European Online Travel Champion obilet.com Ready for Record Growth
obilet.com, Turkey’s premier online travel ticketing platform, is set to enjoy rapid growth in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Having just acquired its arch-rival Biletall, Obilet is forecast to sell more than 20 million tickets in 2021 – up from 8 million in 2020 – and close out the year with $300 million GMV.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210804005055/en/
Having just acquired its arch-rival Biletall, Obilet is forecast to sell more than 20 million tickets in 2021, and close out the year with $300 million GMV. (Photo: Business Wire)
Thanks to its unique offerings and innovative business model, the Istanbul-based travel-tech firm is now poised to expand its geographic reach amid an expected post-Covid global recovery.
SaaS-Powered Business Model
Already known throughout the region for its enormously popular ticket-booking app, Obilet’s primary distinction lies in its SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) powered business model. Obilet, invested in by EarlyBird and EBRD, provides bus operators with a best-in-class Ticket Management System (TMS) featuring 24/7 technical support. The company thereby creates a “lock-in effect” for its business operations on the supply side.
By distributing its portfolio of bus operators using its SaaS to other online ticketing platforms on a revenue-sharing basis, Obilet adds additional revenue streams on top of its lucrative B2C sales.
One of the world’s top-10 platforms for online bus and flight tickets, obilet.com saw remarkable growth in the pre-Covid-19 2016-2019 period, boasting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77%.
Biletall Buyout Cements Leading Position
Earlier last month (July 12), Obilet cemented its regional position by acquiring Biletall, its chief B2C and B2B competitor, which since the 2000s had played a pioneering role in the digitalization of Turkey’s travel industry. Although Obilet stole the top spot from Biletall in 2016 on the B2C side, Biletall nevertheless retained its leading position at B2B coverage.
The acquisition will give Obilet 100% destination coverage in one of the world’s largest bus markets, and the biggest in Europe. Turkey’s intra-state bus market currently generates some 200 million ticket sales per year, corresponding to roughly $3 billion annually.
Currently, more than 300 bus operators compete in this highly fragmented market, which remains largely unconsolidated despite the 2019 acquisition of the country’s largest domestic bus operator by Flix.
Plans for Expansion in Post-Covid Era
Obilet now is equipped with plug-and-play B2B and SaaS solutions to be offered to both operators and online/offline ticket resellers in neighboring countries, where there is huge revenue potential for the Turkish start-up.
Obilet’s vastly enhanced market share, coupled with rising travel demand in the post-Covid era, is expected to yield 40 million ticket sales in 2022 and a GMV of over $500 million. Company officials even suggest that, as Obilet gradually expands into fresh markets, annual GMV could reach as much as $1 billion within the next few years.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210804005055/en/
Contact information
Ali Yılmaz
external.relations@obilet.com
+90 212 963 03 53
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
AI Takes Out the Trash: Largest U.S. Recycling Project to Extend Landfill Life for Virginia Residents21.11.2025 14:30:00 EET | Press release
The Southeastern Public Service Authority of Virginia (“SPSA”), the regional waste authority for South Hampton Roads, has signed a 20-year contract with Commonwealth Sortation LLC, an affiliate of AMP Robotics Corporation (together, “AMP”), to provide solid waste processing services for SPSA’s eight member communities and their 1.2 million residents. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120330758/en/ Building on a nearly two-year pilot project in Portsmouth—which featured an AMP ONE™ system capable of processing up to 150 tons of locally sourced municipal solid waste (“MSW”) per day—AMP will now scale its technology region-wide. Under this long-term partnership, which will facilitate the largest recycling project in the country, AMP will deploy additional MSW sortation lines and an organics management system capable of processing 540,000 tons annually to divert half of the waste SPSA brings to AMP facilities. AM
RSA Recognized for the Second Consecutive Year in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Access Management21.11.2025 14:00:00 EET | Press release
RSA, the security-first identity leader, today announced that RSA® ID Plus has been recognized for the second year in a row in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Access Management. “The RSA Access Management strategy has never been about being everything to everyone,” said Greg Nelson, RSA CEO. “We specialize in protecting organizations where risk tolerance is at its lowest and security requirements are at their highest. Our focus is intentional: providing security-first access management that supports compliance, ensures resilience, and delivers confidence at scale.” “RSA specializes in the workforce access management use cases where security, compliance, and operational resilience are non-negotiables,” said Jim Taylor, RSA President, Chief Product and Strategy Officer. “Our product development strategy will continue to emphasize the key qualities that highly regulated industries prioritize, including user experience, strong support for workforce management, and intelligent posture mana
NIQ and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Collaborate to Measure Reach and Impact of Cross-Platform Ad Campaigns in Italy21.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
NIQ and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) have announced a new collaboration to study the effectiveness of cross-platform advertising across linear TV and Amazon Ads inventory in Italy. Through the collaboration advertisers and agencies will gain actionable insights into the relative performance of ad placements across digital, linear TV and streaming environments, including how each contributes to incremental reach and influences product purchases on Amazon’s ecommerce platforms. The insights are made possible by using high-quality data from Sinottica®—a well-established single-source consumer panel in Italy owned by NIQ—with data from Amazon Marketing Cloud. Specifically, the research will leverage Sinottica’s linear TV data alongside several Amazon inventory sources, including Amazon DSP, Sponsored Ads (Products, Brands, Display), and Streaming TV (Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV). This approach will enable a deeper understanding of how ad exposure across digital and TV channels translates
Ahead of Holiday Season, Visa Identifies Five Transformative Forces Reshaping Global Payment Security20.11.2025 20:50:00 EET | Press release
To celebrate International Fraud Awareness Week, Visa (NYSE: V) today released its Fall 2025 Biannual Threats Report, revealing five forces that are transforming the global payments security landscape. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120412198/en/ The report, produced by Visa's Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control (PERC) team, draws on intelligence from Visa's global network to identify how criminal operations are evolving with unprecedented speed, scale, and sophistication. "The payments ecosystem is experiencing a paradigm shift in how fraud operates," said Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa. "Criminals are no longer working as opportunistic individuals-- they're operating like tech startups, building reusable infrastructure and deploying systematic, industrial-scale operations that challenge conventional defenses. Understanding these evolving forces is critical for the entire ecosy
Suzano Forms Partnership with Tencent and Ecofuturo Institute at COP30 for AI-Powered Conservation and Nature Education20.11.2025 19:25:00 EET | Press release
The world’s largest pulp supplier, Suzano, today announces the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the multinational technology business Tencent and the Brazilian non-profit Ecofuturo Institute, to pioneer new digital approaches to drive public engagement in conservation. The collaboration will leverage Suzano’s expertise in sustainable forestry, Tencent’s cutting-edge digital technology, and Ecofuturo’s expertise in environmental education, to pilot joint initiatives in both Brazil and China. These include enhancing ecological awareness, accelerating biodiversity solutions, and leveraging digital platforms to foster public engagement in conservation. The partnership will result in a pilot project where advanced AI tools for species recognition developed by Tencent’s Sustainable Social Value organization will be used to identify and monitor native species at Neblinas Park and other conservation areas managed by Ecofuturo. Further initiatives include the development of i
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom