The market in India has taken us by surprise: MakeMyTrip

By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent in Singapore

Online travel company MakeMyTrip recently told EyeforTravel.com: “We are Expedia for India”.

Deep Kalra, founder and chief executive officer, MakeMyTrip says the market has taken the company by surprise.

“We always expected it to be a good market, but the build-up has been quite rapid. In a short span of four months, we have over 20,000 customers. And I believe we have only scratched the tip of the iceberg,” says Kalra.

MakeMyTrip, which had launched its website for the Indian market in September this year, expects its Indian revenues to surpass contribution from its US operations by 2007-08.

Kalra, one of the speakers during the Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2006 in Singapore, shared that the total online market size in India is projected to be US$368 million this year, with OTAs garnering 14 percent and supplier direct accounting for 86 percent of the share. Air ticket online penetration is estimated to be 15 percent. Next year, the total online market is expected to touch US$523 million, with OTA increasing their share to 24 percent and air ticket penetration touching 23 percent.

Makemytrip.com is advertising aggressively in India. On how the company is positioning itself to take advantage, Kalra says, “We want to be the brand of choice and the first port of call for anyone wishing to buy travel online. Clearly, customers will check others, but top of mind recall is a big thing. Also, repeat customers in the domestic business is significant and we will be leveraging our customer database for that.”

On competition in the next couple of years, he says, “Fierce! There are multiple well funded online ventures around. While we clearly have a big lead - five yrs of experience and $40M of sales is not trivial - I am sure some of the start-ups will keen us on our toes. For the overall market to grow, this is a very positive development as we now have many other companies to share the burden of educating folks of the benefit of buying travel online.”

Vipul Doshi, president and chief executive officer, InterGlobe Technologies said that it’s boom time for the travel market in India. He shared that eTravel makes up nearly 58 percent of total Indian online spending.

On challenges, he said, “Internet penetration and credit card usage though growing but is still low as compared to world standards. eTicketing still to catch up, infrastructure quality varies regionally, travelers still need voice support and competition is heating up.”

Sharing his viewpoint, Karthik Venkataraman, director - IT, Cox & Kings said, “E-commerce in India is now considered as safe, reliable and alternate business model. Online travel is the future and is here to stay and the government is waking up to online business.”

New online venture are being aggressively launched in India. Recently, Yatra Online (www.yatra.in), the online and centralised travel services company for the India market, had announced that it has secured initial funding from leading financial and strategic investors. In an another development underlining the burgeoning online travel segment in India, venture capital fund WestBridge Capital Partners has decided to back Travelguru, a technology-enabled travel company.