Ibibo
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Online Travel |
Founded | 2007 |
Founder | Ashish Kashyap |
Headquarters | , India |
Products | Flight bookings, Hotel and Holiday bookings, Bus bookings, Train bookings |
Website | www |
Ibibo Group is an online travel organisation founded in January 2007 by Ashish Kashyap. The company is a subsidiary of MakeMyTrip (MMT) Limited, Mauritius which owns a 100% stake in Ibibo Group.
Group owns the B2C online travel aggregator Goibibo, and online bus ticketing platform RedBus.in. In 2013, ibibo Group was named one of the top five most trusted e-commerce brands in India in The Brand Trust Report India Study – 2013.[1]
On 31 January 2017, MakeMyTrip (MMT) made a strategic combination with the ibibo Group by way of an acquisition of 100% equity interest in the ibibo Group from MIH Internet, an indirect subsidiary of Naspers, pursuant to a Transaction Agreement dated 18 October 2016.
History
Ibibo started as a social networking service in 2007,[2] and later changed to become an e-commerce and travel organisation. In 2009 Goibibo.com was launched.[3]
Acquisition and investments
Bixee
Bixee is a former job search engine for India, and an example of both vertical search and metasearch (not to be confused with Bixby, Samsung's voice assistant). It was launched in late 2005. The company also launched Pixrat, which is a social photo bookmarking service. Bixee was acquired by ibibo, the Indian arm of the South African media giant Naspers, in December 2006.[4]
Goibibo
Goibibo was launched in 2009 and is part of ibibo Group. It was co-founded by Sanjay Bhasin and Vikalp Sahni.[5] Goibibo is India's largest hotels aggregation and also one of the leading air aggregator. Goibibo's core value differentiation is delivery of the fastest and the most trusted and reliable user experiences. Goibibo is also the number one ranked mobile app under the travel category. Goibibo.com was awarded 'The Best Tech Travel Aggregator Brand Award 2015[6] by The Economic Times.
PayU India
In 2011, Ibibo rolled out its payment gateway innovation called PayU in the Indian market, to permit websites to integrate e-commerce transactions through online payments.[7] With PayU, a business can process payment by using credit cards and debit cards (for more than 50 banks), and online banking for banks including ICICI, HDFC, SBI, and Axis Bank. PayU provides an API for integration and transaction analytics to improve the speed and security of payment processing. PayU India launched of a first-of-its kind premium deferral payment facility for consumers 'LazyPay' aimed at those who transact digitally for any amount between Rs 500 and Rs 2,500 and is an option to pay later.[8]
redbus.in
Redbus.in became a part of ibibo group via a 100% acquisition in June 2013.[9][10] redBus is India's most popular online bus ticketing platform, both on mobile and on desktop. The business also owns BOGDS, a cloud computing service for bus operators, and SeatSeller, a GDS for bus inventory distribution.
redBus has been rated the most trusted brand in the online travel category and the 13th most trusted internet brand in the overall rankings as per the Brand Trust Report, India Study 2015.[11] It also won an award for being ‘The Most Trusted Brand’ by IBC InfoMedia in 2015. In March 2014 it won the 'Global Mobile Innovation in Travel Award’[12] announced by Eyefortravel.
YourBus
In March 2014 ibibo Group acquired Bangalore-based bus tracking startup YourBus.[13] YourBus, founded by BITS-Pilani graduates Rajesh Mallipeddi and Satya Padmanabham in 2011,[14] is a GPS-based bus tracking and analytics platform. The YourBus application on a smartphone shows users the location of a bus in real time on a map. It also tells users the arrival time at their pick-up point, with SMS updates.[15]
Djubo
In August 2015 ibibo Group bought a minority stake in cloud-based hotel services startup Djubo for an undisclosed amount.[16] Djubo, founded in February 2015 by Tarun Gulati and Sankalp Goel, manages hotel bookings for over 100 hotels through a single interface.
redbus.pe and redbus.co
In July 2016 Redbus acquired Peru-based bus tracking startup Busportal. In 2017 they founded a chapter of Redbus in Colombia.
MakeMyTrip & Goibibo Group Merger
In October 2016, India based online travel company MakeMyTrip, a Nasdaq listed firm and ibibo Group,[17] India's largest travel group agreed to merge in a stock transaction, to form the country's biggest online travel company[18][19] Both these online platforms have Artificial Intelligence AI-powered chatbots named Myra and Gia respectively.[20]
Awards and recognition
Year | Name of Award | Awarded by |
---|---|---|
2015, 2014 | Best Website in the category of Online Travel and Leisure | Website of the Year |
2015 | India's No.1 Brand in the category of Online Travel and Leisure | Business Standard |
2015 | Best Tech Travel Aggregators Brand | The Economic Times |
2016 | Silver in the category of Travel and Holidays | Businessworld Golden Cart |
Year | Name of Award | Awarded by |
---|---|---|
2014 | mBillionth South Asia Award and Global Mobile Innovation | Evefortravel |
2015 | Most Trusted Brand (Online Travel Category) and 13th Most Trusted Internet Brand (overall) | The Brand Trust Report, India Study |
2015 | Most Trusted Brand | IBC InfoMedia |
2016 | Bronze Award for the redbus annual calendar | The Bangalore Big Bang Awards |
2017 | Bronze Award (Effective Use of Consumer Feedback category) | ACEF Customer Engagement |
2017 | Brand Excellence Award in e-commerce sector | ABP News |
References
- ^ "Google is most trusted online brand in India, Facebook is second". The Times Of India. 26 February 2013. Archived from the original on 29 August 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ "Ibibo.com Launched New Ad Commercial". Business Wire India. 8 January 2008. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ "Goibibo.com". CrunchBase. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ "MIH India Acquires Bixee.com And Pixrat; Founders To Join MIH". 5 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
- ^ "Management Team - Goibibo". www.goibibo.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ "Best tech brand award". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
- ^ "Naspers Launches Payment Gateway PayU In India". MediaNama. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
- ^ "PayU – Payment Gateway for Indian market". iamWire. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
- ^ "redBus sold to Ibibo in one of the biggest overseas internet deals". The Times Of India. 21 June 2013. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
- ^ "ibiboGroup Acquires redbus.in". Telegraph India. 21 June 2013. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ "redBus is the most trusted brand : Brand Trust Report 2015". www.firstreport.in. 2 April 2015. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
- ^ EyeforTravel (blog). "EyeforTravel: Online Travel Insights". Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ^ "ibibo buys Bangalore-based bus tracking startup YourBus". The Times of India. 21 March 2014. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
- ^ "YourBus integration with RedBus prompted acquisition". LiveMint. 21 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
- ^ "Naspers-Backed ibiboGroup Acquires Online Bus Tracking And Analytics Startup YourBus In India". TechCrunch. 19 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
- ^ "Ibibo Group buys minority stake in cloud-based hotel services Djubo". The Economic Times. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- ^ "Ibibo". Archived from the original on 9 November 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
- ^ "Online travel portals MakeMyTrip and ibibo announce merger". The Economic Times. 20 October 2016. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- ^ "MakeMyTrip, ibibo to merge, to become a dominant player". The Times of India. 19 October 2016. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- ^ "MakeMyTrip deploys AI to make bookings easier".