Data science will be the next big differentiator for online travel: Deep Kalra

Interview with Founder & group CEO, MakeMyTrip

Everything has moved to the cloud and operations are no longer restricted by physicality. Scalability of the business is faster with cloud, Deep Kalra tells Sangeeta Tanwar

You launched MakeMyTrip in 2005. How has the industry changed since then?

The industry has completely changed since the time we started. Between 2005 and 2010 the industry focused on the non-resident Indian market. At that time nobody was buying online. People were going to the web in search of information. They were wary of using credit cards because of lack of faith in the kind of security offered by online payment gateways.
 

The real credit for getting people online goes to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. Following in their footsteps, we seized the opportunity that web offered. The industry started publishing travel-related content and beginning 2010 we saw consumers paying for hotels online. Over the last two years, mobile has proved to be the biggest game changer. The ecosystem around web has changed completely with the growth of e-commerce and the advent of likes of Uber and Ola.

When Makemytrip launched, there was hardly any template to follow or serious competition. Today it's a crowded space. What are the key capabilities that businesses need to stay relevant?

Be it online travel or any other business, organisations have to be nimble and agile to succeed. Leaders should be able to spot the emerging trends and be able to pivot the organisation to become future-ready. For example, leaders in the travel industry will do well if they have the ability to recognise trends such as fall in smartphone prices, lowering of data charges and the likely impact of the entry of a player like Reliance Jio into the ecosystem. Leaders should be able to connect the dots between these developments and assess their impact on the industry they are operating in. All these are monumental changes and need to be acknowledged if a player wishes to stay ahead of competition.

In the case of online travel, for example, efforts have to be geared to ensure that in a world of infinite apps, your app finds its way on the customers' mobile phone since it increases the chances of a customer clicking on the app for booking hotels and air tickets.

Technology has helped diverse businesses achieve scale. What role does it play in enabling the online travel industry to expand and grow?

Technology is the lifeblood of the online travel business. It's not just the differentiator but a real game changer. If one were to ask what separates an average company from a great one or why new-age companies are taking centre stage - the answer is, technology is at the forefront of everything that these companies do. Technology makes businesses scalable.

In the case of Makemytrip, we can sell an additional 1,000 or 10,000 tickets without getting on board more people courtesy technology. We do have people in products, software, sales and marketing teams but with technology at the helm, we don't need additional people to sell more.

In terms of technology, what's going to be Makemytrip's biggest bet?

Going forward, data science is going to be a big differentiator. In businesses like ours activities such as how we acquire customers, pay for keywords while marketing - literally everything - is driven by algorithm. At what point should one buy a keyword and how hotel search results are displayed - everything is guided by algorithm with minimum human intervention. When Makemytrip started off one had to own hardware infrastructure and invest in data centres. Today, everything has moved to the cloud. It's a much smarter way of working since operations are no longer restricted by physicality. The possibilities and scalability of business are faster with cloud.