Modernized Bus Travel in India: redBus.in Case Study
Phanindra Sama, Founder, redBus.in
Founder : Phanindra Sama.
Co-Founder : Sudhakar
INTRODUCTION: "Bus travel" - the words conjure up a troublesome picture in mind, one that is even more pronounced in the minds of one billion Indians, for whom travel by bus equates to an evil of last resort. Against this populist norm, one young entrepreneur is fervently working to repaint the inconvenient portrait that bus travel has drawn for itself in India. Yourstory caught up with Phanindra Sama, the man behind redBus.in, on how redBus.in is seeking to unsettle rooted cutural beliefs by popularizing bus travel through its innovative business model. “redBus.in seeks to modernize bus travel in India by bringing in the convenience factor - akin to how the airline and rail ticketing industry has evolved in India. redBus.in aggregates bus tickets inventory from hundrerds of bus operators and makes it available online for consumers. Add to this, we distribute our bus inventory to thousands of retailers like travel agents, large retail chains like Sify cyber cafes, post offices, OTAs like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and mobile VAS providers like OnMobile etc.” Founded in late 2006, redBus.in is a market leader in the industry (a category that it has literally created and organized) with an inventory featuring 500+ bus operators for 5000+ services covering over 15 states in the country. We serve customers from 7 call centers spread across South, West and North India.
Services :
“We work like an agent to bus operators. The bus operator pays us a commission for the seats we sell.”
scale of business
And the commuter response has been more than just merely encouraging. In the past two and a half years redBus.in has been exponentially grown as reflected in their numbers. From a meager amount of Rs 50 lakh of gross bookings in their first financial year-end of Mar 07, redBus.in clocked over Rs 30 crore in gross booking this financial year end. In the meanwhile, redBus.in has gone
Founder : Phanindra Sama.
Co-Founder : Sudhakar
INTRODUCTION: "Bus travel" - the words conjure up a troublesome picture in mind, one that is even more pronounced in the minds of one billion Indians, for whom travel by bus equates to an evil of last resort. Against this populist norm, one young entrepreneur is fervently working to repaint the inconvenient portrait that bus travel has drawn for itself in India. Yourstory caught up with Phanindra Sama, the man behind redBus.in, on how redBus.in is seeking to unsettle rooted cutural beliefs by popularizing bus travel through its innovative business model. “redBus.in seeks to modernize bus travel in India by bringing in the convenience factor - akin to how the airline and rail ticketing industry has evolved in India. redBus.in aggregates bus tickets inventory from hundrerds of bus operators and makes it available online for consumers. Add to this, we distribute our bus inventory to thousands of retailers like travel agents, large retail chains like Sify cyber cafes, post offices, OTAs like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and mobile VAS providers like OnMobile etc.” Founded in late 2006, redBus.in is a market leader in the industry (a category that it has literally created and organized) with an inventory featuring 500+ bus operators for 5000+ services covering over 15 states in the country. We serve customers from 7 call centers spread across South, West and North India.
Services :
“We work like an agent to bus operators. The bus operator pays us a commission for the seats we sell.”
scale of business
And the commuter response has been more than just merely encouraging. In the past two and a half years redBus.in has been exponentially grown as reflected in their numbers. From a meager amount of Rs 50 lakh of gross bookings in their first financial year-end of Mar 07, redBus.in clocked over Rs 30 crore in gross booking this financial year end. In the meanwhile, redBus.in has gone