MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT): 5 FORCES Analysis [Nov-2025 Updated]

You're looking at a travel giant, MakeMyTrip Limited, that just posted a massive $9.8 billion in Gross Bookings for Fiscal Year 2025, so you might think the coast is clear. Honestly, though, even with that scale and a loyal base of 82 million lifetime transacted users, the competitive ground beneath their feet is anything but stable. We see the pressure everywhere: from suppliers demanding better terms to rivals like Booking.com digging in, forcing the company to pour $165 million into marketing just to keep the momentum going in FY25. To really understand where this market leader is headed, you need to break down the five core forces shaping their next move-let's dive into the real leverage points below.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) - Porter's Five Forces: Bargaining power of suppliers

When you look at the suppliers for MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT), you see a mix of powerful, consolidated entities and a highly fragmented base, which creates a complex dynamic for your negotiations. Honestly, the power of any single supplier group hinges on how easily MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) can switch to an alternative or how critical their inventory is to your overall sales volume.

Major domestic airlines definitely maintain leverage because, for air inventory, there are simply limited alternatives for you to secure the necessary seat inventory at scale. While MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) is a massive distributor, the direct relationship with the carriers remains fundamental, especially for last-minute or high-demand routes.

On the accommodation side, large international hotel chains can certainly push for better terms, demanding higher commission percentages or insisting on direct booking parity clauses that limit your ability to offer superior pricing online. Still, MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT)'s sheer scale acts as a significant counter-leverage point. Look at the numbers; the Hotels and Packages business generated $520.4 million in revenue for the full fiscal year 2025, showing you move serious volume for these suppliers. That scale gives you a seat at the table that smaller OTAs just don't have.

The fragmentation in the Indian hotel market, particularly with the vast number of unbranded properties, significantly reduces supplier power in that segment. You can onboard smaller hotels with less friction and often negotiate better net rates because they rely heavily on your platform for visibility.

Bus ticketing suppliers, on the other hand, have much less individual power. This is evidenced by the change in accounting treatment in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, where MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) began recognizing revenue upon ticket issuance rather than the date of travel, reflecting shifts in the underlying arrangements with these numerous, smaller operators. This change suggests a move toward greater control or standardization in those supplier contracts.

Here's a quick look at the scale you bring to these supplier discussions based on the fiscal year 2025 results:

The leverage you hold is directly proportional to the revenue you drive for them, so maintaining growth, especially in high-margin areas like hotels, is key to keeping supplier power in check. You need to keep expanding your supply base to dilute the power of any single dominant player. For instance, the growth in the hotel segment is something you want to protect.

Key supplier dynamics to monitor include:

• Airline inventory concentration risk.
• International hotel chain demands for parity.
• Negotiating terms with large domestic hotel chains.
• Leveraging scale against major suppliers.
• The impact of supplier contract changes on bus ticketing.

If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises with smaller hotel partners, so speed is critical.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) - Porter's Five Forces: Bargaining power of customers

The bargaining power of customers for MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) is a dynamic force, balancing the ease of switching with the strength of established brand relationships.

The industry structure inherently favors the buyer in terms of price discovery. It literally takes the customer just a few clicks on their browser to change the booking agency with minimal switching cost. This low barrier to exit means that price transparency across multiple Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) keeps competitive pressure high on MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT).

However, brand loyalty acts as a significant counterweight to this power. The company reports that its repeat rate in a quarter continues to be very healthy at 70%+, suggesting that a substantial portion of the customer base is sticky due to perceived value, service quality, or ecosystem lock-in from bundled offerings.

Customers also wield collective influence due to scale. MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) has grown its lifetime transacted user base to 82 million as of the end of Fiscal Year 2025. This large pool of past purchasers represents a significant potential market that competitors aim to capture, increasing their collective negotiating leverage.

Service expectations are being rapidly reset by technology adoption. The introduction of AI-driven tools like Myra, which is now handling more than twenty five thousand daily queries and converting more users than traditional agents, increases customer self-service capabilities. This shift means customers expect instant, accurate, and personalized support, raising the bar for all service interactions.

The high price sensitivity in the market is evident in the financial commitment MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) makes to maintain bookings. This pressure is visible in the substantial year-over-year increase in promotional spending, which reached $165.3 million for the full year ended March 31, 2025, up from $123.3 million in the prior year. This investment is a direct response to the need to incentivize bookings in a highly competitive, price-conscious environment.

