MakeMyTrip Limited is a travel service provider in India.
Through the company's primary websites, www.makemytrip.com, www.goibibo.com, and www.redbus.in, and its mobile applications, travelers can research, plan, and book a wide range of travel services and products in India, as well as overseas. The company's services and products include air ticketing, hotels and packages, bus tickets, rail tickets, car hire, activities and experiences, and ancillary travel requirements, such as facilitating...
MakeMyTrip Limited is a travel service provider in India.
Through the company's primary websites, www.makemytrip.com, www.goibibo.com, and www.redbus.in, and its mobile applications, travelers can research, plan, and book a wide range of travel services and products in India, as well as overseas. The company's services and products include air ticketing, hotels and packages, bus tickets, rail tickets, car hire, activities and experiences, and ancillary travel requirements, such as facilitating access to third-party travel, other insurance products, foreign currency exchange services, and visa processing. As of March 31, 2024, approximately 85,000 properties in India, including alternative accommodation properties, were available to its customers for booking through its platform. In addition, customers can book over 1.4 million hotels and properties outside India, as well as tickets from Indian Railways and over 5,100 bus operators, including several major bus operators in India, Peru, Colombia, and select countries in Southeast Asia, through its platforms as of March 31, 2024.
The company has built advanced and secure technology platforms, which integrate its sales, customer service, and fulfillment operations. The company's technology platforms are scalable and can be upgraded to handle increased traffic and complexity of products with limited additional investment, such as high traffic generated by promotional rates offered simultaneously by multiple travel operators. In order to meet the requirements of the growing Indian middle-class travel market, the company also utilizes other technology-enhanced distribution channels, including call centers in India, as well as its travel agents’ network in India.
Investments, Acquisitions, and Disposals
On February 1, 2023, the company completed the transfer of its Goibibo business from ibibo India to MMT India pursuant to a scheme of arrangement between its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MMT India and ibibo India. The company's redBus business was retained by ibibo India, and ibibo India was subsequently renamed as redBus India. redBus continues to operate separately as an existing brand. On March 22, 2024, the company's board approved the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement between MMT India and redBus India, whereby redBus India as an entity is proposed to be merged with MMT India, subject to customary approvals from the National Company Law Tribunal and other relevant regulatory authorities.
In July 2018, the company acquired 100% equity interest in Bitla, which provides technology support for bus operators.
In April 2019, the company acquired a majority equity interest in Quest 2 Travel, which provides travel solutions for various corporates across India. In September 2023, the company acquired the remaining equity interest in Quest 2 Travel, which is now its wholly owned subsidiary.
In April 2022, the company acquired a majority interest in Book My Forex, which offers currency exchange, multi-currency prepaid forex cards, and cross-border remittances, as well as other ancillary products, to Indians traveling abroad.
In September 2022, the company acquired an additional equity interest in Simplotel, which is engaged in building websites and booking technology for hotels. The company currently holds a majority equity interest in Simplotel.
In December 2023, the company acquired a majority equity interest in Savaari, which is engaged in the business of providing car rental services in India.
Strategy
The key elements of the company's strategy include expanding its hotels and packages business; expanding its service and product portfolio to enhance cross-selling opportunities; enhancing its service platforms by investing in technology; expanding into new geographic markets; and pursuing selective strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
Services and Products
The company offers a comprehensive selection of travel and travel-related services and products catering to the travel needs of residents in India, as well as non-resident Indians and others traveling to India from the United States, Southeast Asia, the GCC countries, and elsewhere. The company provides travelers with the tools and information they need to efficiently research, plan, book, and purchase travel services and products in India and overseas. The company's services and products include air tickets, hotels, packages, bus tickets, rail tickets, car hire, activities and experiences, and ancillary travel requirements, such as foreign currency exchange services, visa processing, facilitating access to travel, and other insurance products. The company's key customers include leisure travelers and corporates.
Air Ticketing
The company's air ticketing business is primarily targeted at domestic travel within India and international travel originating in India, and inbound travel to India from the United States, Southeast Asia, the GCC countries, and elsewhere. The company further expanded its air ticketing business in 2017 through its acquisition of the ibibo Group, through which it continues to operate its Goibibo business.
The company commenced its air ticketing operations under its MakeMyTrip brand in 2000 and has experienced significant growth in its air ticketing business covering domestic travel within India and international travel from India.
