MakeMy Trip group charters significant expansion plans; to take on smaller competitors

MakeMy Trip, the country’s largest online travel agency, is planning a major business expansion drive to take on the smaller players such as Treebo and FabHotels. The company, after acquiring Ibibo Group last year, is focusing on hotels and packages business as its future growth avenue and expects the segment to account for 75% of its topline in the next 3-4 years as compared to 50% currently (for merged entity). Rajesh Magow, CEO MMT Group, explained the business strategy of the firm and stated that “We are going to leverage the distribution strength that we have as a combined entity, and come up with a little variant of the model that we have in the budget segment. We will go hammer and tongs after this segment”. Regarding the significant investment the firm is planning, he said that “It’s going to be a significant investment that you will see over time. Since it’s going to be in the hotels and packages space, it’s going to be a continuous investment over the next three to four years”.

By making budget hotel category a strategic focus, it is now competing directly with the likes of OYO, Treebo and FabHotels. While both Treebo and FabHotels list their properties on MMT, the travel firm had removed OYO from its platform in October’15 citing strategic overlaps. Thus it would be interesting to see which strategy the company adopts i.e. forgo the revenue from competitors in a bid to counter them both and go solo, or play the mix bag card and keep them on its platform to generate extra revenues.