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Plans to hire domain specialists in e-commerce technologies

Bangalore June 12 Travel portal MakeMyTrip.com is targeting a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore ($500 million) in 2009. The company on Tuesday established operations in the city and announced plans to hire IT professionals.

"We want to tap the huge IT talent pool, hire over 100 professionals who are domain specialists in e-commerce technologies," said Mr Deep Kalra, Founder & CEO, MakeMyTrip.com. The company crossed Rs 562 crore turnover this fiscal and employs 670. The company's headcount is expected to touch 1,000 by 2009. It operates out of five offices in the country.

Retail Outlets

The company plans to shift its focus towards hotel bookings, its new product. It offers booking for and reviews of 2,500 hotels.

The company also plans to increase the number of retail outlets where people can buy tickets, targeting a different set of consumers who will pay cash. It has tied up with Subiksha, BPCL and Spencers.

Spelling out plans for the State, he said an increase in the domestic and outbound business from 3 per cent to 7 per cent was expected by 2009.

Bangalore is the top selling market for flight tickets as well as hotel bookings, he said.

Travel contributes to 5.9 per cent of India's GDP. It will create as many as 27.1-lakh jobs from 2008-2017.

According to a survey by analyst firm PhocusWright, the Indian online travel industry has grown over the years from $796 million in 2006 to $1,325 million this year.

It will be a $2004 million market in 2008. A segmented analysis observes that the market share of online ticketing will grow from 7 per cent in 2005 to 10 per cent in 2008, primarily at the expense of traditional offline travel agencies.

By 2008, Rs 10,000 crore worth of travel will be bought online, from the current Rs 5,400 crore this year. Non-metros, and 2,000 towns such as Bharuch, Manipal, Vapi and Vijayawada are growing faster as markets, noted Mr Kalra

More Stories on : Internet | Tourism | E-Commerce & E-Business | Karnataka

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