Index
- BookMyShow – India’s largest ticketing portal
- The founders of BookMyShow
- Remarkable aspects of BookMyShow
- Fun Facts
- Investments and partnerships
- How does BookMyShow make money?
- A present-day note on BookMyShow
BookMyShow – India’s largest ticketing portal
When a new movie is in the theatres or your favorite musician is performing a concert, where do you head to first? That’s right – BookMyShow! That is the kind of influence that this e-commerce business has on our lives. With over 30 million customers spread across five countries, BookMyShow has grown to be a well-known name in its field. With the help of BookMyShow, you can book tickets for movies and events like IPL, concerts, drama, theatre, and more.
BookMyShow sells more than 15 million tickets every month. They provide bookings for shows in over 650 towns and cities, including all dominant cities in India. The Facebook page of BookMyShow has above 1 million fans today. In 2012, BookMyShow won the award for the hottest company of the year. At the CNBC Young Turks award, they achieved the title ‘The company to watch out for’. Later in May 2016, BookMyShow won the prize for the ‘Best Omni-channel Customer Experience Brand’ at the OneDirect Quest Customer Experience (QuestCX) Awards. The android app was launched in December 2016 and has around 2.7 million downloads as of now.
The founders of BookMyShow
The idea sprouted up in the minds of 3 best friends who were on vacation in South Africa 21 years ago. After molding this seed of thought into a colossal plan, they built up BookMyShow into the successful establishment that it is today. Ashish Hemrajani quit his job at JWT and became the chief executive officer of BookMyShow. Co-founders Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande manage Technology and Finance, respectively.
By the year 2000, the film industry in India had flourished. This breakthrough paved the way for multiplexes and huge cinema chains. As a result, BookMyShow progressed under the leadership of the three founders. The business was initially known as BigTree. In August 2007, the company held an internal challenge to seek a new name for the enterprise which would become India’s largest ticketing portal. It was a developer intern who thought of the name BookMyShow.
Remarkable aspects of BookMyShow
Although most of us love to watch movies, it is sometimes a struggle to get to the theatres for it. You might hate waiting in the line for the ticket counter to open. The noise and congestion of the crowd only add to it. Finally, if you manage to get there pushing and shoving through the queue, there is no guarantee that you’re going to get your hands on a ticket. But online booking makes it more convenient than ever before! BookMyShow has made our theatre experience much more relaxed and enjoyable. In addition to this, BookMyShow has many other features that set it apart :
- You can search for the venue, city, or event. You need not worry if you don’t know the complete details of the show. Search for what you know, and BookMyShow will lead you to it.
- BookMyShow offers tickets for more than 5000 screens, so you have a more significant number to choose from. Single screen theatres or multiplexes – BookMyShow has got it all!
- BookMyShow displays reviews, trailers, and more information about all the recently released movies. So if you’re confused about what to decide on, BookMyShow has got you covered.
- Since the BookMyShow app has integrated mobile wallets, you can quickly complete the payment without any bother. It only charges a moderate booking fee and tickets can be canceled up to 20 minutes before the show.
- BookMyShow also has other qualities like geo-location, barcode facility, social sharing, etc.
Fun facts
Here are some outstanding records attained by BookMyShow :
- The highest number of tickets sold was for the movie Dhoom 3 – 2.2 million.
- When Dangal was released in 2016, this record was broken as BookMyShow sold over 3 million tickets in a single weekend.
- The tickets for Ed Sheeran’s live concert in Mumbai sold out within 48 minutes!
- Bahubali 2 was the first movie on BookMyShow to yield a business of 100 crores on a weekend.
Investments and partnerships
The original investment in the company was by Network 18 in 2007. Later, BookMyShow became the formal ticketing collaborator for Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils during the Indian Premier League. In 2012, BookMyShow also partnered with Formula 1 after their grand victory.
In August 2012, Accel Partners invested a sum of 100 crores in BookMyShow. SAIF partners financed 150 crores in 2014, thus raising the value of the company to 1000 crores. In funding led by Stripes Group in July 2016, the company raised 550 crores.
BookMyShow has also acquired many other businesses and organizations. Ticket Green was a Chennai-based online ticketing company that was obtained by BookMyShow in 2013. Later on, they bought another online ticketing platform based in Hyderabad named MastiTickets. In the same year, they purchased a Pune based DIY registration platform called Townscript. In 2017, BookMyShow acquired Burrp, India’s oldest food technology corporation.
How does BookMyShow make money?
Apart from investments and partnerships, a crucial part of revenue for the company comes from the convenience fee and commission. The convenience fee is the amount of money that is charged along with the online payment for the ticket. Stating the obvious, it is the price that the company claims for providing you with the ‘convenience‘ of booking a ticket from the comfort of your home. It is also known as Internet Handling Fees.
BookMyShow charges a commission from the event organizers or movie theatres depending upon the total value of tickets sold through the platform. It is also based on the singular price of the tickets and the popularity of the event or film or even the theatre. Other sources of income for BookMyShow involve paid event promotions, banner publicity, and movie advertising.
A present-day note on BookMyShow
With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 leading to the nation-wide lockdown, all outdoor activities have come to a standstill. When people’s idea of fun restricted to binge-watching Netflix and YouTube, BookMyShow came up with the idea of broadcasting concerts and events live on Facebook and Instagram.
They launched the ‘Live from HQ‘ platform in association with the artist management firm Big Bad Wolf Entertainment (1). From March 25 to April 1 they released the performances of famous musicians, comedians, and other artists. Quite lately, BookMyShow ignited a big controversy after they promoted a Hinduphobic troll on its platform. Social media users we’re disappointed by this agenda of BookMyShow, and some of them even deleted the app as a form of protest.