Here's a quick look at the key metrics influencing customer power:

The need to combat low switching costs is also reflected in the direct financial concessions offered:

• Customer inducement costs for Air Ticketing in FY25 totaled $131.6 million.
• Customer inducement costs for Bus Ticketing in FY25 totaled $11.6 million.
• The company added over 9 million new customers during FY25.
• The AI assistant Myra is designed to offer personalized recommendations, aiming to enhance engagement.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) - Porter's Five Forces: Competitive rivalry

Competitive rivalry within the Indian online travel agency (OTA) space remains a primary force shaping MakeMyTrip Limited's strategy. The landscape is defined by a battle for market share among established domestic players and aggressive global entrants.

MakeMyTrip Limited, including its Goibibo brand, is the established market leader, with MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, and Yatra Online collectively holding around 60% of the total Indian online travel market share, which was valued at ₹17.24 billion in 2025. Specifically in the domestic air segment, MakeMyTrip maintained a market share of 30.8% as of Q1 2025. However, this leadership is constantly tested by rivals. For instance, Ixigo has successfully lifted its domestic air market share to about 10%.

The intensity is visible in the recent performance divergence among peers. While MakeMyTrip Limited reported Q2 FY26 revenue of $229 million with underlying EBIT up 18%, competitors faced significant headwinds. EaseMyTrip reported Q2 FY26 revenue of ₹118 crore, a -19% YoY decline, and a net loss of -₹36 crore. EaseMyTrip's market capitalization halved to roughly ~$320 million by mid-November 2025 from early 2025 levels. Yatra Online, while still reporting losses in FY26 Q1, is refocusing on enterprise and saw FY25 revenue rise 39% YoY to ₹9.1 billion.

Global giants like Booking.com and Expedia are actively expanding their presence in India, putting pressure on MakeMyTrip Limited's high-margin hotel segment, where direct booking capabilities are a growing threat.

Aggressive promotional spending drives up customer acquisition costs (CAC) for all players. MakeMyTrip Limited reported its marketing and sales promotion expenses resulted in a customer acquisition cost of 5.1% of gross booking value in Q1 2025. This spending is significant, with MakeMyTrip having a reported annual marketing spend increase of 34% YoY to $165M as of June 2025.

Here is a snapshot of the competitive positioning and recent financial data for key domestic rivals:

The competitive environment is characterized by several key pressures:

• Intense price competition, though competition has not yet translated into broad price cuts.
• MakeMyTrip Limited's domestic air share is significantly higher than Ixigo's 10%.
• EaseMyTrip's unit economics are troubling, spending ₹1.02 to earn ₹1 of revenue in Q2 FY26.
• Yatra Online is stabilizing by focusing on the enterprise segment.
• MakeMyTrip Limited and Ixigo both increased promotional spending as a share of gross bookings in H1 FY25.
• International travel is a key growth area where MakeMyTrip achieved a record 42% share of international air bookings in Q1 2025.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) - Porter's Five Forces: Threat of substitutes

You're analyzing the structural risks to MakeMyTrip Limited's profitability, and the threat of substitutes is definitely a major one you need to watch. This force looks at how easily a customer can switch to a different product or service that serves the same core need-in this case, booking travel.

Direct booking with airlines and hotels remains the most significant substitute because it cuts out the commission structure entirely. This is the primary, no-commission substitute. Back in 2023, we saw that 62% of travelers were already booking directly through airline websites. For major carriers, this trend was accelerating, with IndiGo reporting direct booking rates increasing by 18.5% compared to the prior year. On the accommodation side, hotel chains like Marriott and Taj were capturing 41.3% of their online reservation market through their own platforms as of 2024. The psychological switching cost for a customer to go to an airline's official site instead of MakeMyTrip Limited is near zero; it's just a different website click.

Google's evolving travel search features and its new AI tools are making this substitution threat more potent. Google Flights has now reportedly overtaken all major OTAs and airline sites as the UK's preferred way to search for flights as of mid-2025. While MakeMyTrip Limited benefits from general search visibility, Google's ability to surface direct booking options or even facilitate bookings within its own ecosystem directly challenges the OTA model. The market is seeing a split: for hotel searches globally, 26% of travelers now start on an OTA, but 21% still start with a traditional search engine, a segment where Google holds massive sway.

