Oyo Hotels enters Japan; announces joint venture with Yahoo

One of the major unicorns in the Indian start-up segment, Oyo rooms has now started its operations in Japan. The Ritesh Aggarwal led Oyo rooms has entered into a joint venture with Yahoo Japan Corporation to form Oyo Technology and Hospitality Company, Japan. The joint entity will bring in Oyo Living, re-christened as Oyo Life to Japan from March. Oyo Life aims at entering the housing rental segment in the island country by targeting the young and growing population of Japan. The immediate customer for the Oyo in Japan would be students and young professionals.

Moreover, the Indian startup is also targeting a pie from Japan's budget hotel share ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games, financial daily Mint has reported. Hiro Katsuse, a Japanese entrepreneur will be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the joint venture. Notably, the Japanese experts are of the opinion that Oyo may have to face a bumpy ride in its Japanese operations as several local, as well as international companies, are entering into the hotel business. This may lead to an oversupply of the hotels in the Japanese markets. The companies are seeing the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity to grow their businesses.

After performing handsomely in the Indian market, Oyo which is run by Oravel Stays Pvt LTD is eyeing global markets. In the last 12-18 months, the Gurugram based company has kicked off its operations in five countries which include India, China, Malaysia, the UK and Nepal.

Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder, OYO Hotels and Homes said, "This new entity will be focused on creating unique living experiences for Japanese citizens, students, and young professionals, looking for good quality affordable accommodations, starting with our fully managed homes brand – Oyo Life."

As per the Oyo's prediction, the home rental real estate industry in Japan is growing and has a potential market size of 12 trillion yen. Kentaro Kawabe, CEO, Yahoo! Japan, told that the joint venture will offer the fully managed homes at reasonable prices. "With our local know-how, online distribution network and marketing support, Oyo Life will soon emerge as the most preferred abode for the Japanese citizens and visitors in the country," he said.