Sify has acquired US based e-ticketing company Globe Travels, said to be a leader in the India-US sector catering mainly to the non-resident Indians.
HYDERABAD: Seeking to ride the online travel services boom, Internet, networking and e-commerce major Sify Ltd, has acquired US based e-ticketing company Globe Travels said to be a leader in the India-US sector catering mainly to the non-resident Indians.
The management refused to reveal the cost of the acquisition but market analysts reckon given the timing the acquisition it should pay rich dividends to Sify.
The reasons are quite obvious. While the India-US airline segment is said to be growing at 40% in volume terms year-on-year, quoting the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IMAI), Sify put the potential for online Internet transactions in India during 2005-06 at $262 million of which nearly 60% or $152 million is expected to be travel and travel-related business.
While the number of Indian Internet users is slated to grow from the current 38.5 million to over 100 million by 2007-08 online airline ticket sales are expected to account for $88 million followed by railway ticket sales at $63 million.
However, according to other estimates the online market is said to be worth around $368 million in India this year, with online travel agencies garnering 14% and supplier direct accounting for 86% of the share.
Air ticket online penetration is estimated to be 15%. Next year, the total online market is expected to touch $523 million, with OTA increasing their share to 24% and air ticket penetration touching 23%. Given this scenario then, the Globe Travels acquisition by Sify makes perfect sense.
What adds icing to the cake is the IATA deadline of December 2007 for airlines across the world to put in place respective e-ticketing systems.
Sify is seeking to leverage its presence through the 3300 iWay Cyber cafes its runs in 153 cities enabling over a million people access the Internet every quarter. It will be converting each of these cafes into e-stores printing out e-tickets from Globe Travels.
This apart the company also boasts of over 2 lakh broadband subscribers apart from three Internet properties like sify.com, sifymax.in and samachar.com which caters mostly to global Indians. More importantly Globe Travels is a leader in the US-India segment of the e-ticketing business. It gets about 25,000 hits every month. According to company officials to date over a million customers have used the facility to date.
Set up in 1993 Globe Travels has alliances with 26 US-based general sales agents and 11 key airlines, the official said.
What is significant is that there are two million Indian in the US accounting for 300,000 seats per annum in the India-US sector. Some Globe Travels competitors include SkyBird and Hari World Travels in the US.
Going ahead, Sify is looking to add the full complement of travel related services to Globe Travels like hotel reservations, hotel transfers and holiday planning among other things.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}