Paytm to enters the fast-growing travel marketplace?

With the penetration of smartphones, online travel industry is growing rapidly. It seems all the market players want a bigger share of the travel market pie. Now India’s fastest growing mCommerce platform Paytm is also planning to launch a travel marketplace on the lines of Chinese eCommerce company Alibaba’s travel marketplace Alitrip.

An Economic Times report revealed that Noida-based Paytm has roped in Satish Mani, co-founder and chief technology officer of online fashion retailer Zovi, to develop the marketplace business. , And for this, Paytm is in advanced talks with the Alibaba Group to raise $600 million.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, co-founder & CEO of Paytm, told ET, "Our approach is to build an Alitrip kind of business in India.”

The company wants to enter newer categories to grow its gross merchandise value, or the total amount of goods sold on the platform, to $3-4 billion (up to Rs 25,600 crore) by the end of 2015, from its current run rate of $1.5 billion (Rs 9,600 crore).

"We are building a digital commerce business of new categories to counter scale of physical commerce and logistics," said Sharma told the financial daily. Paytm plans to start signing up hotels and travel agents on the platform from next month.

According to Internet & Mobile Association of India, the country’s online travel market was estimated to be worth over $8 billion (Rs 51,200 crore) in 2014.
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