Though backed by an internet services giant Naspers, Goibibo was incepted as an experiment in the social media platform. Yet it grew to be one of the biggest travel ecommerce giants within five years.
It’s been an year since the redBus acquisition took place. It was sold to a company which is not more than five years old, and the acquisition was the biggest overseas strategic acquisition of an Indian asset.
Even before ecommerce giants had entered the start-up industry in India, the Online Travel Aggregators (OTAs) had a strong hold in the industry. Giants like Makemytrip and Yatra were a monopoly in the start-up industry. It happened sometime in 2007. With just eight members on board, Goibibo began as a social network and then drifted towards travel ecommerce in 2009.
The company with headquarters in Gurgaon has seen a number of business achievements in the past five years. Though backed by an internet services giant Naspers, Goibibo was incepted as an experiment in the social media platform. However, within the first year of its launch the company grew as much as 200 percent. The growth includes team size, partnerships with big brands, more features on the website, and customer-friendly perks.
The company was founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007. “The big change that has happened after 2005 was that the power of creating content and creating applications went into the hands of the consumers.That is when we articulated the ibuild part”, says Kashyap.
Goibibo understands the nuances of how travel happens on the go. Within two years of its launch the online travel giant launched its own payment services. It started when they felt that customers do not feel free to make online transactions because of improper payment gateways.
There are still a number of challenges from technology scalability point of view. But the evolution of business is massive. The company believes in reinvention and that, the wheel of invention should keep moving.
