Paytm, India’s largest mobile payment and commerce platform, has registered over 1 million flight and bus ticket bookings on its Travel Marketplace in August. The company expects 2x growth in the travel business over the next 6 months.
Paytm’s bus tickets business recently turned break-even. The Hotels category is expected to turn break even very soon and the Flights bookings has been organically scaling at a 4x month-on-month growth since its launch in May. In its drive towards creating the country’s best cashless travel ecosystem, Paytm will soon launch new categories and ancillaries. To fuel this growth, the company will further invest INR 300Cr on its travel business.
Being modeled as a marketplace, Paytm has multiple sellers providing various travel services to customers. This allows the platform to offer a diverse selection at the most competitive prices. Paytm offers a unique opportunity for travel service providers to gain access to its 130 million strong and growing user base.
Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm, said, “At Paytm, we are building India’s largest travel marketplace with the mission to solve every need of a traveller – be it transport, accommodation, activities or ancillaries. We have seen exponential growth in all categories and will soon offer new services to our customers. Leveraging Paytm’s significant market penetration and strong brand proposition, we hope to grow India’s online travel booking pie by introducing new customers from tier II, III towns and cities to this category.
The company has set up a 100+ member team in its Bengaluru office to drive innovation in the category. This move is an important step in the vision of making cashless transactions a way of life across all consumer segments and demographic profiles in India.
