Amazon, Uber, and Google struggled in China, but Indian hotel chain Oyo is succeeding. Here’s why
- Oyo’s founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal says both China and India are its ‘home markets’
- It plans to spend US$960 million on expanding in Asia over the next five years, US$600 million of which has been earmarked for China
Since the launch of its Chinese arm Oyo Jiudian in November 2017, Oyo has grown at a breakneck pace. It now claims to be China’s second-biggest budget hotel chain, with more than 400,000 rooms across 290 cities. The company now has more rooms in China than in its native India, where it dominates the market with no nearest rival.
“For us at Oyo, both India and China are home markets,” Oyo’s founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal told This Week in Asia.
The 25-year-old college dropout, who launched Oyo while he was still a teenager, credits the success in China to his localised business strategy. Of the country’s 6,000-strong “OYOpreneurs” – as the Oyo staff are known – less than 20 speak English. Most foreign companies prefer recruiting bilingual management teams but this was never a criterion for Oyo, Agarwal said, which helped overcome major constraints.
“We entered China with the thought of how a Chinese company would run itself if it wanted to emulate Oyo, and the results are visible,” he said.