Goibibo Launches Travel Social Network ‘GoContacts’

Naspers Group-backed Goibibo has launched a travel social network GoContacts on its mobile app. It would enable travellers to get connected on the app, using their phone book.

A consumer who has joined GoContacts & travels by booking on Goibibo, would have his/her connections on the Go App to get gratified with GoCash+ bonus. The same works in a reverse manner too. Everytime  any of the customer’s contact travels using Goibibo, he/she is also gratified with GoCash+ bonus.

In the next quarter, Goibibo plans to enable GoContacts members to see reviews, photos, questions and answers that have been generated by their social network contacts. Users will also be able to discover the destinations that their contacts have travelled to and accommodations that they have used.

Goibibo is also building customised privacy settings, so as to enable users to decide what they want to share and what they want to keep private.

“We believe that the combination of an engaged travel community combined with a reliable & trustworthy booking experience will further strengthen Goibibo,” said Ashish Kashyap, founder & CEO, Goibibo.

In Q1 2016, 82% of hotel bookings took place on  mobile. This number was 70% in Q4 2015. 63% of bookings were made through Android app, 14.5% through iOS and 4.5% through mobile web. Share of iOS has increased by 11.5% in the last quarter over the previous quarter.

Goibibo is part of the Ibibo Group that also owns online bus ticketing platform RedBus.in and the recently launched car pooling app, “ibibo Ryde”. Goibibo has grown its hotel booking volumes by 5x in 2015 over the previous year. 82% of hotel bookings take place on Goibibo’s mobile app.