AI Alliance Fails... Indian Online Travel Leader Loses 300 Billion in Market Value Overnight

On March 18, Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip Ltd. (NASDAQ: MMYT) closed at $42.97 on the Nasdaq, down 6.01%. Trading volume was about 1.4 million shares, and market capitalization stood at roughly $3.8 billion (approximately ₩5 trillion), a decline of about $200 million (₩300 billion) from the previous day. Investor sentiment was further dampened by a 73 percent year-over-year drop in net income in the most recent quarter, driven by a sharp rise in interest expenses.

In February, MakeMyTrip underscored its B2B growth by reporting that annual gross bookings in its corporate travel segment—powered by its enterprise platforms Quest2Travel, MyBiz, and Happay—surpassed $1 billion (about ₩1.3 trillion) in 2025, accounting for more than 10 percent of total reservations. That same month, the company integrated OpenAI’s API into its generative AI assistant “Myra,” unveiling an end-to-end conversational travel search and booking feature. In March, MakeMyTrip acquired a significant stake in regional tour operator Flamingo Transworld to strengthen its vacation-package offerings and deepen its presence in local markets.

Founded in 2000, MakeMyTrip is India’s largest online travel platform, selling flights, hotels, bus and rail tickets, and packaged tours. Headquartered in Gurugram, the company went public on the Nasdaq in 2010. After acquiring rival Ibibo in 2016—bringing Goibibo and redBus into its portfolio—MakeMyTrip addressed governance risks in 2025 by repurchasing about $3 billion (roughly ₩4 trillion) of its shares, reducing Trip.com’s stake to 16.9 percent.