Exclusive | Most of our share & revenue comes from mobile: Goibibo's Tuli

2014 is the year when Goibibo.com, the online travel aggregator is celebrating its 5th anniversary with the ‘Goibibo management team’; meeting the first 50 bookers in person and honouring them with a certificate of appreciation for showing faith and confidence when Goibibo was just starting out along with a goCash gift voucher worth Rs. 10,000/-

Interestingly, according to industry reports, Goibibo is one of the top 3 online travel aggregator in India and stands tall for its core value differentiator that is delivery of fastest and trusted user experience. Be it in terms of quickest search and checkout flow; fast payments, settlement and refund processes. All this is backed by customer service excellence and innovations in our operations and back end. Goibibo also enables travelers to search, compare and buy from across categories and width of travel suppliers comprising: air tickets, bus tickets; holidays, hotels and car rentals. Goibibo is also a leading app across mobile operating systems: IOS, Android and Windows. Goibibo takes pride in delivering these services at lowest prices in the market. It is these attributes that has enabled Goibibo to trounce hundreds of players in the online travel space. Goibibo is part of ibibo Group that also owns India's No 1 online Bus ticketing platform, redBus.in.

Sharing with us a gist of the five years of Goibibo, Tuli said, “The years have been fantastic and if I have a look back, I would say that from a small start-up to one of the top 3 online travel aggregator - the journey has quite encouraging and challenging too. It was slowly and gradually that we started building up clients. Our aim has always been very simple and clear which is ‘work for consumers’ and that philosophy has made us lead the industry that we are in.” 

When it comes to learnings and its implementation, Tuli stressed upon the fact that they have always been very close to the consumers. “We keep meeting our consumers and take their suggestions. This not only helps us build a better search but also enhances our product prepositions”, he added. 

Goibibo's first booker is Sandeep Arya from Gurgaon who works with Gartner and the second is Richard Barraud from Delhi who is an Architect and teaches at “School of Planning and Architecture”. Besides this, on a daily basis 5 lucky online bookers will get Rs.1000 in goCash, 5 weekly bookers have a chance to win Rs.5000 in goCash on bookings made during the week and the 5 mega winners will win Rs.50,000 in goCash on bookings made in the 5-week period.

The growth chart of the company has been scaling up year-on-year. Adding onto this, Tuli said, “The company has registered a 150 to 160 % growth YOY. So the graph has always scooped up and up YOY. We started with domestic flights only and during that 1st year we saw an increase of 100% and that too without any advertisement and marketing dollars. Then we kept on growing every year and with god’s grace never saw a decline.”

Looking at the evolution in the digital industry the biggest trend as like all the veterans in industry, Tuli also feels that Mobile has been the icing on the cake. “Yes, Mobile is something that has changed all the plans, predications and games. Today most of our share and revenue comes from mobile”, he opined.

The main geographies that have contributed to Goibibo’s growth have been southern India which includes states like Bangalore followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Goibibo.com has captured its' 5 year journey via an info graphic. In the journey that started in September 2009, goibibo.com has been growing by more than 100%+ on a year on year basis. Traffic growth as per Comscore has been 97% year on year (August 2014), making it the most rapidly growing online travel aggregator in the country. The business has constantly added applications and features: Mobile apps, hotels, international flights, goCash, bus ticketing, online re-scheduling, instant refunds etc.

As per the company statement, “Goibibo.com has had a very successful 5-year stint in the market. We have carefully nurtured the brand to help it reach its present status as the most popular travel website in India. Our valued customers have played a very significant role in helping us reach this milestone. Through the 5-week mega celebration we want to demonstrate our gratitude and appreciation for their loyalty by rewarding them with these incredible deals and offers”.