FreeCharge, the digital payment service, has announced a new partnership with one of the leading OTAs, Cleartrip. The company claims that post this association, the travellers will be able to pay for their bookings including hotels, flights and trains using FreeCharge in under 10 seconds.
Snapdeal owned FreeCharge introduced the digital wallet last year in association with YES Bank and we have seen many other brands move in the space since then. Even Ola Cabs introduced Ola Wallet as a standalone app which earlier used to be a payment option only for the cab service.
Starting with mobile recharges and bill payments, FreeCharge has associations in 15 different sectors and this is the first time the brand has forged a partnership in travel space. Commenting on the same, FreeCharge COO, Govind Rajan said,
“After carving a mark across 15 sectors, we have now forayed into the travel space with this partnership. Cleartrip has transformed the habit of consumers online travel bookings by being a one-stop shop for all their needs. With this tie-up, FreeCharge will take this experience a step further, providing consumers with a means to complete their transactions on the-the-go, at a lightning speed. We are moving towards building an ecosystem for merchants to make consumers’ daily payments frictionless and convenient.”
The new partnership will not only help the brand give the digital wallet a boost but also help in increasing the use of FreeCharge as a payment mode for other partners with increased adoption. However, one of the strongest rivals, PayTM already works with multiple travel companies to offer their services through its platform and facilitate payments. So not only is PayTM offering wallet services to them but also working towards becoming the one stop shop for everything, including travel bookings. At this point, it appears that PayTM has the edge but it will be interesting to see how the FreeCharge-Cleartrip association plays out. It is worth a mention that Cleartrip recently associated with FreeCharge’s parent company Snapdeal to enable bookings through the e-commerce site.
Source: FirstPost
