OYO: A New Global Chain of Hotels Emerges

The case discusses the rise of Indian global hotel chain OYO, originating in 2015/16 that has grown to become one of the top five hotel chains in the world in just four years. OYO’s growth illustrates the power of transformative technology on emerging markets to disrupt established industries.  OYO represents a classic case of an organization that leveraged the fragmentation in emerging markets and used its technology to bridge gaps across the value chain to offer a predictable customer experience.  It believes much of the value it created in India relies on its predictive analytics, big data analysis capabilities, and the integration of enterprise systems at variable scale allowing even the smallest operators to utilize these valuable insights to take advantage of the boom in travel.  Since its inception in India where it has thoroughly dominated the industry landscape in terms of the number of hotel rooms it controls through its franchise/lease/manchise agreements, it has expanded into other emerging market countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and China.  It has successful in these forays barring some teething troubles that are typical of global expansion.  However, as the case closes, the company had entered the developed markets of UK, Japan and the US where it has made a large acquisition of a Hooter’s hotel in Las Vegas, NV.  The expansion in to developed markets raises numerous questions regarding transportability of the OYO model from the fragmented emerging markets to the developed countries where the industry is dominated by brands.