The company provides its customers with a wide selection of airline tickets for all major domestic full-service and low-cost airlines operating in India, including Air India, Air India Express, Air Asia, Alliance Air, Akasa, Flybig, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Star Air, Fly91, and Vistara, and all major international flights that originate from cities in India, including Air Asia, Air France-KLM, Air India, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta Airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Finnair, IndiGo, Kenya Airways, Lot Polish, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways, Scoot Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Vistara, Vietnam Airlines, and Vietjet Air. The company makes bookings with these airlines either through a GDS (it uses both Amadeus CRS and Galileo GDS) or via ‘direct connects’ to the airlines’ booking systems.
Customers may search for flights based on their preferred travel dates, destinations, number of passengers, number of stops, and class of travel. By using advanced search options, such as for Indian domestic flights, customers can specify preferred flight timings, routes, airlines, and fare categories. Customers can also easily filter and sort the results of their search according to their preferences. The company has also introduced features that allow customers to select their preferred seats, book meals, and check in baggage using its website and mobile platforms.
Hotels and Packages
The company operates its hotels and packages business mainly through MMT India under the MakeMyTrip brand and Goibibo brand. The total number of room nights in the company's hotels and packages business was 31.1 million in fiscal year 2024.
Hotels: As of March 31, 2024, approximately 85,000 properties in India, including alternative accommodation properties, were available to the company's customers for booking through its platform. In addition, customers can book over 1.4 million hotels and properties outside India through the company's platform. The company obtains access to room inventory from its hotel suppliers through three methods: ‘direct connects,’ ‘direct allocation,’ and for most hotels outside India, through contracts with online travel agents and aggregators outside India. Substantially all of the company's hotel suppliers in India have a ‘direct allocation’ arrangement with it, whereby they allocate rooms directly to the company either by managing their room inventory through its extranet, or through channel managers, or supported by the company via telephone. The company obtains access to inventory for most hotels outside India through contracts with other online travel agents and aggregators outside India. The company's inventory also includes home stays and budget rooms through ‘goSTAYS’ at Goibibo and MakeMyTrip. During fiscal year 2018, the company merged its supplier extranet for MakeMyTrip and Goibibo to a common technology platform for its domestic and self-contracted international accommodation properties both on its websites and mobile applications. The company has further upgraded this platform by adding features, such as management of inventory, rates, promotions, and analytical capabilities. The company has also expanded its hotel offerings by providing alternate accommodations, which include villas, apartments, hostels, homestays, and cottages. The company has also introduced a calendar sync option, which allows alternative accommodation providers to update inventory by synchronizing their calendars. The company allows customers to book these properties through all of its online platforms. In 2020, the company introduced a feature for certain alternative accommodation properties to facilitate communication between customers and hosts. In 2021, the company also introduced a feature that allowed new hosts to be onboarded directly through its MakeMyTrip mobile application. In 2022, the company launched a ‘Book at Zero’ option, which allows its customers to book hotels or homestays in India and internationally without making any upfront payment. This provides the company's customers with convenience and flexibility in making travel plans, as they are only required to make payment closer to their check-in date.
With respect to its websites and applications, the focus of the company's technological improvement and sales efforts is on consolidating multiple supply sources and identifying the best rates possible for its customers. On its www.makemytrip.com and www.goibibo.com websites, and through its applications on various mobile platforms, customers may search for hotels based on their destination, preferred dates for check-in and check-out, and may easily filter their search results by selecting star ratings, specific hotel chains, location, accommodation type, and other options.
Packages: The company offers pre-packaged vacations, which include elements of travel and accommodation services, designed by its in-house product specialists, under arrangements with various travel suppliers and its GDS service providers to cater to both individual and group travelers. The company's packages also include various travel services, such as facilitating access to travel and other insurance products from third-party insurers, visa processing, airport transfer, and sightseeing. It includes Indian Domestic Packages; International Packages; Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE); and Corporate Travel Service.
Bus Ticketing
The company owns and operates its bus ticketing business primarily through redBus, a leading online bus ticketing platform with a presence across India through www.redbus.in and in select countries overseas through its other regional redBus websites. Customers can also make bus bookings on the company's MakeMyTrip and Goibibo websites in India and on mobile platforms through its mobile applications for iOS and Android. Customers can also access YourBus, a vehicle tracking tool, and other features in all three brands. Through the company's websites and mobile platforms, 86.8 million bus traveled tickets were booked in fiscal year 2024.
The company has agreements with several major bus operators in India, Peru, Colombia, and select countries in Southeast Asia, including government bus operators, some of which are operators of multiple routes, as well as with aggregators and other intermediaries. The company's bus tickets inventory is obtained through two channels: real-time inventory from operators and aggregators, both of which are directly connected to its booking platforms.
