The company that started 25 years ago believes that its best is yet to come.
Yeah, it's kind of surreal. Even when I saw Young Turks 25 years, I told you the same thing. I said, 'My god, we've come a long way.' When you look back, it doesn't feel like 25. Life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane. Till 6 months before the IPO, we weren't even planning an IPO. It was Sanjiv Chandani, an independent on our board, who said IPO. He told us in a January board meeting that guys, you are ready to IPO. We said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Three years ago, we were at the same level and you guys are growing faster.'
What's the most unusual celebration case that you've seen?
I believe they're now breakup and turning single again parties. Breakup and turning single again parties and get-togethers. Like, 'Listen now, guess what, we're all single, we party.' But all kinds of stuff is happening, like proposal economy is happening. People, youngsters are choosing exotic locations to go make a proposal and they actually travel. For the last few quarters, we see our frequent travelers are actually taking more trips than they ever were before. It's a combination of short-term locations and we've seen trends like the YOLO phenomenon is here to stay with Gen Z, and it's real.
25 years ago, a young man called Deep Kalra decided that he wanted to get into the online travel business. 25 years later, MakeMyTrip is one of India's leading travel companies and has seen a record-breaking 2023-24. Here's the MakeMyTrip story over the last 25 years in numbers: 80 million plus lifetime transacted customers, 490 million plus app downloads, 519 million shopper visits. That tells you the story of MakeMyTrip over the last 25 years. In 2010, they decided to list on the NASDAQ. They've seen a flurry of acquisitions through the course of their journey, and there's been plenty of learnings, plenty of setbacks, but it's been an exhilarating ride.
Joining us now to talk about the story, the last 25 years, but more importantly, the next 25, is Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow. Deep, Rajesh, many many thanks for joining us. Deep, let me go back 25 years. So much has changed, so many low points in the course of your journey. On many occasions, it was almost a question of will you be able to make it through. But you have, and you survived, and you're here to tell the tale.
Yeah, it's kind of surreal. Even when I saw Young Turks 25 years, I told you the same thing. I said, 'My god, we've come a long way.' When you look back, it doesn't feel like 25. I think life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane, so it moves so fast. You can look back and typically it's waves of five years for us. The first five years were all about just survival and making sure we live to see another day. At least three of those five years were really dark, but when I look back, the best years because that's when a germ of an idea became proof of concept, became a business, started making money, the team was together, and there was a shared common passion and dream. And then it actually was happening despite all the odds. So I think that was a great period. 2005 to 2010 was just this ferocious run to IPO. Till 6 months before the IPO, we weren't even planning an IPO. It was Sanjiv Chandani, an independent on our board, who said IPO. He told us in a January board meeting that guys, you are ready to IPO. We said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Three years ago, we were at the same level and you guys are growing faster, you were growing 50%, you should IPO.' And this is a man who didn't know whether the NASDAQ were in pat or... well, this is a man who knew a lot actually. He told us and we took it very seriously. We were surprised at the meeting. Rajesh was CFO then. We put our heads together and he called a meeting. For the next 6 months, he and the auditors and the lawyers just pitched tent in office, and in 6 months we had IPOed. August 2010, we IPOed on NASDAQ, being one of the first internet companies from India to IPO there, first travel company from India to IPO there. It was great. Then from 2010 to probably right up to COVID was overall a really good run, some hiccups. Of course when Kingfisher went down, it challenged the whole domestic air industry. We were very domestic air dependent. We started building out a hotel business in right earnest. But it was a pretty good run till then. We had a huge acquisition. We acquired Goibibo and RedBus at that time. Learned a lot about how to assimilate large acquisitions. And then COVID. I'm just giving you the short version. COVID all over again was truly, I won't say near death for the company, but it was a complete reset because our business went down. We reported a quarter we were 96% down on revenues, and it was crazy because national lockdown of course. To come back after that, to restructure cost space as much as you can, obviously COVID had to lift, but the way travel has come back, we all know you can't get a room, you can't get a seat, everything is double the price. But people have in their minds said, 'Yeah, if I have a bucket list, I'm going to take it off now.' I think we as a company came back stronger because we went about restructuring cost in a very serious way. We said okay, fixed cost wherever we can reduce we should. Some of the toughest decisions ever were taken, which is yes, we had to let go of almost 10% staff, which was very hard. We have tried to take many of them back as things have got better. But I think we came out much stronger, definitely stronger than industry. And as crazy as it sounds, I think our last year has definitely by all measures been our best year ever. Over the last few years, we've seen growth and profitability both come together, the holy grail of the internet world. We probably make more EBITDA profits than any other internet company in India, which is a great feeling. It's a biggish company now. When you look at the number of people and all, it's a little scary, but knock on wood, couldn't have asked for a better 25-year script. And an appropriate 25-year gift is the fact that you've reported your best numbers ever: 46 million in quarterly profit, that's your best performance, 11 billion in market capitalization. So it's been quite a run.
