 "The one app world doesn't exist anymore: Ashish Kashyap")
To deliver a rich user experience unique to a value proposition, one must have multiple apps, Ashish Kashyap tells Ankita Rai
What were your learnings as the country head of Google India and as the e-commerce head at Indiatimes.com that you put to use while launching Ibibo?
I actually founded the e-commerce business at Indiatimes.com during my stint there from 2000 to 2005. At that time there were just six million internet users and less than a million buyers. The big takeaway from the Indiatimes experience is, one should not be afraid of trial and errors. Indiatimes taught me how to be resilient. Back in 2003, we were able to create a $20-30 million business, with transactions through our airline auction engine. We were able to change the way consumers book air tickets. If you deliver something valuable, which is disruptive, which in this case is access to low-price auction-based air ticket, the consumer actually embraces it.
When we started out as a greenfield fund in 2007, it was an incubator and we did a lot of trial and error and it is from there that the travel business took off.
The Ibibo Group has multiple brands under its portfolio such as redBus, Ryde, Goibibo.com and goStays. What is the reason to have multiple properties?
With mobile phones becoming the first screen of consumption and transaction, it is important to 'verticalise'. So from horizontal e-commerce, the trend is now towards specialistion. We believe the future is about giving specialised experience to users per category. The idea is that if a consumer thinks of booking a bus, they should first think of redBus. Similarly, when a consumer is thinking of booking a hotel, or sharing car from Delhi to Jaipur, they should first look at goIbibo and Ryde, respectively.
The idea behind multiple brands is to give more intricate user experience per category. There are separate mobile apps for these brands and they are well integrated. For example, if you are travelling from Delhi to Jaipur and you publish it on the Ryde app, it also gets published on goibibo and redBus as promoted results. While each app has a single focus, because of these upsells, they create larger scale. There is cross-selling.
The one-app world doesn't exist anymore. Now you cannot have one portal, which does everything - news, commerce etc. It is a multiple-app world. If one can deliver a rich user experience, which is unique to a value proposition, one must have multiple apps .
All our platform are integrated. Close to 33 lakh people buy from us every month through these applications. This is possible because of multiple apps, which solve problems for buyers and sellers in each category.
Technologies such as big data analytics and machine learning are changing the OTA space with focus on customer experience management. How are you making use of these?
We look at it in two stages: Stage one is when one is building something new because at that time one doesn't have any past data. For example, when we were launching Ryde or goStays, we didn't have past data. We executed through trial and error. But once it becomes big, every decision is based on data. Data is the Holy Grail for the e-commerce business. It is not just about reading the data, it is about asking the right questions. On a daily basis, data tells us where is demand and where is the supply deficit. Second, one needs to look at data from the prism of consumer personalisation: What kind of content is to be delivered to whom.
Many OTAs claim that mobile devices are becoming the default platform for travel related activities. Between mobile web and mobile app where do you see maximum growth happening?
In terms of average daily numbers, 95 per cent of the mobile traffic at Goibibo is native - Android, iOS, Windows and 5 per cent is mobile web. Within the native, almost 90 per cent is Android. For example, Ryde does not even have a mobile web experience. iOS is growing fast but is still nascent. At present, 7 to 8 per cent of the traffic is from iOS. We don't have an app for BlackBerry.
We have a mobile-first strategy and the focus is on improving consumer experience through apps. Consumers are shifting to Android due to a two-sided network effect. It already has a developed app ecosystem. So there is a correlation between hardware and software.
The rise of online aggregated budget accommodation providers has created an entirely new market segment in the hotel industry. How is Ibibo Group's latest offering goStays different from these aggregators?
We had budget hotels on our platform earlier too. But the focus at goStays is to fix the painpoint in the system. We found that the budget hotel aggregators are not running the hotels. However, the consumers who are booking through these aggregators have a perception that they are running the accommodation. On the contrary, these players just aggregate a few rooms in each hotel. Thus, the experience is inconsistent. At goStays we partner with budget hotels to solve the problem of standardisation, guarantees and provide users with neutral ratings and reviews.
The big differentiator at goStays is that all properties under this model are co-branded, thereby not taking away the long-term identity of the hotel owner.
What were your learnings as the country head of Google India and as the e-commerce head at Indiatimes.com that you put to use while launching Ibibo?
