Paytm is one of India’s leading mobile payment gateways allowing customers to book transport, accommodation and travel packages at a number of online merchants including Uber and MakeMyTrip.
However the company aims to penetrate the travel space in a more meaningful way – by launching its very own online travel agency.
The Internet & Mobile Association of India predicts the country’s online travel market to be a worth as much as $8 billion annually with as much as half that generated from mobile devices.
Vijay Shekar Sharma, CEO of Patym hopes to emulate the impact of China’s Alitrip in India. Paytm has been in talks with Alitrip parent Alibaba – already an existing shareholder in Paytm – to raise about $600 million for the new venture.
"Our approach is to build an Alitrip kind of business in India. We are building a digital commerce business of new categories to counter scale of physical commerce and logistics," says Sharma.
It recently signed agreements to handle mobile bookings for Indian railways and bus travel aggregators and next plans to scale up with hotels and travel packages.
The travel platform will be available in-app alongside its other services like mobile phone recharging and consumer products.
"The US concept is one app for one thing. The Chinese concept is one app for many things. We believe that Indians will follow the Chinese," said Sharma.
Paytm claims it has more than 60 million users and processes 80 million orders of digital and physical goods each month.
