Speaking with TechGraph, Amit Gupta, Co-founder & CEO of gogoBus said, “We are observing 30% MOM growth in terms of both revenue and the number of live buses on our platform.”
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: Could you give us a sense of how far gogoBus has come from its inception?
Amit Gupta: gogoBus was launched in January 2020 with its full-stack model, just two months before Covid19 induced lockdown. A black swan event that brought the entire mobility industry to a grinding halt.
Interestingly, lockdown motivated us to rethink our full-stack model, against the backdrop of key learnings of two months of our operations.
The problem statement was not only impacting consumers but also bus-operator partners mainly because of limited digital penetration – for an industry, which is helping more than 15 million-plus Indians to reach their destination daily.
This is when we pivoted our full-stack model to the Transportation as a Service (TAAS) model with a vision to empower the bus-mobility network of India with technology almost a year back.
Since our pivot, we had grown at the rate of 30% MOM consistently in terms of the number of live buses on our platform. We currently have 600+ buses on our platform connecting 300+ cities across North India and Eastern India.
Additionally, happy to share that since our inception bus fleet registered on our platform has contributed positively to saving 2,000+ metric tonnes of carbon footprints.
TechGraph: How is gogoBus facilitating the entire ticket booking process digitally?
Amit Gupta: Travellers can book through our Android app or IOS app or our website. Three simple steps Search-Select-Book process allows travelers to book in the comfort of their home.
To facilitate ticket booking further we recently launched India’s first QR code-based bus booking system. As of today, you can find our QR codes installed at 5000+ retail points for the ease of ticket booking digitally.
TechGraph: How do you prepare for the highly disruptive online bus booking industry?
Amit Gupta: With more than 500 million smartphone users and 700 million internet users, digital penetration is improving across the industry. However, this level in the bus mobility industry is still at a nascent stage.
We at gogoBus strongly believe that a digitally connected mobility system is the need of an hour to not only bring reliability but also instill trust amongst travelers specifically in Tier 2/3/4 cities where buses are the lifeline.
While working with bus-operator partners to solve the problem of reliability and trackability through an end-to-end technology platform. Our platform is built on a smart and intelligent route engine, which suggests the best route based on demographics, alternate connectivity options, and frequency.
“The idea behind building gogoBus is to build a trust-based marketplace to solve for regular intercity travel needs of Bharat.”
TechGraph: How is the response so far for your service?
Amit Gupta: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a critical benchmark to gauge customer feedback about our service. To date, we have maintained it at 90%+, and are consistently working to improve it further.
Being a TAAS platform, we have been working continuously to deliver the best consumer experience to our travelers and have developed a unique feedback mechanism that allows consumers to connect with bus operators in real-time for a quick resolution.
TechGraph: How gogoBus is leveraging technology to enhance the customer experience?
Amit Gupta: We are an inter-city bus TAAS platform where we are focusing on democratizing access to end-to-end technology to fleet owners while connecting consumers across India.
With the help of technology, we are providing end to end digital travel experience to our consumers from booking their choice of seat to deciding their deboarding location.
Further with our in-house GPS tracking technology consumers can track the live location of their booked bus and plan their departure from home at their convenience.
TechGraph: gogoBus is collaborating with Bus operators, Agents, and technology partners to enhance the bus booking experience, going forward do you see more such experiences?
Amit Gupta: In our vision to empower the bus-mobility network we are always on the lookout to build strategic partnerships with the right stakeholders to improve the bus booking experience. E.g. without divulging the name, we can share that we are in talks with an international company “for seamless passenger boarding and de-boarding experience” powered by NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology.
As we strengthen our presence in the sector, we are looking to contribute more towards bus-operator partner’s and agent partner’s daily earnings, while making them digitally empowered.
Right now, we are working with bus-operator partners and making them digitally aware so they can easily manage and control their fleet and financials (both earnings & leakages) through the gogoBus system while ensuring the best service delivery to its consumers.
TechGraph: What are the new products in the pipeline?
Amit Gupta: Connected app and the web has been the backbone of our entire TAAS platform. To strengthen our platform, we continuously work towards improvisation of our bus ecosystem to provide a seamless experience to our consumers and exciting business opportunities to our bus operator partners and other stakeholders.
Currently, we are working on our new product in which fleet owners can map the number of authorized passengers with actual boarding count on a real-time basis through our in-house technology (patent pending).