1) Quikr is India's largest online classifieds platform with over 32 million unique visitors per month and 9.7 million active listings. 2) The challenge is to improve Quikr's search functionality by developing a solution that better understands user search intent and displays the most relevant results across Quikr's 140+ categories. 3) The solution needs to balance search relevance with ad recency, as more recent ads are generally more useful to users, even if they are only partially related to the search terms.

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2. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 2
The Facts
Quikr was launched in 2008 and is India’s No.1 online classifieds platform
 It operates in 940 cities of India
 Each month, Quikr gets over 32 mn unique visitors
 The site hosts approximately 9.7 mn live ads
 Some of the most important categories on the site are Electronics (especially
mobile phones), cars and bikes, real estate and household goods
 Innovation is part of the DNA of Quikr. They were the first online brand to enable
consumers to post ads on their site by making only a missed call
 They were also the first among brands to launch the ‘Maximum Selling Price
(MSP)’ calculator—the only price calculator for used goods in the market
 In 2014, Quikr was the only classifieds platform to be featured in the list of top ten
‘Best E-commerce Brands in India Amongst Youth’ by the Brand Asset Valuator
Tool, Young & Rubicam Group India

3. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 3
Background on Challenge
 Quikr has 140+ sub-categories across 12 categories
 Category Agnostic Search: Search is conducted across categories, since
a user is not expected to understand the category structure
 Balancing Relevance and Recency
 An ad that exactly matches the search term but is an older ad is of less
importance to the searcher as compared to a partially matched ad posted a few
moments ago
 For instance, when a search for ‘1 BHK Carter Road Bandra’ is conducted, an ad
that has all the terms and was posted three months ago is less important as
compared to an ad that has the terms ‘1 BHK Bandra’ and was posted a few
seconds ago. This is because the need posted three months ago would have
been closed by this time, and hence, would not be useful even if it had all the
relevant terms

4. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 4
The Problem
A Quikr user may not completely understand the taxonomy of the platform.
For instance, ‘Air Conditioners & Coolers’ is currently a sub-category under
the ‘Home & Lifestyle’ category. It could also be classified under
‘Electronics & Appliances’
As a result, search on Quikr is conducted across categories rather than on
a particular category
Moreover, the search is conducted on unstructured user input data, i.e. ads
posted by sellers
Search results could also be polluted if the ad poster miscategorizes the
product while posting the ad on the site

5. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 5
The Challenge Statement
Suggest a technology solution that understands the intent of a search
conducted on the platform (mobile site, desktop site and mobile app) by the
user and shows the most relevant ads matching the same

6. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 6
The Challenge Statement - Details
 To drive up category selection during search, the following features are being
incorporated on the site:
 Triggering category suggestions during autosuggest
 Display of possible categories to which the search term could belong, on the Search
Results page, right below the header
 Display of list of categories in descending order of relevance on the left-hand side
filters
 The following table shows the distribution of number of words in the search queries:
# of words in query Sample query % of total search queries
1-word query Cars 34%
2-word query Mobile phones
27%
3-word query Samsung Galaxy S3
15%
3+-word query 1 BHK in Lower Parel
24%

7. Capgemini Super Techies Show Season 3- Quikr Challenge
Copyright © Capgemini 2014. All Rights Reserved 7
General Pointers
• Time allotted for solution presentation: Teams will be given 20
minutes for a detailed presentation to judges (off-camera) and 3
minutes for a high-level pitch (on-camera)
• Mentor consultation:
- Call: Teams will have access to a 30-min audio call with a Capgemini
expert; the teams are expected to keep questions ready for the call in
advance
- Email: Additionally, teams can send one email with questions to the
expert anytime before the final solution submission
Tip: Mentors will take at least 48 hours to revert; therefore, the earlier the
questions are sent, the better
• CXO interaction:
- Call: All teams will get to be part of a 30–45 min audio call with the CXO
of Quikr; during the call, teams can direct questions pertaining to the
challenge to the CXO
- Date and time of the call: To be confirmed
•

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The information contained in this presentation is proprietary.
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About Capgemini
With more than 130,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini
is one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology
and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2013 global
revenues of EUR 10.1 billion.
Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers
business and technology solutions that fit their needs and drive
the results they want. A deeply multicultural organization,
Capgemini has developed its own way of working, the
Collaborative Business ExperienceTM, and draws on Rightshore ®,
its worldwide delivery model.