easily by listing on the TractorGuru app. There used tractors that went unsold for many months and even the most experienced salesmen were unable to secure buyers. However, within a couple of days of listing on TractorGuru, these tractors received dozens of inquiries and the deal was concluded successfully. Our team strives for these positive outcomes in the lives of real people.
How does the revenue and business model work at TractorGuru?
Our site attracts more than 1.8 Mn organic visitors. These users spend 3 to 5 minutes on our site on average. Our best in class Used Tractors app has been downloaded more than 30k times within the last 6 months.
Our site and app are completely free for farmers and other tractor buyers. This will not change. Our core belief is that information should be easily and freely available to all users at their fingertips.
We have partnered with many leading tractor brands to assist them with widening their sales funnel. We also offer premium classified listings to dealers of used tractors to help them find the right buyers.
How is TractorGuru as a company growing and what is the vision for the next 5 years i.e. where do you aspire to be?
Even though we are a late entrant in the space, we have become the 2nd largest Digital platform for tractors within a few months of launch. We are working on building our content and improving the user experience to become the dominant platform for anyone searching for tractor related information in India.
We are now making inroads in the loan space. More than 80% of tractors sold in India are against a retail loan from Banks and other financial institutions. We want to participate in this ecosystem through our Digital platform. As a goal, we want to be the preferred platform for our customers to access tractor financing.
We are also increasing our footprint on Used Tractors opportunity. We are the invalidation stage so it will be too early to reveal specifics here.
To summarise, in the next 5 years, we are aiming to be the dominant digital platform for farm machinery with services including loans and used tractors.