The company offers its customers basic information on the type of bus used on the relevant route. Customers are able to select seats, choose from the available boarding points in the relevant city on the routes, as well as obtain information on the location of the chosen boarding point, among other details. The company's websites and applications also enable its customers to find their destinations easily by using colloquial names. The company also recently made significant improvements to its online bus booking platform, such as more flexible search options and allowing its users to write reviews and upload bus images, which helps its customers make informed booking decisions. The company has also made its booking platforms available in the Hindi language in India as a part of its localization efforts.
redBus also sells bus tickets through an agent platform, SeatSeller, which involves more than 16,100 agents across India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In addition, tickets are sold through more than 140 application programming interface, or API partners. The company's redBus transaction database is highly scalable to cater to its growing transaction needs.
In recent years, redBus has launched a variety of initiatives aimed at improving customer experience. In fiscal year 2024, the company launched a refund guarantee initiative in India and Malaysia, which allows users to cancel their booking up to four hours before departure for a full refund. Customers can also direct their queries through a self-help chatbot. The company also introduced auto ride booking and metro ticketing in India through its redBus Android mobile application, in partnership with Namma Yatri and Open Network for Digital Commerce, a company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of Government of India to develop open e-commerce.
Other Services and Products
Rail Tickets: The company sells railway tickets in India on its MakeMyTrip and Goibibo platforms through ‘direct-connect’ access to Indian Railways’ passenger reservation system online, allowing customers to reserve and purchase Indian Railways tickets on a real-time basis, as well as through its redBus platforms (which also includes its redRail mobile application). Indian Railways is India’s state-owned railway, which owns and operates most of India’s rail transport. The company booked 10.6 million transactions for rail tickets in fiscal year 2024.
Car Hire: The company provides car hire services, airport transfers, and outstation cabs on both its MakeMyTrip and Goibibo platforms. In fiscal year 2018, the company introduced outstation car hire services on both its MakeMyTrip and Goibibo platforms. Customers can make bookings through the company's desktop and mobile sites and its mobile applications for iOS and Android. As of March 31, 2024, the company offered outstation car hire services in more than 2,400 cities in India. The company also offers transfers to and from 109 airports across India. Through its websites and mobile platform, approximately 0.2 million, 0.3 million, and 0.3 million outstation cabs services transactions were booked in fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively, while 0.3 million, 0.5 million, and 0.6 million airport transfer transactions were booked in fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.
Fintech Services
In fiscal year 2021, the company launched a technology platform for financial services to cater to the needs of domestic and international travelers from India through its wholly owned subsidiary, TripMoney.
TripMoney’s technology platform connects its customers in India to various lenders in India that offer short-term credit lines for up to 12 months to travelers, which helps to facilitate purchases of the company's travel offerings by allowing them to pay for their travel expenses in installments after their journey.
In April 2022, TripMoney acquired a majority interest in Book My Forex, which offers currency exchange, multi-currency prepaid forex cards, and cross-border remittances, as well as other ancillary products to Indians traveling abroad.
Ancillary Services and Products
The company offers travel-related ancillary services to its customers who book their travel using its platforms, such as travel insurance and foreign currency exchange services from third-party suppliers, and visa processing services. In fiscal year 2023, the company introduced add-on products for air ticketing bookings on its platform. Customers opting for ‘Zero Cancellation’ can cancel their booking and receive a full refund up to 72 hours before the departure of the flight. Customers who opt for ‘Free Date Change’ on domestic flights can change their travel date up to two hours before departure by paying any applicable fare difference.
Distribution Channels
The company's distribution network uses a combination of its websites, mobile applications, call centers, and franchisee-owned travel stores, as well as its travel agents’ network in India and mobile service platform, giving it multiple channels to access these customers. The company has also partnered with various digital platforms, such as Amazon Pay and PhonePe, to provide travel services to expand its customer reach.
Internet Websites and Mobile Applications
The company's MakeMyTrip brand operates through the websites www.makemytrip.com and other overseas regional websites servicing the Indian domestic and outbound market, the United States-India inbound market (focusing in particular on non-resident Indians in the United States), as well as countries in the GCC and Southeast Asia. The company's Goibibo brand operates through www.goibibo.com, and its redBus brand operates through www.redbus.in and other overseas regional websites.
The company's websites and their content are tailored to its predominantly Indian user base. For example, on www.makemytrip.com, the company has localized its top-selling hotel webpages with information and using language. In fiscal year 2021, the company also launched the Arabic language version of its desktop and mobile website for flights and hotels product offerings in the Middle East, specifically the GCC countries. The company's multilingual content has helped it build vernacular search optimized pages, acquire more Arabic-speaking customers, and increased the number of downloads for the English version of its mobile application, which have resulted in an increase in the number of its customers from the GCC countries.
