Online B2B marketplace IndiaMART has stopped sharing traffic data for its platform starting the December quarter (Q3 FY26), citing the rise of agentic AI and the proliferation of chatbots, which have made it increasingly difficult to distinguish bot-driven traffic from human traffic.
“Currently, bot traffic is coming from everywhere. Whether it’s ChatGPT, or there are now hundreds of LLM bots, search engine bots, new browser bots, and agentic bots. Traffic is moving erratically, so we removed it [traffic],” founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal told analysts during an earnings call.
He further noted that AI chatbots such as Google’s Gemini and X’s Grok are not generating direct blow links for the company, but instead they provide references within their answers.
Despite buyer traffic gradually shifting from Google Search to AI Search, Agarwal said, it will expand the total addressable market (TAM) for the online B2B marketplace.
“Many publisher companies are witnessing a stagnation in the growth of traffic coming from Google. More so, when there is a lot more research required, I have heard stories that people do go to AI Search. However, when it comes to transactional and unique content discovery, people continue to rely on Google Search,” he said.
IndiaMART is currently embroiled in a legal tussle with OpenAI. Last month, the online B2B marketplace moved the Calcutta High Court, alleging that ChatGPT had “specifically and consciously” chosen to exclude the platform from AI-generated search responses where comparable B2B marketplaces were referenced. Justice Ravi Krishna Kapur, who heard the case, flagged a prima facie case of discrimination while declining immediate relief to IndiaMART.
Stagnation in Unique Business Inquiries?
Unique Business Inquiries grew 4% year-on-year (YoY) to 28 million in Q3 FY26. In the previous two quarters, this metric had been growing at a 12–17% rate.
Agarwal attributed the slowdown in the growth of Unique Business Inquiries to seasonal factors and lower advertising spends during the festive season.
“Historically, if you see, Unique Business Inquiries drop from Q2 to Q3 anyway. This quarter, we didn’t even advertise during the holidays. That’s why you see a reduction in ad expenses in Q3 FY26 too,” he said.
Pivot to Fulfillment Model Not On the Cards
Responding to an analyst’s question on whether IndiaMART is considering changing its business model amid a continued decline in the number of paying suppliers, Agarwal said the market has not saturated and that there is unlimited demand for quality leads that can be converted by sellers.
“There are enough number of sellers willing to pay if they get leads which can be converted [into sales],” he added.
“We are not moving to a fulfilment model. We would like to remain a software, and technology-oriented company, with enablement embedded wherever we can, whether it is credit-related or payment…
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