Ibibo owns stake in Naspers global payment entity PayU Global, will expand Naspers’ travel businesses globally [YS Exclusive]

Online payments solution PayU India has merged with PayU Global and Naspers- promoted group ibibo became the stakeholder in the new entity. The Gurgaon-based group runs multiple online businesses across verticals like travel (goibibo and redBus) and marketplace (Tradus).

Speaking exclusively to YourStory about the development, Ashish Kashyap, CEO ibibo group, said, “Naspers owns payment business in multiple geographies like Latin Amercia and India among others, and Naspers has decided to consolidate all its payment businesses under a single global identity – PayU Global.”

Recently PayU rebranded India’s flagship product PayU Paisa to PayU Money for a global appeal. The company aims to foray

into global markets with PayU Money. The branding activity doesn’t affect any PayU Money’s merchant or consumer in India. All the transactions and account details continue to remain the same as before.“Apart from owning stake in PayU Global, ibibo will also execute expansion of Naspers’s travel businesses in foreign markets,” adds Ashish. Ibibo has a significant presence in overall travel business with properties like goibibo, redBus and B2B travel portal Travel Boutique Online (ibibo owns 51% stake in Travel Boutique Online).

When asked about geographies where ibibo will build and launch Naspers travel business, Ashish said, “It’s too early to comment on this but we have a strong focus on expanding our travel business in global markets. We will evangelize organic as well as inorganic ways to have footprints in other countries.”

Earlier this month, ibibo-owned marketplace, Tradus, pivoted to a pure-play local and mobile based marketplace approach. YourStory spoke exclusively to Ashish about this development recently. Excerpts from the interaction:

YS: Recently, Tradus pivoted its business model. What led to the pivot and what’s the positioning of the company now?

AK: Tradus pivoted to mobile and location based marketplace from online marketplace model. We at Tradus felt the need to bring real commerce (local retailers in Delhi like Lajpat Nagar, Chandni Chowk, Gaffar Market, Karol Bagh and Sadar Bazaar) online. There are two major reasons behind changing the model – proximity between buyer and seller and increasing penetration of smartphones in the country.

We started with local sellers of Delhi (including the famous outlet of Chandni Chowk, Paranthe Wali Gali), Bangalore (Chickpet, SP Road, Kormangala, JP Nagar) and Mumbai (Crawford Market, Lamington Road and Masjid Bunde etc.). Besides Tradus, none of the e-commerce companies are evangelizing local and mobile commerce in a big way.

YS: Does Tradus pivot have anything to do with Naspers (Naspers owns substantial part of ibibo) investment in Flipkart?

AK: Naspers allows businesses to operate freely irrespective of multiple investments in the same vertical and geography. Our pivot has nothing to do with Flipkart or any other players. We have pivoted after identifying a big gap and moreover it’s about solving a problem that no other player ever ventured into.

YS: Is there any chance of merging Tradus with Flipkart (given the common investor – Naspers)?

AK: Look, we can’t predict the future. Till January last year, we never dreamt of acquiring redBus but it happened later in June. Similarly, we don’t know the future dynamics but to assure YourStory readers I can say we are not thinking on those lines.