Bus service aggregator redBus is expanding its focus on South India with new apps and has launched a tailor-made booking preferences for women who constitute over 30 per cent of its customers.

While a booking app in Tamil was launched in April, plans are afoot to provide an interface in Telugu to target customers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The focus on South India is significant as the region along with Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are the largest markets for State road transport corporations.

These initiatives come in the backdrop of the first quarter results which saw a 20 per cent year-on-year growth in bus bookings on redBus platform. Volume growth was largely driven by business in South India markets due to a decline in average seat price in the quarter. 

Telugu app soon

A Telugu language booking interface will be rolled out soon for customers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. redBus CEO Prakash Sangam said the platform has 40 per cent share of bookings in the private bus market in the two States and is also a trusted bus booking partner for State transport department services.

“We expect the healthy growth in Tamil Nadu to continue due to the large number of high-quality bus operators and expansion in fleet and connectivity through new route additions. The Tamil interface has a new customer acquisition rate that is three times higher than the English interface,” he said.

Women travellers

Also with women accounting for 32 per cent of its customers, the MakeMyTrip subsidiary has introduced features to attract more travellers. The feature shows buses that are highly rated by women, number of women travelling alone, women-specific deals and reviews.

“Presently, 32 per cent of travellers booking on redBus are women. And as more women travel by bus, women travellers are growing faster than male passengers by 400 basis points. We see a higher-than-average percentage of women travellers in the East and in the South,” Sangam added.

“Our revenue growth in the bus segment has been range bound between 20 per cent and 25 per cent in the last few quarters. redBus growth has consistently trended higher than market due to greater digitisation of bus inventory leading to more buses available on redBus for online bookings and share shift away from traditional offline modes of booking to online booking,” he added.

The bus transport industry has also seen a rebound post Covid-19 pandemic and is slated to reach a valuation of around ₹1.04 lakh crore by 2026, Internet and Mobile Association of India and Grant Thorton Bharat said in their report in February.

While State road transport operators will have a CAGR of 6.15 per cent, private category will grow at 7.19 per cent, the report said.

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