Tie-up Fiesta – Spice Digital To SMS Ads And Travel Details To IRCTC Users
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IRCTC has come a long way in the e-commerce space in India since its estimated gross annual sales of Rs.3400 crore comprised 1/3rd of the total e-commerce industry worth Rs. 9000 crores in India. This time in news, IRCTC ties up with Spice Digital in an agreement which benefits both parties. So next time a user books a ticket online via IRCTC, he will receive an SMS which will consist of the booking details, such as the PNR (Passenger Name Record) number, the date of journey, class of travel, and originating & destination stations.
IRCTC has been witnessing a healthy annual growth of 100% in the number of tickets sold through online initiatives which stood at 45 million tickets in FY’08. This literally means that Spice Digital’s move of bearing the costs of sending SMSes on behalf of IRCTC will have a formidable reach in terms of advertising. That’s right, without any extra charge levied to a user, and without IRCTC spending a single penny, a wholesome amount will be made by the latter through this tie-up.
Online ticketing has always been the entry point for first time e-commerce users thus making more avenues available through association with companies like these.
So, this is how it will work –
Spice Digital being a VAS player has invested in an SMS gateway server for the IRCTC site, which will allow 160 characters’ space for the SMS. Out of these 160 characters, half will be used for the IRCTC details while the other half will consist of ads. Besides, Spice will pay IRCTC for sending these ads to their users, whereas these advertisements will be examined by IRCTC to avoid illegal ads being forced through these text messages on their users. This SMS will be only sent to registered users on IRCTC’s site discloses his mobile number, while others booking the ticket through IRCTC’s agents would not receive it.
Mr R.K. Tandon, Managing Director, IRCTC said, “The idea was to provide information to passengers through additional channels to prevent possible misuse of accounts just like the banks do for credit cards and bank accounts. We are trying to work out a way to ensure that the passenger gets a message even if he books an online ticket through an agent.”
At WATBlog, we have covered IRCTC’s tie-up with TripAdvisor where apparently a good amount must have been paid to IRCTC to allow the latter get traction from Indian users online, besides powering travel reviews on the former’s physical site. Hence, players wouldn’t hesitate to join hands with IRCTC keeping in mind their online reach, moreover this is a wonderful monetizing opportunity for online ticketing even if an OTA takes it up to attract advertisers or VAS players in future. They shouldn’t mind investing in the SMS service or else tie-ups with telecom operators is always a run for their money!
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