RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The pandemic and its consequent closure of borders worldwide were not enough limitations for the Rappi app to launch its “travel vertical” in 2020, expand throughout Latin America, and now land in Chile.
“Chile is a great outbound market. The Chilean consumer has an interesting particularity in spending abroad. As a business for us, the average ticket sold is exciting. It is a sophisticated user who is used to technological tools,” said Guido Becher, global head of RappiTravel, about the decision to launch this app in the country.
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In conversation with Radio PAUTA’s Pauta de Negocios, he projected that they expect to transport some 200 thousand passengers in the country during 2022. “It is a conservative number, but it is aligned with certain uncertainty we have due to the pandemic,” said the vertical leader that already has more than 50 million users in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
Overall, they project to have a 100% annual growth. “We want to become one of the most important players in the region […] Our goal is also to be able to help this industry. In the same way Rappi does not cook the hamburger, we do not transport the passenger, but we help partners access a market of users”.
THE GOAL OF BEING A “SUPER-APP”
“Rappi, as a marketplace, starts from the vision of becoming a ‘super-app’ and ‘super-app’ means being in many verticals taking advantage of the ecosystem that we generate and that the user takes advantage of that ecosystem as well both at the data level, payment level, support level.
Find many of the solutions to their daily lives in a single app,” explained Becher about the Colombian company’s plans and the reason for launching this tourism arm.
The premise was apparent. “Most Rappi users are travelers. It is a customer profile that, in general, many of their purchases are made through platforms, e-commerce or digital media,” the executive defined. For this reason, they decided to launch an app “that brings together the entire offer, whether it is travel, hotels, car rental [car rental]” and, soon, “packages, travel assistance and getaways”.
“Nowadays, booking windows have become much smaller. Before, you might have planned for six months; today, you plan for next week. We understood that our users wanted to have a place to find last-minute deals,” he added.
Some of the benefits of RappiTravel, according to Becher, is that the steps to buying flight tickets are all done within the app, and the process is swift. You can also use credits from some other vertical to generate refunds, cancel flights before 24 hours, and change tickets at no extra cost.
“Because of the type of communication we have with the user, we have an advantage,” said the executive.