With last minute Railway reservations becoming close to impossible, bus travel has seen a world of change with the coming in of better buses and more convenient ticketing practices. While some enjoy the solitude of bus travel, others find it very boring. One such traveller was Anand Sinha who had to travel a lot by bus for work. “I have really long legs and its impossible to sit and sleep so on one of my long journeys I had an idea that was born out of boredom,” says Anand, who came up with the concept of providing entertainment solutions to passengers.
Anand decided to conduct an experiment by which he caught a bus with a couple of tablet PCs loaded with movies and offered them to his co-passengers for Rs. 100 each. The idea worked as the tablets were rented out in minutes. This encouraged Anand to leave the start up company he was working for to create something of his own. Joined by another colleague, George Abraham, they started PressPlay together.
PressPlay provides passengers with a tablet PC for the duration of their journey. The tablet, whose battery lasts five hours, is loaded with 25 movies, 1,000 songs, 20 games, 4-5 documentary films and a kids section.
The service was launched on April 25 on the Delhi-Manali route. They have now tied up with the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation and Himachal Road Transport Corporation apart from other private travel companies to provide entertainment solutions on all their busses. Many of the transport companies have requested them to permanently attach their tablets to the chairs on board the bus and private cabs.
The company in six month has grown from 0 to 80 employees and has expanded to nine cities including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. They have over 1000 tablets in their inventory and plan to raise it to 5000 units.
George says it was a challenge at first working with bus operators as they were used to meeting people in the hospitality sector but they have never walked out of a meeting without convincing the client about their product.
So the next time you are aboard a bus you don’t need to watch the jarring common television or worry about draining your phone battery. Just grab a PressPlay tab to keep you entertained. Bon Voyage!
