MakeMyTrip Sees Gains From Its Loyalty Programs
Photo Credit: Shown here is the Gurgaon headquarters of MakeMyTrip, the largest online travel company in India. The company reported quarterly earnings on Tuesday. MakeMyTrip
Skift Take
Investors are understandably focused on MakeMyTrip's ongoing operating losses. But in good news, the company is narrowing the size of those losses while maintaining its growth rates.
MakeMyTrip, India's largest online travel agency, narrowed its losses by using loyalty programs to encourage more repeat, high-value bookings and by expanding into profitable intercity bus ticketing.
On Tuesday, the Gurugram-based group reported that its revenue for the three months ending June 30 grew 25 percent, year-over-year, to $170 million.
The group continues to spend heavily to woo customers, though not as heavily as a percentage of revenue as it did in the past. It increased marketing and sales promotion expenses by 4.6 percent year over year to $149 million.
For every $100 the company earns, it spends $87 in marketing — a perilous level that makes profitability elusive. Much of that marketing expense was for offering consumers discounts for hotels and brand advertisem