A transaction on the company's websites typically involves the following steps are search, select, review, and payment.
In fiscal year 2022, the company partnered with various banking and non-banking lenders to offer an algorithm-based ‘Book Now, Pay Later’ option for certain customers and offerings, as well as a hotel booking option that requires the payment of a nominal fee at booking, with the remaining fee auto-debited from customers after completion of their stay. The company does not assume credit risk for these options offered to its customers.
The company's MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, and redBus mobile platforms cater to the full range of traveler needs. This includes its mobile websites and mobile applications, which allow customers to search, book, and pay for Indian domestic and international air tickets, hotels and packages, bus and rail tickets, car hire bookings, and attractions and activity bookings on their mobile phones at no additional cost with flexibility of payment options. The tickets and bookings are delivered through email and WhatsApp messages. The company also sends regular updates on its offers to its customers via push notifications on mobile applications. In addition to being able to make different types of travel bookings on their mobile devices, customers can view their booking details, cancel bookings, request e-tickets, track refund status, search for new deals, and use location-based services to find nearby places of interest. The company's mobile applications are available on Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile. Since its inception in 2000 until March 31, 2024, over 72.8 million customers have transacted on the company's various platforms.
Call Centers
The company's in-house call centers that handle sales and post-sales customer service support for its international hotels and packages business, as well as domestic Indian packages with more complicated itineraries, are run out of Delhi NCR, Dehradun, Ranchi, Pune, Vadodara, Nashik, and Kolkata in India. The company's call centers in Singapore and Thailand support its international business operations. The company's in-house and managed call centers that handle sales and post-sales customer service support for India bus-related services are operated out of Bengaluru, Pune, and Vadodara. The company's international redBus operations are supported by its call centers in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Peru. The company's call centers in India operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
All of the company's call centers are equipped with its enterprise resource planning, or ERP, application, allowing its sales representatives and agents to make bookings and create packages, as well as attend to customer requests. These centers are also linked to its CRM system, which enables the company to monitor the performance of its sales representatives and outsourced agents on a round-the-clock basis.
Travel Stores
As of March 31, 2024, the company had over 154 franchisee-owned travel stores operated across India, which primarily sell packages under its MakeMyTrip brand. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company also optimized some of its businesses in sync with its longer-term growth strategy to transition out of high fixed costs offline sales channels, and consequently closed all of its company-owned travel stores and counters at airports in India.
At the company's franchisee-owned travel stores, customers can consult with its sales representatives, receive comprehensive, real-time information on flights, hotels, and packages, as well as information for other services and products, and make travel bookings without prior appointment. These travel stores are also equipped with the company's ERP application and linked to its CRM system.
Travel Agents’ Network
The company's travel agents can access its MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, and redBus B2B websites, which enable them to sell the company's full suite of online travel services to customers. The company's B2B websites use a similar interface as its external customer-facing websites. These travel agents earn commissions from the company depending on the volume and type of travel services and products sold. Furthermore, the company's travel agents’ network allows it to expand its footprint in India and distribution network in a cost-effective manner. In fiscal year 2021, MMT India launched ‘myPartner’, a dedicated platform for travel agents, which provides travel agents with direct access to the company's extensive hotel and flight inventory. Travel agents can book hotels and air tickets on the company's platform, which offers customization, personalization, and travel booking convenience for their customers. In fiscal year 2023, the company launched ‘myPartner’ for UAE travel agents. As of March 31, 2024, the company's ‘myPartner’ platform had over 44,200 registered agents in India and over 2,300 registered agents in the UAE.
Marketing and Brand Awareness
The company's marketing channels on desktop and mobile web primarily include online advertising, such as paid search engine marketing and optimization with Google, social media advertising (such as on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube), and display advertising on other websites, participation in meta search engines (such as hotel advertisements by Google, TripAdvisor, and Trivago), offline advertising leveraging print or broadcast media, such as television or radio, e-mails and short messages, and other marketing channels, such as through its call centers and franchisee stores. The company has consistently invested in building its brand and expanding its reach to travelers in India, as well as overseas, through mass media campaigns and innovative digital marketing tools.
