Mobile is the way to go for Yatra

Having raised a funding of 140 crore, Dhruv Shringi, CEO, Yatra.com, talks about increasing their presence in the mobile domain, adding new lines of business through apps and expanding their penetration.

What does the 140 crore funding entail for Yatra?

The funding will primarily be used to strengthen our position in the domestic holidays and hotels segment. We are the leaders in the domestic hotel space; and what we want to do is further increase our supply of hotels. We currently have 15,000 hotels and we want the number to increase this number significantly by the end of this calendar year. Funding will be used to enhance mobile technology. Apart from this, we also want to focus on increasing our brand presence. As the market expands, you will see a lot of the competition using the Internet for the first time. Because of this, we want to ensure that we have top-ofthe-mind recall, and are the brand leaders in this category. So, a part of the funding will be invested on the brand side as well.

How will the new investment help Yatra enhance its mobile technology?

Mobile is growing very rapidly – more than 20 per cent of traffic and 15 per cent of flight bookings come from mobiles. This surge in mobile business has come in the last one year, and we are very keen to grow our presence. We want to enhance our features and our product offerings on this front. We will be adding new lines of business through apps and will be expanding their penetration.

Are you planning any new laterals, and plans to diversify?

We are actively looking for opportunities on the technological side, especially in mobile technology. There are also ancillary services that we have been considering, but mobile technology is really up there as something that we are looking at exponentially growing.

With mobile phone access growing, the business dynamics of online travel is changing. How do you plan to address this?

The mobile segment has grown significantly over the past 12-18 months. It is the way forward for the ecommerce industry and in particular, the travel business. Growing this category is one of our prime objectives this year. We have adopted an aggressive marketing approach to drive traffic and bookings via mobile. Dhruv Shringi CEO, Yatra.com

The mobile segment has grown significantly over the past 12-18 months. It is clearly the way forward for the e-commerce industry and in particular, the travel business, where last-minute bookings are driving the trend. Growing this category is one of our prime objectives this year, and we have adopted an aggressive marketing approach to drive traffic and bookings via mobile. We do mobile searches and display advertising as well as run promotions from time to time to drive the shift.

What is your strategy for 2014?

We will focus this year on building up the domestic holidays and hotel segments. We have seen an improvement in the market environment and have more capacity coming in on the airline side. We expect our hotels and holiday package numbers to grow significantly. Again, we would like to increase our brand presence and enhance mobile technology for 2014.