Rajesh Magow: Deep transaction businesses cannot be easily replicated by AI
Rajesh Magow · Why A 25-Year-Old Should Build A Hotel, Not An App | MakeMyTrip x Taj | WTF is Travel? · Sep 9, 2026 · at 45:15
Rajesh Magow, co-founder of MakeMyTrip, addresses whether foundational AI models will replicate online travel agencies.
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“You know, I'll tell you the reason why I don't think that replication is so easy. In a deep transaction business versus a, you know, generic search business. Think about Google, for example. So Google historically has always been perceived as potential competition threat also. But they could never go deep into the funnel.”
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“I just wanted to build on this, that it is better built by non-oteliers. So sometimes, if you have to do out-of-box thing, you don't have to get the same person from the industry.”
Magow: Supply-Side Undigitization Prevents Foreigners Booking Indian Experiences
“Because of the lack of digitization on the supply side, including all the experiences and the activities that you could potentially do, you just cannot discover anything, and you cannot just seamlessly book anything.”
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“And if you break that into then IRCTC versus all the other OTAs, including Make My Trip Go, Ibibo, Redbus, others, Zig Ziggo, and the others, all of us put together will be 15, 20%. 80% is IRCTC.”
Magow: MakeMyTrip uses train bookings strictly for user acquisition
“So I'll tell you the, you know, all of us, what we are trying to do, you know, okay, maybe I can speak for myself, is more the customer acquisition. This is a new customer acquisition channel for us. Because the economics don't really work, right?”