IRCTC earns over 1 Crore Monthly just by Advertising

Indian Railway Catering Tourism Corporation Limited, called as IRCTC needs no introduction, as the whole India is very familiar with it. No doubt that it has been the King of the Ecommerce in India, providing online Railway tickets and newly launched Air tickets, Hotels etc.

If you are a frequent user of IRCTC, you would have seen the advertisments on the homepage of the website. Its shown up in the coloured potion in the photo below.

Advertisment on IRCTC homepage.

I'm sure, you would not have cared about it, as everyone are eager to login and book the tickets as soon as possible.

According to IRCTC Official website, there are 55 Lakh hits per day on their website.

The advertisement page of IRCTC says :

 "In addition to over 55 lakh hits per day, we have over 2 lakh individual visitors daily resulting in more than 100000 tickets booked (including I-tickets)and around 8000 I-Tickets are sent to around 200 of India's biggest cities daily in specially crafted envelopes. Other popular services we offer are PNR enquiries and Accommodation queries which are heavily patronized by our customers."

Basically, In Online industry, there advertisments can be either CPM based, CPC based or CPI based

• CPM : Cost per Mille (Cost per Thousand Impressions)
• CPC : Cost per Click (Cost per Single Click)
• CPA : Cost per action

IRCTC has tied up with an online advertising agency called MAD (Mobile And Internet Advertising) which provides all those type of ads. Let's consider the ad type as CPC based.

 The Major two components of any online Ads (CPC) based are :

 1. CTR : Click Through Rate

 Its a term used to measure the number of users who clicked the ads. If the CTR is 3%, it  represents that 3 out of 100 visitors, clicked the ad.

 2. CPC : Cost per Click

 It is generally measured in US Dollars. Its the cost of single click on the ad.

Now, Let's calculate the Approximate monthly revenue of IRCTC generated by the ads on their website.

• In India, the CTR varies from 1% to 5% , so let's take the CTR as 3%, This means, 3 out of 100 people click the ads.

• The Indian CPC is always low compared to other countries. It may vary between $0.01 to $0.10. Let's consider the CPC as $0.05. This means, IRCTC earns $0.05 per click on the ads.

Now, CTR = 3% and CPC = $0.05, Daily Hits = 55 Lakhs

Hence,

• Total clicks per day = 55 Lakh * 0.03 => 1.65 Lakh Clicks

• Daily Revenue = Daily Clicks * CPC => 1.65 Lakh * 0.05 =  $ 8250 (4.5 Lakhs Daily)

• Monthly Revenue = $ 247500 and that's Freaking Rs. 1.30 Crore !!!

The CPC and CTR never stays constant throughout, It keeps varying. Here is an table which can depict the Monthly Revenue generated with different values of CTR and CPC

Monthly Revenue at 55 Lakh Hits daily( L = Lakhs, Cr = Crores)

	CPC $0.01	CPC $0.02	CPC $0.03	CPC $0.04	CPC $0.05	CPC $0.10
CTR 1%	9L	18L	27L	36L	45L	90L
CTR 2%	18L	36L	54L	72L	90L	1.8Cr
CTR 3%	27L	54L	81L	1.08Cr	1.36Cr	2.72Cr
CTR 4%	36L	72L	1.08Cr	1.44Cr	1.80Cr	3.63Cr
CTR 5%	45L	90L	1.35Cr	1.80Cr	2.25Cr	4.50Cr

Have you ever thought about these mind boggling figures ? This is what IRCTC official website makes a Month. Think of the year !!

The question is : "Is Government making sure that this revenue is added up into Government lockers or as usual it goes into some personal pockets ??" !!

Note :
Though there is no official confirmation of these Revenue figures by IRCTC, but the official number of hits lead us to these values.