The company's marketing programs and initiatives include broad-based campaigns, promotional or seasonal offers, as well as brand campaigns with leading celebrities as its brand ambassadors to drive awareness and consideration across all its target consumer groups. The company leveraged the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India to promote its homestay offerings, which are targeted at group bookings. The company partnered with the Ministry of Tourism in India to launch marketing campaigns aimed at promoting lesser-known locations and tourist attractions across India.
As part of its marketing efforts, the company continued to scale up its existing strategic partnerships with major banks and credit card providers in India, including ICICI, SBI Cards, HDFC, and Axis, which helps the company to access their extensive customer base. There were 0.9 million subscribers of the company's MakeMyTrip-ICICI co-branded credit card as of March 31, 2024.
The company's marketing efforts have also included strategic partnerships with tourism boards, airports, airlines, attractions, and theme parks in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Australia, South Korea, Bahrain, and elsewhere to help boost tourism to these destinations. These collaborations aim to drive destination awareness and increase consumer engagement. From time to time, the company has been closely working with the Indian state tourism boards, such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa, and Uttarakhand, to promote state-run hotel packages on its platforms.
The company offers a number of loyalty programs that are aimed at promoting repeat bookings, driving customer retention, and rewarding loyal customers:
MMT India offers the ‘MMTBLACK’ loyalty program for its select premium users. MMTBLACK members are entitled to earn cashback rewards based on their spends, which can be used to obtain discounts on future bookings. Additionally, members are entitled to tier-based loyalty benefits, such as discounts on hotels, complimentary seat selection and meals on flights, holiday package discount vouchers, and access to additional offers during sale campaigns. As of March 31, 2024, MMTBLACK had approximately 1.4 million enrollments.
Goibibo’s ‘GoTribe’ loyalty program allows registered users to earn rewards and benefits on their travel bookings. Members have access to benefits, such as special discounts, complimentary privileges from participating hotel brands, and complimentary seat selection for flights. As of March 31, 2024, GoTribe had more than 1.0 million enrollments.
redBus launched the ‘tripReward’ loyalty program for registered high-value users in March 2024. Customers who enroll in this program enjoy benefits, such as discounts on repeat bus bookings and priority customer support.
Competition
The company primarily competes with established and emerging providers of travel services and products, including other online travel agencies, such as Yatra.com, Easemytrip.com, Airbnb.co.in, Booking.com, Cleartrip.com, Expedia.com, Ixigo, traditional travel agencies, tour operators, travel suppliers, and intermediaries that provide travel services. In the hotels and packages segment, the company primarily competes with traditional travel players, such as Thomas Cook, Travel Triangle, and others in package offerings, as well as online travel agencies in standalone hotel bookings and new entrants.
Intellectual Property
The company has registered the domain names www.makemytrip.com, www.makemytrip.ae, www.makemytrip.com.sg, www.goibibo.com, and www.redbus.in, and has full legal rights over all these domain names for the period for which such domain names are registered. The company primarily conducts its business under the ‘MakeMyTrip’, ‘Goibibo’, and ‘redBus’ brand names and logos. The company has registered the trademarks ‘MakeMyTrip’, ‘Goibibo’, and ‘redBus’ in India, Australia, Canada, certain member states of the European Union, or EU, Russia, Singapore, the USA, and various other jurisdictions, and it has other trademark applications pending in these jurisdictions. The company has also applied for patents in India for certain aspects of its technological systems.
The company's key logos are also registered trademarks in India, including ‘MakeMyTrip’, ‘MMTBLACK’, ‘MakeMyTripMyBusiness’, ‘go-mmt’, ‘GoStays’, ‘GoIbibo’, ‘Ibibo’, ‘MAKEMY’, ‘MYTRIP’, ‘GoTribe’, ‘GoCash’, ‘redbus.in’, ‘redRail’, and ‘Primo’.
Regulations
The company is subject to proceedings and notices under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, or the MV Act, challenging the status of its redBus and Savaari business, and may be subject to similar challenges in the future.
The company is subject to existing and evolving regulatory regimes that increase potential liability for information or content available on its platform. For example, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, as amended, or the Intermediary Guidelines.
The company is subject to competition laws and regulations. These laws and regulations constantly evolve, and their interpretation, application, and enforcement can also change, be unpredictable, or be affected by changing political or social pressures. For example, the Competition Act, 2002, as amended, regulates anti-competitive practices, including those that could have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.
The company is subject to reporting and other information and disclosure requirements of the Mauritius Securities Act and any rules or regulations made thereunder.
History
MakeMyTrip Limited was founded in 2000. The company was incorporated in 2000. The company was formerly known as International Web Travel Private Limited and changed its name to MakeMyTrip Limited in March 2010.
