Booking and rating sites might be booming, but they are adopting very different business models and growth strategies.

India-based online appointment platform Practo is planning an e-payment platform partnering with Uber and working with pharmacies. Investors certainly like the idea. Practo raised $120m from private equity in 2015 despite its 2014 sales coiming to just US$4.3m (29.7 crore rupees) in 2014. Acquisitions have seen it swallow four rivals since then and is now active in 15 countries.

But this sort of aggressive strategy is not for everyone.

Doctoralia, which claims to be the largest online booking platform in the world, prefers ‘slow and steady growth’ to get a better understanding of its core markets – Spain and Latin America.  Focusing on rating doctors, it is working with patient organisations in Spain and Colombia to find the best doctors. Doctoralia charges around $50 a month for doctors to list on its website and boasts 100,000 appointments a month.

Not all online booking and rating sites plan to spread internationally. AbiDoc has actually cancelled plans to move into Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan after realising it could achieve a higher penetration rate in its home market of Kuwait.

Want more details?  We will be publishing a feature on these platforms at the end of the month. Stay tuned.