Corporate travel platforms represent another layer of substitution, specifically targeting the higher-value, repeat business segment that MakeMyTrip Limited also serves. Competitors like Yatra Online are aggressively focusing here. Yatra Online reported onboarding 148 new corporate clients over the last 12 months, serving over 1,300 large corporate clients in total. Furthermore, for the quarter ending June 30, 67% of Yatra's gross bookings came from its B2B segment, with plans to push that toward 70% by the fiscal year-end. This focus on deeply integrated, managed travel services substitutes the leisure-focused OTA bookings that MakeMyTrip Limited relies on.

To counter this, MakeMyTrip Limited is leaning heavily into its non-air segments, which show strong customer stickiness. The growth in Hotels and Packages revenue is key here. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Hotels and Packages revenue grew by 19.5% to $520.4 million. This growth, which the prompt highlights as 20% in FY25, helps offset the substitution pressure seen in the more commoditized air ticketing space. The Adjusted Margin for Hotels and Packages was $429.5 million for FY25, marking a 25.7% year-on-year increase.

Here's a quick look at how MakeMyTrip Limited's segment performance in FY25 stacks up against the context of substitution:

The core defense against the threat of substitutes for MakeMyTrip Limited rests on a few key areas where customers face friction moving away:

• Customer base grew by over 9 million users in FY25.
• Repeat booking rate per quarter remains a healthy 70%+.
• International hotels revenue grew by over 65% year-on-year.
• Focus on personalized services drives higher value per transaction.

If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises, but MakeMyTrip Limited's focus on high repeat rates suggests they are successfully building loyalty, which raises psychological switching costs, even if the economic cost is low.

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) - Porter's Five Forces: Threat of new entrants

You're assessing the barriers to entry in the Indian online travel agency (OTA) space, and honestly, the landscape for a new player trying to take on MakeMyTrip Limited is steep. The threat of new entrants isn't just theoretical; it's walled off by significant financial and operational hurdles that MakeMyTrip Limited has spent years building.

High capital requirement for brand building and customer acquisition is a major barrier. Consider the sheer marketing muscle required just to get noticed. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 (FY24), MakeMyTrip Limited's Marketing and Sales Promotion Expenses were reported at $123.3 million. By FY2025, this spend escalated further to $165.3 million, showing the incumbent is willing to spend aggressively to maintain share. A new entrant must be prepared to match or significantly outspend this to capture even a fraction of the market mindshare.

MakeMyTrip Limited's large-scale technology and AI investment creates a significant cost-to-replicate barrier. While we don't have the exact dollar figure for their latest AI R&D budget, the scale of their operation-handling record gross bookings of $9.8 billion in FY2025-means the underlying technology stack, including AI-driven personalization, is massive and expensive to build from scratch. It's not just about having an app; it's about having one that performs flawlessly at that volume.

Regulatory hurdles and the need for extensive supplier network tie-ups are complex. You can't just launch an app and sell flights and hotels. New entrants need to secure the necessary licenses and, critically, build deep, reliable relationships with airlines, hotel chains, and bus operators across India. These established contracts and integration points are sticky and take time and significant negotiation power to secure, especially when competing against an incumbent that already commands a large share of the business.

The established user base of 82 million lifetime transacted customers acts as a powerful network effect barrier. This user base, which grew by over 9 million new customers in FY2025 alone, creates a self-reinforcing loop: more users attract more suppliers, which in turn makes the platform more attractive to new users. Breaking into this cycle requires overcoming inertia, which is costly. Still, with India having over 900 million connected users, the potential upside keeps some ambitious players trying.

New entrants must overcome the incumbent's massive marketing spend, which was over $120 million in FY24. As noted, the actual spend was $123.3 million in FY24, and it jumped to $165.3 million in FY2025. This level of sustained, high-volume advertising creates a high hurdle for any startup to achieve brand recall. Defintely, this is where most new capital gets burned.

Here's a quick look at the scale MakeMyTrip Limited is operating at, which new entrants must contend with:

The barriers manifest in several ways you need to watch:

• High customer acquisition cost (CAC) due to incumbent spending.
• Significant upfront investment in scalable technology infrastructure.
• Need for deep, pre-existing supplier contracts and inventory.
• Overcoming the established trust and habit of the 82 million user base.
• The cost to build brand equity against years of heavy advertising.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.