In April 2018, Flipkart, an electronic commerce company based in India inked a deal with MakeMyTrip, an online travel company based in India to make its entry into the online travel platform. The deal allows latter to sell its services on the former’s platform, thereby helping them reach out to more consumers and further opening the opportunities in the online travel space. The partnership also allows MakeMyTrip’s multiple entities including Goibibo and redBus to take advantage of a large number of services offered by Flipkart to drive online bookings in travel services.
As per the terms of the partnership, the deal initiated with domestic flight bookings followed by hotel bookings, bus bookings, and holiday bookings in the following weeks. Though MakeMyTrip’s Indian unit, MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited, is the primary contributor to the company’s revenue, the other subsidiaries of the firms in Singapore and the UAE also contribute a small amount of revenue towards the parent firm’s revenues. Besides air tickets, hotel packages, bus tickets, car hire, rail tickets, and ancillary travel requirements, the company also facilitates access to travel insurance.
According to Deep Kalra, the founder and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MakeMyTrip, the partnership enables them to expose themselves to an even broader customer base via MakeMyTrip’s several travel booking sites – Goibibo, redBus, and other travel platforms. According to Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Flipkart, the partnership is bound to help make travel booking a seamless experience for customers from any part of the world. It is also expected to meet their goal of being a one-stop destination for all digital transactions online.
The partnership comes at a time when news about Walmart, a US-based retail company buying out a majority stake in Flipkart as well as Flipkart entering offline retail segment were floating in the air. Previously, Snapdeal formed a collaboration with redBus and MakeMyTrip’s rival ClearMyTrip, however, it failed to make an impact for the e-commerce site.
In a report added by Big Market Research, the global online travel market was valued at 12.1% in 2015 and the rate has been growing steadily. The report encompasses market size, market share analysis, market drivers, challenges, and opportunities, market trends, primary industry segments, Porter’s five forces analysis, value chain analysis, quantitative analysis, market forecast, and company profiles. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global online travel market for the forecast period, 2014-2022. The key vendors operating in the sector include Expedia, Inc., Priceline Group Inc., TripAdvisor LLC, Ctrip.com International, Ltd., Hostelworld Group, Hotel Urbano Travel and Tourism SA, Cheapoair.Com. Trivago GmbH, Thomas Cook Group Plc, and MakeMyTrip Limited.