Business Today Net Special

Click Here For A Smooth Ride

By Aparna Ramalingam

Expedia is an inspiration for a whole generation of dotcommers now. The travel portal reported revenues worth a whopping $10 million in 1999 at a time when most other dotcoms were still finding it difficult to make ends meet. It is this revelation that perhaps made Deep Kalra chuck his job at GE Capital and start a travel portal, makemytrip.com Makemytrip.com is incubated by eVentures India---a joint venture between Soft Bank, ePartners (News Corporation) and P.K. Mittal of the Ispat Group---which has invested about $2 million in the portal.

"We want to be the premier transaction portal for leisure travel to-fro and within India " says Deep Kalra, CEO of makemytrip.com. Currently the site has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and New York. It claims to have a franchisee network in the top 15 cities in India, besides contracts with leading tour operators in all Indian cities and more than 30 countries. "We are a transaction-focussed site" adds Kalra. The revenues will primarily come from sale of travel services, branded makemytrip.com packages (for this purpose it has a pact with Star Cruises), and advertising.

Like other Indian travel portals, it is expecting a major source of revenue through packages. Kalra says the site will breakeven by the middle of second and third year. For now, it has a budget of about Rs 4.6 crore till the first six months of operation, to be spent on marketing and advertising. Is the site then relegating content to a secondary position?

Content is an important factor in the travel industry, particularly in view of the competition---and the expectations. Nearly 75 per cent of netizens have researched a travel site. "Content is a hygiene factor for a travel portal, it is a means to an end" shoots back Kalra. But that hasn't stopped him contracting with the bag daddy of travel content, Lonely Planet, as a content provider for over 100 international destinations. Kalra also claims to have unique and proprietary content on over 150 Indian destinations provided by professional travel writers. "The content is built keeping in mind the users perspective," he adds.

For now, Kalra is focussed on the inbound market, especially the NRIs in a big way. That perhaps explains its set up in New York. The site is focusing on the NRI populations of the US, Australia, and the UK, which add up to about roughly 6.2 million people. Kalra expects nearly 75 per cent of its revenues from the inbound market.

The site's differentiations from other travel portals? It promises toll-free access for customers in 38 Indian cities and to customers in the UK, Australia, the US and Canada. It also promises a 24X7 web chat facility with travel experts. "The spotlight right now is giving value to the user," says Kalra. For instance, the site has a booking engine with an online transaction capability. "This allows the user to book negotiated fares on a real-time basis, where the user can obtain confirmation for flight bookings within 120 seconds of registration."

Makemytrip.com also claims to have a proprietary database of about 500,000 negotiated airfares, 1000 negotiated hotel rates in India, 1,500 negotiated hotel rates worldwide and 500 specially-created packages. Whew! Now comes the tough bit: swimming in a sea of travel portals.

Keep In Touch

By Vinod Mahanta

The other day, my Bangalore-based aunt sent me an e-mail. "Hullo, young man," she wrote, "I've discovered this fascinating way to keep in touch with you whether you like it or not. I've put your name in Navinmail." Though I haven't got a call from her yet, it's obvious that voice applications on the Net are making more than a sound in a country that loves to talk. Take Navinmail. It's a global voice messaging service that enables customers to exchange voice messages, with a local phone. Says Sanjoy Mukerjee, 36, MD, Navinmail Services(India): "It caters to the basic human need of communication, and uses voice which has the capability to express emotions very effectively."

While conventional e-mail can be sent to people with e-mail access, Navinmail can be sent to anyone who has access to a telephone. Currently, the Navinmail service is already operational in 23 cities and this reach will soon be expanded to 35 cities.

Though it has not announced a commercial launch, Navinmail already has a subscriber base of 40,000 in India (including, I presume, my aunt). It goes without saying that Navinmail has potential in India, because the computer and internet penetration levels are much lower than telephone penetration. The company is targeting tens of millions of business travellers, immigrants, and people with family overseas---all who generate significant international or domestic long-distance calling traffic.

Given the size of the Indian diaspora, it could be a boon to the price-conscious Indian who wants to talk to their families in India and save on ISD charges. VOIP is illegal in India if offered to public, but Navinmail is a store and retrieve voice mail service that offers voice messaging service. Explains Mukerjee: "This is not a real-time conversation. You actually access your storage box."

NavinMail users are provided global voice mail boxes, which enables them to exchange voice messages with their ammas, appas, buddies, and business associates across continents. Basically, anyone who has access to a telephone.

How do you use it? Register as a primary user and add family, friends, and business associates as members of your calling group. Primary account holders pay the subscription fee for all the messaging. An unlimited number of calling group members can also be added as and when required. Let's take my aunt's example. She pays for the service. All I have to do is call the local navinmail office number, and pick up my messages.

Navinmail users are protected by a security code or PIN number, so their messages are totally secured. They can also assign their own four-six digit security code. Finally, Navinmail is introducing the concept of pre-paid voice mail cards, because collection is always a problem in Indian markets.

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