ibiboGroup, one of India’s largest online travel group, has rolled out redBus in Singapore and Malaysia. With this launch, redBus is now available for travellers to book inter-city bus tickets between Singapore and Malaysia and between cities within Malaysia, under the domain www.redbus.sg and native mobile apps on iOS and Android. This is part of the launch of the new “redBus global platform” that supports multiple currencies, languages, time-zones and integrated with international payment systems.
Ashish Kashyap, founder and CEO, ibiboGroup said, “We are very excited about this launch. This is yet another milestone in ibibo’s journey. Ever since the acquisition in 2013, we have worked hard to build out the new global platform, mobile apps and a solid management and technology team lead by Prakash. This has resulted in the growth of redBus.in accelerating to 80 per cent year on year, market share further growing to 75 per cent, mobile becoming a 40 per cent share in transactions and all of this culminating to the launch of redBus in Singapore and Malaysia.”
redBus has aggregated supply spanning 5700 bus routes in Singapore and Malaysia across large number of bus operators. On a daily basis, there are more than 100,000 seats available for sale. Ticket booking can be made either in Singapore Dollars or in Malaysian Ringgits. With this launch, tourists from India can also book bus tickets in Singapore / Malaysia by changing the region and currency setting on the redBus apps.
Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus said, “The bus market in many countries is similar to that in India, characterised by a fragmented bus operator base and largely unorganised or semi-organised. As a result, much of the ticket booking happens offline at the physical ticketing counters of the bus operators. redBus has shown through its experience in India that by deploying technology, it is possible to enable online real-time booking across a wide selection of bus operators, thus making life extremely convenient for bus travellers. With fully scaled out platforms for customers, bus operators and travel agents we have a firm conviction that a fundamentally strong business is possible in online bus ticketing space at a multiple market level.”
The expansion to international markets comes at a time when redBus has witnessed milestones the domestic market. The business is growing at a rate faster than what it grew in the years prior to or immediately after the acquisition by ibiboGroup and consequently, the share of redBus in the online bus ticketing segment has topped 75 per cent. This growth comes on the back of increase in the number of transactions from mobile apps, product innovations, live tracking of buses and access to exclusive inventory of Govt. buses in previously weak markets such as UP and North India.