Cleartrip Acquisition by Flipkart Met With Fond Farewells on Indian Twitter

E-commerce giant Flipkart on Thursday announced that it was acquiring online travel aggregator Cleartrip. The Walmart-owned company did not disclose the acquisition amount. Cleartrip has been one of the most popular entities in India's online travel space, and Twitter put up a befitting farewell to the original minds behind the company founded in 2006.

Acknowledging Cleartrip as one of the first to incorporate product design that focussed on enhancing customer experience, one user wrote, “This is an appreciation tweet for everyone who has been a part of the Cleartrip journey. From 2007, you showed us all what 'product design' and 'product experience' is when practically no one knew what magic it could do. Thank you for the inspiration.”

“I still keep referring to them for inspiration on product design,” added another user.

Seconding this, a user said, “Cannot agree more. They were pioneers in supreme user experience. On desktop and mobile. Thanks a lot for all the work everyone put in.”

Some even thanked Cleartrip for being an inspiration.

“Every time when someone criticised us for too much negative space on the website, we showed them Cleartrip. Thank you for showing us the path to good product design,” one of the messages read.

Many Cleartrip customers were also hoping that the design of the platform remains the same, post-acquisition. 

The ‘smooth booking experience' was also something social media users appreciated. 

Several users shared their experience with the company and tried throwing light on what could have gone wrong for them.

However, a majority of the comments chose to celebrate the brand. One customer said, “One of the most admired products.”

Another added, “Been a superfan of Cleartrip since 2007! Thank you for the magic!”

As per the terms of the agreement, though Flipkart will acquire all Cleartrip operations, it will continue to operate as a separate brand. The company's employee base will also be retained, as per the agreement.

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