iXiGO, the newest kid in “Indian Travel Search” town launched yesterday. It is a travel meta-search engine that aggregates content from 14 airlines and 3 travel search websites (makemytrip, yatra & indiatimes), and brings them to you in a pure Web 2.0 experience.
But, do I need another travel search website? Aren’t there too many already?
The Indian travel industry is on a boom. With so many airlines and so many VC-backed travel websites, the consumer can’t complain for lack of choice. On the other hand, the same is a real search pain. If I am a price conscious customer, I have to search across atleast 2-3 airline websites and 2-3 travel search websites to get the best price possible. I might have my preference for travel search sites, but I might also be missing some cool deals if I’m not doing this.
iXiGO is trying to solve exactly these end user pains via its travel meta-search engine.
How are they different?
- Price Transparency – How much do you pay for a Rs.9 (Air Deccan) / Rs. 999 (MDLR) flickt? Atleast 1100-1250 more, thanks to taxes!!! Price comparison on travel / airlines websites really start on the final chekout page, 3 page navigations per site X 5-6 websites = about 15-18 page navigations before you can buy the least price ticket. iXiGO’s search, on the other hand, shows total prices (base + taxes)… All it takes is 1 page navigation on iXiGO for you to shell out the least money from your pocket.
- Search Speed – A Bangalore-Kolkata one-way search took 5 sec for the first search results & 45 sec for the total search (across all available options). The same search on Zoomtra, iXiGO’s nearest competitor, took 15 sec & 75 sec respectively. You can take your pick
- Breadth of Choice – 14 airlines, 3 travel search websites. Need I say more…
Are they competing with the other travel search providers?
Not really. iXiGO’s meta-search makes them yet-another distribution channel for the airlines / travel search websites, thus warding off direct competition. With time, when iXiGO takes off as a major inbound traffic provider, they could well be in a position to offer special iXiGO deals for their customers.
What next for iXiGO?
The following features top my wishlist, have been in discussions with iXiGO folks (they’re my juniors from grad school) to roll these out at the earliest…
- Price comparisons within a date range (farecast???) – Would love to see prices within a range of say +/- 1 week around the intended travel date. Presenting this in a visually appealing format (e.g. graphs, etc) would be a great tool for the price-conscious customer whose travel dates are flexible.
- Customizable low fare / deals alerts – Again for a price-conscious customer.
- Tighter integration – Closing the search & purchase gap, can iXiGO take me directly to the final checkout page of the airlines & travel search websites.
- Search on your mobile – On the internet, search on iXiGO & on one-click navigate to the purchase page. On the mobile, search is okay, purchase??? Can they integrate with a mobile payments provider – mChek, Paymate, etc – to complete the mobile search & buy experience.
What next from me? Look out for a podcast with iXiGO founders next, give them feedback here.
Interesting service…Pretty fast too
But what if Indiatimes/any player partners with other providers too?
I tried ixigo and liked the search functionality…
but at the same time, it would be great if they collate my user id/details etc (for each site) and automate the transaction!
Why will I have to login to each provider site to complete the transaction? In that case, ixigo provides a very minimal value which can easily be substituted…
the search is damn fast man! I want something more from this..looks just like a FYI stuff.
need some suggestions, need more stuff..
-Om
Well, the real value I expect from a travel aggregator is to be something on the lines of farecast, i.e prediction (esp when ur travel dates are not restricted).
I know it might be too early for Indian industry, but tht will be a killer feature.
Interesting service…I guess these guys are from IIT K? right?
-Jayant
Yeps, 2 of the co-founders iXiGO folks are from IITK. All 3 co-founders have spent quite some time in Amadeus, so you know…
Sameer,
Yes the complete experience, search & buy, is missing today. Though, not stepping onto the travel websites / airlines turf is a pretty good strategy to start with.
BTW I’m sure you can purchase your tickets without logging into these websites, I would not want to create accounts with each of these websites for security & privacy reasons.
Thanks for your comments.
sameer – there are privacy issues with single id on multiple sites. We already redirect you to results/checkout pages, and logging in is optional on most sites.
om and rajiv – thanks for the +ve feedback. look fwd to more pointed suggestions/questions.
sumanth – totally agree. everything has its time
.
Well, looks good on paper..but only time will tell how these guys fare.
“The same search on Zoomtra, iXiGO’s nearest competitor, took 15 sec & 75 sec respectively. You can take your pick
”
the post looks more like a sales pitch and not a review
Shreyas,
In the short run, the consumer convenience is a definite +ve, while the search & buy incomplete experience is a definite -ve. It remains to be seen how iXiGO / Zoomtra / others solve this.
In the long run, just on the prices, I would like to see increased traffic to transalate to reduced prices. Package deals, tour planning, etc are other long run differentiators.
Sales pitch… Don’t you love telling people about something you found great
Read my post about ixigo http://go2indiaweb20.com/?p=119
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