Paytm Expands Its Reach By Adding Travel Booking To Its Selling List The service will be available for rail, road, airline and tour bookings
By Ritu Kochar
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eCommerce firm Paytm has mapped a vigorous plan for expansion by extending its services. Already an eCommerce firm with its own digital wallet, Paytm is now looking into online travel business by branching out into rail, road, airline and tour bookings. Largely a payment driven portal, Paytm aims to drive more traffic adding larger payments through tour booking.
Already in talks with a number of companies, Paytm has partnered with services marketplace Ezeego1 for hotels and flight bookings. They are also approaching several airlines and have integrated the rail inventory of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation on its platform.
Abhishek Rajan, head of travel marketplace at Paytm said, "It is becoming increasingly challenging for vertical players to drive traffic. Whereas, horizontal players like Paytm have been fairly successful in driving loads of it".
Talking about their plans to invest around Rs 120 crore on its travel marketplace in the current financial year, Rajan added, "Our intention is to continuously add new travel categories to the platform and drive organic growth without making large marketing investments."
The E-Commerce company backed by Alibaba for digital payments currently sells products under the category like mobiles and accessories, electronics, men's fashion, women's fashion, baby kids and toys, home and kitchen on its website. By adding travel to the list, and the revenue it will bring, Paytm is looking ahead at a bright future.
