At a time when
The company is looking to expand into hotel and taxi bookings soon. It is also looking to tap into international markets. RedBus currently offers around 80,000 routes in India with over 1,500 bus operators and reportedly owns 70% of the total market share in online bus ticketing.
“If we find an interesting opportunity in overseas startups, we would look at acquisition. In a market as fragmented as bus travel, if one could have real time updates and online reservation of seats, it adds value to the experience”, Prakash Sangam, CEO, RedBus confirmed.
Sangam insists that a bus traveler has very distinct needs for hotels that include free early check-in and proximity to bus stops that give them the edge.
“We know the dropping points across cities, and can promote hotels in the vicinity”, he adds.
Sangam observes the segment has evolved from the white collar market with IT professionals from Southern metropolitans like Bangalore travelling to and from home-towns in AP and Tamil Nadu to more diverse user-bases.
“As the internet is being widely adopted by the country, the target market has increasingly shifted from the luxury Volvo buses to non-AC ones that cater to students, small-time businessmen and salesmen”, he says, “While the market is still dominated by the metros, around 70% of our sales are from routes connecting the metros or the ones connecting metros to Tier II cities”, he adds.
Mobile continues to be the platform of choice for new bookings with mobile bookings growing at a whopping 300% while desktop lags behind at a mere 30%.
When asked about the stiff competition in an increasingly crowded market, Sangam dismisses the possibility there’s any match for them when it comes to bus ticketing, “We sell 20 times the tickets that a MakeMyTrip and a Yatra will sell combined. That debate has been settled. It has been clear in people’s minds that when have to do bus ticketing they’ll hire RedBus”, he asserts.
(Image credit: Google Play)