Also in this letter:
■ Govt working on rules to make ecommerce fairer
■ Musk says Twitter Blue users should get edit button, no ads
■ No room for shortcuts in EV testing, says Hero Electric MD
Expedia and BookMyShow signal revival of travel, events and movies
Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and CEO Expedia Group with Rathi Murthy, CTO
Expedia Group expects to see global travel continue to increase as the industry emerges from the shadows of the pandemic, its vice chairman and chief executive officer Peter Kern told us during his first visit to India.
“It’s gotten progressively better… in some parts of the world travel now exceeds pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
Meanwhile, BookMyShow also said its business was rapidly approaching pre-pandemic levels.
Expedia’s new normal: Kern told us the big change he’s observed is that people don’t expect the next wave to shut down everything. “We have entered into what everyone’s saying is an endemic stage of the pandemic and expect continued improvement across the globe,” he said. But corporate travel is still not fully back yet.
India focus: To ramp up its efforts to build a technology centre in India, the group has hired Arun Dutta as vice president and managing director of Expedia India Services.
According to Expedia’s top management, India remains one of its strategic locations to power its platform development. It continues to ramp up its B2B partnerships in India, too. “We did not come to penetrate the Indian market. We’re here because there’s great talent here,” Kern said.
Dark days ending? Expedia Group saw its quarterly revenues decline for the first time in eight years during the first quarter of 2020. Subsequently, it saw a 90% drop in gross bookings year-on-year, with overall revenues falling 82% in the second quarter of 2020.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, while total revenues and gross bookings were still down 17% and 25% respectively from the fourth quarter of 2019, total revenues rose significantly to $2.3 billion. Overall revenue for Expedia Group stood at $8.6 billion in 2021, compared to $12.1 billion in 2019.
BookMyShow bounces back: BookMyShow posted a revenue of just Rs 74 crore in FY21, down from Rs 701.40 crore in FY20 as live events and online ticketing accounted for 80% of its income.
But as the economy opens up, the company said it turned Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) positive and clocked its highest-ever monthly ticket sales in March 2022.
This was on the back of new movie releases, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other live events, founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani told us.
The company also recorded its highest-ever monthly active users at 70 million, and its highest-ever traffic with 250 million customer visits in the month. Pre-covid, this number was about 200 million on average.
Road to recovery: BookMyShow’s recovery was due to a series of steps it took early on to reduce costs, establish new revenue streams, slash jobs, and recast its strategy for international operations. The company laid off 270 people in May 2020, then another 200 in June 2021. It currently has 620 employees, down from 1,500 before the pandemic.
Govt working on rules to make ecommerce fairer for customers, small sellers
The union government is working on a new set of policies to bring about “algorithmic fairness” for customers of ecommerce firms. The proposed rules will make it compulsory for these companies to show search results from several sellers instead of focussing on a few preferred sellers, a top official said.
The rules will also restrict ecommerce companies from sharing consumers’ buying behaviour with anyone, said Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary at the Department of Consumer Affairs.
ONDC framework: These and other rules will be a part of the framework for the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
They will apply to all companies engaged in digital commerce, including Amazon, Flipkart, Google’s Play Store, Apple’s App Store, cab aggregators and hotel aggregators.
Why? Independent sellers on ecommerce marketplaces have alleged that the platforms give preferential treatment to some sellers, which show up more in product searches than others. They have also alleged that platforms share consumer data such as shopping behaviour with their preferred sellers, which are partly or fully owned by the marketplaces, giving them an advantage over others.
ONDC will safeguard consumers and protect small businesses by granting them equal opportunity, Singh said. The framework is being worked upon by the consumer affairs ministry and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
Market size: The ecommerce market in India is expected to touch $5.5 billion by 2025, up from $700 million now, according to a recent report by management consulting firm RedSeer. Ecommerce is also one of the country’s biggest job creators.
Elon Musk says Twitter Blue users should get an edit button, no ads and more
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, Twitter’s newest board member, has suggested a raft of changes to the company’s premium subscription service, called Twitter Blue.
Details: He said those who sign up for Twitter Blue should get an authentication mark, the ability to edit a tweet within 20 seconds of posting it, and no advertisements.
“The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive,” Musk said in a tweet.
He also proposed that the price be cut to $2 a month “but paid 12 months up front”.
