Journey of RedBus: India’s Largest Online Ticketing Platform

In the ever-changing dynamics of corporate life, almost every young professional works for his personal growth and to get a steady income. Only a few of them stand out to find a solution for other’s problems and those few people prove to be a good leaders or successful entrepreneurs in their lives. Well, this story is also related to one such young working professional who not only helped millions of travellers with his services but also become super-rich with his unique idea. Phanindra Sama, CEO of RedBus, has become one of the household names in the industry of online ticketing with his excellent business strategy. Today, RedBus is the biggest bus ticketing platform in India.

Let’s discuss how this brand manage to gain such huge success.

How did the journey of RedBus begin?

It all started in 2005, when Phanindra Sama, who was happy with his job at Texas Instruments in Bangalore, decided to go to his home town, Hyderabad, during Diwali vacations. He wandered all around the city but couldn’t get a bus ticket. That day he came to know about the disorganization in the transportation system and the huge communication gap between bus operators and travel agents. Though, Sama never wanted to become an entrepreneur in his life because he was satisfied with his regular job, the incident in Bangalore changed his mind and decided to solve this problem through an online app. Therefore, he proposed an idea of launching a bus ticketing platform to his two friends, Charan Padmaraju and Sudhakar Pasupunuri.

Engineers became entrepreneurs

Phanindra Sama, Charan Padmaraju and Sudhakar Pasupunuri, these three genius men have one thing in common that three of them did engineering from BITS Pilani. When Sama shared his business plan with his two good friends, they found it interesting and instantly started working on it. Leaving their comfort zone behind, the three young entrepreneurs worked very hard to make their idea a big success but as we all know that success will never be served on a plate. Hence, they surveyed all the details like the number of buses, number of routes, the costs of a ticket, the way the people buy a ticket, profiles of customers, shares of bus operator and an agent. After accumulating the necessary data, the team finally launched Redbus.in with only one operator, five seats and an initial investment of Rs 5 lakh in 2006.

The ultimate success

Before tasting the success, Phanindra Sama and his team had to go through hardships and several seasons of sufferings. But it was all the matter of time as RedBus eventually gained huge popularity among the masses. Today, RedBus has 10,000 buses listed on it, 700 bus operators, sells around 5000 tickets every day and runs across 15 Indian cities. The platform has its services running in countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, Colombia, Indonesia, Peru with an over 20 million customers.

What RedBus offers?

RedBus, an app which has made travelling convenient and comfortable for millions of customers, offers multiple services.

1. Multiple travel options across thousands of routes
2. Excellent customer support for solving travel-related problems
3. Low-cost tickets
4. Includes extra benefits (Discounts, deals, and festive offers, etc.)
5. M-ticket, E-ticket, and Counter ticket
6. Luxurious hotel services
7. Hire buses
8. Pilgrimage tours