Its well said in the veture capital circle that the difference between a great and not so great company could directly depend on the kind of entrepreneur and investors backing the company and their commitment towards the company. So its no surprise that Yatra.com is getting all that it could ask from its investors (TV18 and Reliance Capital). Not only does yatra have the money but now it also has the reach which no other E-travel company can boast of as its also started airing ads on CNN-IBN and moneycontrol.com (both owned by TV18). On the other hand Reliance Capital has added a complete different dimension to the E-Travel space by looking at a hybrid model, which offers the convenience of cash and credit payment, both online through Yatra and through Reliance Web World outlets. Now this new development would really hurt the E-travel players especially the leader Makemytrip.com which has garnered valuable market share and claims to have made revenues of 200 crores last year. More on this can be read here
I don;t think it will be as easy as that. At the end of the day, this level of involvment also puts the pressure of expectations on the company, and it will be a while before anythinga approaching returns comes to these eager promoters.. If life was so easy, we would have had only one media company in India today.
I think its a very good strategy to go for without investing outside and using resources in house. With 70 Million reach of this kind of media, what else one would ask for. To reach out to the customer, this kind of peneteration would certaily add more value. And obviously perfection is dream, so one has to still work hard to achieve some and keep chasing them.
Imagine what happens once reliance will let you pay for your travel with your future reliance mobile or reliance energy bill!!! I think the idea is brilliant.