Ten Popular Apps for Booking Bus Tickets in India Are Changing How We Plan Our Travel
It is gone now that people no longer have to wait for hours to book their bus tickets. People had to endure a lot of inconveniences when booking their bus tickets, whether it was long lines at ticket booking offices or waiting over the phone. The situation has changed dramatically in India’s bus travel industry. The ease and speed of booking a bus ticket has increased with the popularity of online bus booking apps.
According to an Indian report, there has been a remarkable rise in online bus ticketing in India over the last few years. There are nearly two thousand bus operating companies in India that operate with approximately twenty thousand buses along various routes. This is a popular mode of travel and it is expanding rapidly.
Startups for Bus Booking Apps: Business Models
These are the two main types of business models that underpin online bus booking platforms: aggregated business model or self-owned business model. Let’s take a look at the way they work:
Aggregator Model
This business model involves companies partnering with bus operators and travel agencies that actually own and operate the buses. This model doesn’t require that the companies maintain the buses. Partners/travel agencies take care of their vehicles. A bus aggregator company connects customers with buses and takes a fee for their service.
Model for a self-owned fleet
Bus/fleet owners can launch their own apps to connect with customers in the self-owned model. The profit margin for the self-owned model is higher than the one that uses an aggregator model because they don’t need to pay anyone to book bookings.
India’s Leading Bus Booking Apps
RedBus
In August 2006, Phanindra Sama and Charan Padmaraju founded redBus. With a few seats from a single bus operator, redBus has grown to be India’s most popular online bus ticket booking site. It is trusted by more than 8 million customers worldwide. It offers bus ticket booking via its website, Android, and iOS apps for all major routes. RedBus also offers bookings for hotels and outstation vehicles. It also offers pilgrimage tours packages.
A recent news item stated that the company was partnered with Google Maps in order to provide information on inter-city bus routes and statistics for drivers and trains.
AbhiBus
AbhiBus was founded in 2008 by Sudhakar Chhirra. At that time, the Indian bus travel market was not organized. The company is now a multi-crore business, with its end-to-end software solutions and other value-added service offerings. AbhiBus has a large inventory of tickets from more than 2500 bus operators, and offers over 100000 routes. This makes it one of the most popular online booking options for bus travel.
AbhiBus introduced Abhimovies last year. This feature allows passengers to view movies on any device from their bus, while they travel. AbhiBus was in discussions with several venture capital firms in October 2018 to raise $15 million. The company’s 25% stake was being sold. This would have a valuation of around Rs 450 crore.
MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip’s impact on today’s travel market cannot be ignored when it comes to ranking the top bus booking apps in India. It’s not just a bus-booking company. Over the years, it has grown to be India’s most popular travel portal.
Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip in 2000. It began its journey to serve the US-India market by offering best-value products, services and support. It launched India operations in 2005. This allows travelers to book travel online with just a few clicks.
A recent news report states that MakeMyTrip launched a range of standalone and curated experiences for Indian travelers via its app. The company plans to expand these experiences in the future to include key business and leisure cities in India.
ClearTrip
ClearTrip, a global online travel company that offers comprehensive solutions for booking hotels, flights and trains with just a few clicks, is the best. ClearTrip was founded in 2006 by Stuart Crighton and Hrush Bhatt. It has made a significant impact on the online travel industry. ClearTrip claims to be focused on its core products, such as activities in India and international markets.
Paytm bus booking
Paytm is an online payment system and digital wallet that was founded in Noida by Vijay Sekhar Sharma. In 2015, the company partnered with top bus aggregators in India to launch its bus ticket marketplace. Paytm made it possible to make cashless payments for unreserved bus tickets by enabling them to accept credit cards. Abhishek Rajan (VP, Head of Travel Business at Paytm) stated that the company sells approximately 4 million bus, train and flight tickets per month. He hopes to increase that number by March 2019.
Travelyaari
This bus booking platform, based in Bangalore, was founded in April 2008 by Prateek, Parthasarathi and Aurvind Lama. It is currently one of the most popular online bus booking sites in India. It has served more than 150 million bus passengers to date with its network of over 3,500 bus operators and 150,000 options per day on over 70,000 routes. You can book your bus tickets online and receive alerts about seasonal discounts and exclusive offers. The company has used the funding since it raised $7 million in 2016 to fund product development, brand building, marketing activities, team building, and other business-related activities.
TicketGoose
TicketGoose, another Indian bus ticket booking site, serves more than 3000 destinations in India and has 10,000+ buses on 20,000+ routes. You can also book tickets from the website and its iOS and Android apps. Arun Athiappan, Karthi Easwaramoorthy, and Karthi Easwaramoorthy founded this Chennai-based company in 2007. They believe in people and customers and provide consistent value, support, service, and usability. TicketGoose is a booking platform that allows you to book buses and taxis.
MyBusTickets
MyBusTickets is an award-winning cloud-based online ticket booking platform that makes it easy to book RSRTC and UPSRTC buses. MyBusTickets, which was founded in 2009, has listed more than 65,000 intercity bus services in 20+ states and 200+ towns. MyBusTickets offers its customers a fully-featured app that allows them to book their bus tickets anytime, anywhere.
eTravelSmart
eTravelSmart is India’s largest bus fleet. Customers can book seats and pay 20% off total ticket fare. Book online, via mobile app or website to get great deals and offers. Bhav Singh founded the company in 2013 and it now employs more than 3000 people on 80000 routes across India.
VIA
Vinay Gupta, Amit Aggarwal, and FlightRaja.com were the original founders of VIA. VIA is an online travel platform that allows you to book flights, hotels and holiday packages as well as buses and flights quickly and easily. It also has a section where suppliers and affiliates can list their products and businesses. VIA and Ola partnered in 2016 to provide a cab booking interface. The interface allows customers to access availability, book, estimate, and track across all categories directly from the Via.com website and app.
SRS Travels
One sight you can’t miss when visiting Karnataka is the sea of yellow-and-white buses. They are all part of SRS Travels which is one of India’s most prominent names in road transport. SRS Travels was founded by Mr. K. T. Rajashekera and has a fleet of nearly 5,500 vehicles that are located in various parts of the country. SRS Travels offers both an online and offline bus reservation system that allows customers to book tickets as well as inquire about the bus schedule. You can also book tickets online through SRS Travels’ Android app if you want to book a bus ticket.
VRL Travels
VRL Travels, a Karnataka-based transportation and logistics firm, covers more than 350 routes that connect nearly 100 destinations. It has 396 luxury buses. Vijay Sankeswar founded the company, which is the largest fleet owner of commercial vehicles within India’s private sector. VRL Travels is not only a partner with bus aggregators but also has its own website, app and iOS application.
Shuttl
Shuttl provides a single-stop solution to all office workers who want to commute safely, comfortably, affordably, and without stress. Shuttl was established in 2005 and now serves over 45,000 rides per day in major cities. The company operates around 800 buses and covers more than 150 long routes. The Shuttl app allows users to find the best routes in their city, select a time slot and book seats. Finally, they can track the status of the shuttles and get details.
Ridlr
Ridlr, India’s first transit app, was launched by Ravi Khemani and Brijraj Vaghani in 2012. It makes intra-city commutes easy, smart, and cashless. Ridlr is a mobile app that facilitates travel around Mumbai. It allows users to buy best bus tickets, passes, and recharge metro cards through the app. It also provides information about public transport, including local timetables, and timely notifications regarding public transport updates.
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