When Billjunction.com started offering its service of electronic bill payment to customers, sceptics doubted the business viability of the model since the level of Internet penetration was and continues to be very low in India. But two years since the service has been introduced, the company has been laughing all the way to the bank.

A look at the electronic bill payment market shows the immense potential. According to independent industry estimates, the eight cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad account for a mammoth 15,831,421 bills monthly or 189,977,052 bills per annum. Even at a conservative estimate of Rs 30 per bill, the amount works out to be a very large figure. Being the first mover in this space and having tie-ups with more than 70 billers in these 8 cities means Billjunction stands to gain big time.

Backed by ICICI, Billjunction has made some extremely strategic moves. Just like a brick and mortar company, Billjunction too, has made considerable efforts to educate customers about the benefits of electronic bill payment.

For instance, when the market was nascent and people were still sceptical about the concept, Billjunction started offering the service free of cost in May 2000. When it commenced operations the number of transactions was a mere 600 transactions per month. Just after a year, around July 2001, the company decided to go in for a paid model. Accordingly, customers were charged Rs 39 for 5 bills, Rs 59 for 10 bills and Rs 99 for 20 bills. Again, Billjunction is another success and proves that Indian customers do pay for services. For the record, the company is clocking a remarkable 12,000 transactions per month.

Says Bikramjit Sen, COO, Billjunction, “Sceptics who doubted our business model would be glad to know that Billjunction already has over 60,000 registered users across Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.” Currently, Billjunction.com has tie-ups with players like MTNL, BSNL, Orange and Airtel in the telecom space, BEST, BSES and MSEB in electric supply and LIC and ICICI Prudential in the insurance sector. Another factor that swung the customer in Billjunction’s favour was the fact that its services were not tied to one particular bank. This is because Billjunction uses RBI’s electronic clearing service (ECS) mechanism to enable bill payments. The success of Billjunction is not because of the fact that it followed a unique and potential market but due to the fact that it showed the maturity to grow the market.