I actually founded the e-commerce business at Indiatimes.com during my stint there from 2000 to 2005. At that time there were just six million internet users and less than a million buyers. The big takeaway from the Indiatimes experience is, one should not be afraid of trial and errors. Indiatimes taught me how to be resilient. Back in 2003, we were able to create a $20-30 million business, with transactions through our airline auction engine. We were able to change the way consumers book air tickets. If you deliver something valuable, which is disruptive, which in this case is access to low-price auction-based air ticket, the consumer actually embraces it.
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The biggest learning from Google was how to build a startup within a large organisation. So when I started the incubator back in 2007, we followed that concept, it helped us to execute very fast. Even today, when we are a large company with more than 2,000 employees, we are able to innovate fast by creating self-sufficient and stealth-mode units. The launch of the Ryde app and goStays was possible because of this culture of startup with in our company.
When we started out as a greenfield fund in 2007, it was an incubator and we did a lot of trial and error and it is from there that the travel business took off.
The Ibibo Group has multiple brands under its portfolio such as redBus, Ryde, Goibibo.com and goStays. What is the reason to have multiple properties?
With mobile phones becoming the first screen of consumption and transaction, it is important to 'verticalise'. So from horizontal e-commerce, the trend is now towards specialistion. We believe the future is about giving specialised experience to users per category. The idea is that if a consumer thinks of booking a bus, they should first think of redBus. Similarly, when a consumer is thinking of booking a hotel, or sharing car from Delhi to Jaipur, they should first look at goIbibo and Ryde, respectively.
The idea behind multiple brands is to give more intricate user experience per category. There are separate mobile apps for these brands and they are well integrated. For example, if you are travelling from Delhi to Jaipur and you publish it on the Ryde app, it also gets published on goibibo and redBus as promoted results. While each app has a single focus, because of these upsells, they create larger scale. There is cross-selling.
The one-app world doesn't exist anymore. Now you cannot have one portal, which does everything - news, commerce etc. It is a multiple-app world. If one can deliver a rich user experience, which is unique to a value proposition, one must have multiple apps .
All our platform are integrated. Close to 33 lakh people buy from us every month through these applications. This is possible because of multiple apps, which solve problems for buyers and sellers in each category.
Technologies such as big data analytics and machine learning are changing the OTA space with focus on customer experience management. How are you making use of these?
We look at it in two stages: Stage one is when one is building something new because at that time one doesn't have any past data. For example, when we were launching Ryde or goStays, we didn't have past data. We executed through trial and error. But once it becomes big, every decision is based on data. Data is the Holy Grail for the e-commerce business. It is not just about reading the data, it is about asking the right questions. On a daily basis, data tells us where is demand and where is the supply deficit. Second, one needs to look at data from the prism of consumer personalisation: What kind of content is to be delivered to whom.
Many OTAs claim that mobile devices are becoming the default platform for travel related activities. Between mobile web and mobile app where do you see maximum growth happening?
In terms of average daily numbers, 95 per cent of the mobile traffic at Goibibo is native - Android, iOS, Windows and 5 per cent is mobile web. Within the native, almost 90 per cent is Android. For example, Ryde does not even have a mobile web experience. iOS is growing fast but is still nascent. At present, 7 to 8 per cent of the traffic is from iOS. We don't have an app for BlackBerry.
We have a mobile-first strategy and the focus is on improving consumer experience through apps. Consumers are shifting to Android due to a two-sided network effect. It already has a developed app ecosystem. So there is a correlation between hardware and software.
The rise of online aggregated budget accommodation providers has created an entirely new market segment in the hotel industry. How is Ibibo Group's latest offering goStays different from these aggregators?
We had budget hotels on our platform earlier too. But the focus at goStays is to fix the painpoint in the system. We found that the budget hotel aggregators are not running the hotels. However, the consumers who are booking through these aggregators have a perception that they are running the accommodation. On the contrary, these players just aggregate a few rooms in each hotel. Thus, the experience is inconsistent. At goStays we partner with budget hotels to solve the problem of standardisation, guarantees and provide users with neutral ratings and reviews.
The big differentiator at goStays is that all properties under this model are co-branded, thereby not taking away the long-term identity of the hotel owner.