What’s Twitter Blue? Launched in June 2021, it costs $3 a month and gives users access to exclusive features. It is currently available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Musk also tweeted another poll on Sunday, asking users if the company’s San Francisco headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway”. The poll received a whopping 572,815 votes in the first three hours.
These developments come days after Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter and was appointed to Twitter’s board. Last week, he had even tweeted a poll about whether Twitter should introduce an edit button.
No room for shortcuts in EV testing, says Hero Electric MD
Hero Electric MD Naveen Munjal
The managing director of Hero Electric, the country’s largest electric two-wheeler maker by volume, said there could be no shortcuts in the validation and testing of vehicles in real-world conditions before selling them to customers.
Context: Naveen Munjal’s comment came against the backdrop of cases of electric scooters catching fire and manufacturers coming under the scanner for their safety and testing standards.
There were three reported instances of electric scooters catching fire in four days last month, sparking concerns among existing and prospective customers. While an incident involving the S1 Pro from Ola Electric caught a lot of attention, the other two incidents involved Okinawa and Pure EV scooters.
Also Read: As EVs catch fire, makers look for ways to cool batteries
EV market on fire: Despite these incidents, March was a record-setting month for the EV industry. Hero Electric set a record of its own by selling more than 13,000 units. It was followed by Ola Electric, which sold over 9,000 vehicles. Experts predict that Ola could beat Hero Electric in April. Munjal said maintaining the lead was “very important” for the company.
Also Read: EV growth may slow down as safety norms are tightened
TWEET OF THE DAY
Coinbase halts UPI payments for crypto three days after India launch
US-based crypto trading Coinbase has disabled the option to buy cryptocurrencies using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India on Sunday.
“Purchases with this payment method are temporarily unavailable,” its mobile app said.
Catch up quick: The crypto exchange, which announced its India entry with an event in Bengaluru on April 7, saying it would let users buy crypto using UPI.
But on April 9 we reported that the company’s decision had come under scrutiny from the National Payments Council of India.
Mobikwik backs off: Meanwhile, sources also told us that Mobikwik, which was facilitating crypto purchases through its wallet, had stopped the service amid the regulatory uncertainty. Mobikwik was one of the most popular e-wallets for crypto transactions in India.
Startups will remain attractive to jobseekers despite hiccups, say experts
Despite an impending slowdown in funding that is likely to lead to belt-tightening and layoffs, startups will continue to remain attractive for jobseekers, said founders, hiring experts and consultants.
Several prominent startups, including Unacademy, Trell and Lido Learning recently announced layoffs.
Industry insiders told us that astronomical salary hikes to attract talent will likely see a correction in the coming quarters, but the sector itself will continue to draw professionals for its wealth creation opportunity, the intellectual stimulation it provides, and as a learning ground for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“There will be a tempering in hikes in coming months. It has already started in some areas such as HR, finance and sales. However, overall cash compensation, Esops and incentives combined still give a far greater earning potential, and that is a big draw,” said Ashwin Damera, chief executive of edtech unicorn Eruditus.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Govt to roll out new Digital India Act shortly, says MoS: The government will shortly roll out the Digital India Act, which will be a renewed policy for the country’s digital ecosystem and cyberspace, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
o9 to leverage its Digital Brain: o9 Solutions, which provides a platform for transforming planning and decision-making in companies across verticals, said that it would leverage its core technology, Digital Brain, to enable the sustainability transformation of companies and their supply chains.
IT firms battle attrition with tech: Talent is expected to make or break companies in the decade of digital transformation, or ‘techade’. The IT sector is dealing with high attrition rates, a massive talent crunch, and an exponential growth in compensation packages. In such a scenario, the top technology companies have started addressing concerns around employee engagement, internal growth and job satisfaction.
Collaboration apps – why it takes more than two to tango: Over the past two years we have seen the rise of collaborative apps. While Zoom, Meet, and Teams have been words in common use, but not so much that they have currently become a part of the lexicon. But how do they stand out and what makes them the go-to choice for users?
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ How south Asia’s bridal industry built a WhatsApp empire (The Guardian)
■ Washington debates cryptocurrency rules, with sights set on stablecoins (WSJ)
■ How Airbnb reshaped Cuba’s tourism economy in its own image (Rest of World)
Today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch was curated by Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai and Judy Franko in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
