Travel is something which all of us wanted to do. Now where ever you want to go open an app book your tickets, hotels, cabs and what not, you can book everything and keep it ready before you actually go there.
The amount of convenience and comfort we have today wasn’t there a decade back. But rewind just a decade or two, and things looked completely different. Travel planning meant multiple phone calls, endless negotiations with travel agents, uncertainty about prices, and a lot of trust in handwritten confirmations. Choices were limited, transparency was rare, and convenience was almost non-existent.
Now we have numerous options to check and decide. But amongst all the options, there lies a giant whose journey started almost 25 years back.
The giant that I am referring to is Make My Trip. Let’s do a deep dive in this article to understand the journey of MakeMyTrip and why it is so successful.
Let’s go back to 1990S, back then, booking a flight to India wasn’t just expensive; it was complicated. There were no comparison platforms, no standard pricing, and no transparency. NRIs depended largely on travel agents who often controlled fares and information. The process was slow, uncertain, and anything but seamless. Deep Kalra, the founder of MakeMyTrip, experienced this pain firsthand while working in the U.S. He realised something important travel wasn’t just about logistics; it was about experience. And if the journey begins with confusion, friction, and stress, a part of that experience is already lost.
And that was the period, India’s internet boom was just beginning. US already started online travel booking platforms like Expedia. But India has nothing back then. So, Deep saw an opportunity. So, in 2000, he started MakeMyTrip.
The initial focus was not on Indian audience but focused on the Indian diaspora, especially in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. These users already understood the value of online booking and had access to better internet usage and payment systems. Slowly, it began gaining traction and trusted platform was built. But that was not the biggest breakthrough.
But in 2005, with the rise of low-cost airlines it all changed. SpiceJet, Indigo, and GoAir changed travel from a luxury to a possibility for millions. And right there, MakeMyTrip saw its moment. It expanded operations into India and shifted its focus from outbound travel to domestic needs such as flights, hotels, packages, and eventually buses and trains. From that point onward, MakeMyTrip stopped being just a booking platform. It became India’s gateway to planned travel.
But yes, not just the first mover advantage, there are some other reasons why MakeMyTrip has become so successful.
Then one of the smart decisions they made was Goibibo demerger. Around 2015, competition in the travel sector was heating up. New players like Yatra, Cleartrip, and Goibibo were capturing market share. Discount wars were brutal. Customer acquisition costs were skyrocketing. Instead of burning cash, they made move and merged with Goibibo which is one of its biggest competitors. Now along with these strategic moves and advantages, their revenue diversification became another key pillar of stability and growth Its revenue streams are diversified, including commissions from flight and hotel bookings, service fees, advertising from travel partners, curated holiday packages, and even subscription-based offerings. This layered structure ensured that MakeMyTrip wasn’t dependent on just one type of traveller or one category of booking.
This diversification protected MakeMyTrip during volatile periods. Even when airline margins tightened or competition intensified, other verticals ensured stable inflows.
MakeMyTrip clocked record gross bookings of $9.8 billion in FY25, with $2.5 billion recorded just in the March quarter. For the full year, the company posted a profit of $95.3 million. Even though the March-quarter profit declined to $29.2 million from $171.9 million in the same quarter last year primarily due to strategic reinvestments and market dynamics.
MakeMyTrip took a major leap by getting listed on the NASDAQ becoming one of the first Indian internet companies to go public in the U.S. This moves not only brought global visibility but also strengthened investor confidence in India’s digital travel space.
That’s how Indian born startup revolutionized travel industry.
