Timing is everything – ClearTrip has released its first-ever Quarterly Insights on Mobile a few days after what the Indian OTA claims was its “busiest ever week on mobile”.
Headline figures from its Q1 performance indicate the strength of the growth it is seeing from mobile – 40% of traffic and 30% of transactions came from mobiles. In the same period last year it was 20% and 12% respectively.
In past few months it has introduced a number of mobile initiatives, including apps for iPad and an app for phones running Windows.
But it is as focused on improvements to the existing products – ClearTrip Android and iOS users can now manage cancellation through the apps, making it “the first online travel company in India (if not the world) to offer cancellations in mobile apps”.
Its ClearTrip Wallet product launched in July is also having a positive impact on business. It allows people who cancel a booking to get the refund instantly credited to a ClearTrip Wallet account rather than wait days for the banks to do their job. The credit in the wallet can then be used to buy a new ClearTrip ticket at once.
Other highlights from the Quarterly Mobile Insights:
Samsung devices accounting for 44% of mobile searches compared with 38% from iPhones But iPhones are the most popular for air searches, Samsung for trains Mobile web still dominates with 52% of searches, followed by Android apps at 28% and iOS apps at 20%. When it comes to browsers, Safari accounts for 49% and Chrome 33%.
Last week MakeMyTrip shared some mobile data at a tech conference in the US. It said that 30% of traffic and about 15% of our transactions is through mobile. It too had Android more popular than iOS.