MakeMyTrip has let the OYO camel inside the tent

MakeMyTrip has let the OYO camel inside the tent
Ten months ago, my colleague Ashish wrote a two-part story about a deal between MakeMyTrip and OYO.
 
The terms of the deal were simple. Grant OYO—India’s largest hospitality company—exclusivity on MakeMyTrip, India’s largest travel aggregator. Delist the others. And in one fell swoop, OYO’s competitors got kneecapped.
 
*Cue Michael Corleone montage*
 
In that story, Ashish raised a question:
 
“In India, sector after sector, clear market winners are already in place or will be established. In e-commerce. In cab aggregation. In online travel. In food delivery. Look around you, and there’s chatter of consolidation across businesses. Flipkart-Walmart. Ola-Uber. Zomato-Swiggy. MakeMyTrip-Oyo. So, what happens when the platforms in a monopoly situation begin choking their supply?”
 
It’s pretty clear that OYO is a company that’s going through the classic three stages of hypergrowth:
 
 
We have published stories about how OYO did the above. Today’s story is about the third stage. And answers the question that Ashish raised earlier.
 
Stage 3 : Choke the distributor.
 
It turns out that exclusivity is a double-edged sword. OYO is renegotiating the agreement it earlier made with MakeMyTrip —the one which gave it exclusive access—with terms that look more formidable. Minimum guarantees. Integration of OYO’s loyalty program. Add OYO’s wallet option. And MakeMyTrip is seemingly bending over backwards to accommodate OYO and accept the new terms with little protest. Basically the exact opposite of what’s happening around Brexit in the UK.
 
There are more questions. Why is MakeMyTrip alright with this? Has OYO gone too far? Should we gift Theresa May a subscription to The Ken?
 
Ashish’s story today has some answers. You can find it here: https://the-ken.com/story/the-makemytrip-oyo-embrace-just-got-tighter/
 
Also, tell us. What do you think comes next? What’s stage four?

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