Ixigo, a travel company headquartered in Gurgaon, will launch its exclusive booking option called ‘Ixibook’ on its mobile application this week. This feature will be useful for travellers who wish to make hotel and flight bookings on the app itself, thereby not directing the users to the third-party. As the per the company plans, this service will be extended to bus bookings by next month. Also, it will launch a one-click booking service for inter-city cabs.
Aloke Bajpai, Co-founder and CEO of ixigo, stated:
“The idea is to make the booking experience across multiple providers a hassle-free and seamless process rather than directing consumers to the third party website or app. We are trying to become a more vertically integrated player, where we will have a deeper integration with all our partners, so that consumers can complete the transaction within the app through Ixibook.”
Elaborating on the future plans of the company, he quoted:
“Our entire bet is on mobile phones right now because we believe mobile usage will intensify in the next 2-3 years. Already 80% of our users are on mobiles, only 20% on Web. It is growing at 20-25% month-on-month and is already contributing 5% to the total revenue.”
The different launches mentioned above are part of an active ‘monetisation’ exercise that Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd. – the firm that runs ixigo – has taken up in the past year. This has been marked by the acquisition of The Indian Backpacker and Rutogo last year. Micromax – an Indian consumer electronics company – financially backed ixigo few months back.
A year ago ixigo hired a sales team to associate with smaller businesses and hotels. Also, it signed five new OTAs. It joined hands with Oyo Rooms, monetizing from independent hotels through a marketplace model named Super Value.
Also Read: Ixigo launches ‘Super Value Hotels’ metasearch for budget hotels and aggregators
