BookMyShow Acquires Mumbai Based Food And Restaurant Recommendation Engine Burrp

Online entertainment ticketing brand BookMyShow announced that it has acquired Mumbai based local food and restaurant recommendation engine Burrp. The acquisition was an all-cash deal from parent company Network18. The value of the deal remains undisclosed

Burrp had been acquired by Network 18 in 2010 for $656K(INR 4.25 Cr) in March 2009. This vestment has been made to Foodfesta Wellcare Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of BigTree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. The acquisition includes the transfer of Burrp’s key assets to BookMyShow, including employees and existing restaurant partnerships.

Burrp was founded by Deap Ubhi and Anand Jain in 2006 and is India’s oldest food tech company which helps people discover eating joints around them. Currently, it claims to have listed over 60,000 restaurants across 14 cities. In addition, it also recently ventured into offer redemption and couponing, along with ticketing of F&B events.

Mansi Vora, Head, Mergers & Acquisitions, BookMyShow stated, “Movie watching in India has evolved tremendously over the last few years. At BookMyShow, we are not just delighted to have been a key part of this journey, but we are determined to continue to lead the way by offering an unparalleled experience to our users. Movie going in India is a social activity and food is an integral part of it. This is where Burrp fits in for us. We are excited to have Burrp on board and look forward to benefitting from their experience, technology and partnerships to offer a superior and comprehensive offering to our users.”

BookMyShow, which has been an early believer in the potential of food-related offerings to enhance movie watching experience, already offers its users the option to pre-book their F&B at cinemas while booking their movie tickets. The company claims that this vertical experienced a 6x growth between 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Additionally, BookMyShow also offers MyCoupons – exclusive and free discount coupons that can be availed at popular restaurants and cafes in the vicinity of the cinema a user is visiting. This offering is now present in over 80 cities across India. According to an official statement, BookMyShow has partnered with more than 2,100 food retail to cover a combined 6400+ outlets around 1100+ cinemas across these cities.

Founded in Mumbai in 1999 and launched in 2007, BookMyShow is now present in over 650 towns and cities across India, currently meeting the entertainment demands of millions of customers. This year, it acquired online ticketing platform MastiTickets for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal in January. It was followed by picking up a majority stake in DIY event registration and ticketing portal, Townscript in Febraury.

Meanwhile, in the same space, Paytm picked up a majority stake in events ticketing venture Insider.in. Insider.in is run by OML Entertainment last month. With the acquisition of a stake in Insider.in, Paytm will compete more aggressively against market leader BookMyShow. In the same month, Alibaba Pictures, the entertainment unit of China’s Alibaba Group, (one of Paytm’s major investors), acquired a majority stake in Chennai-based TicketNew for an undisclosed amount.

With Alibaba’s investment in Ticketnew and Paytm’s in Insider.in, it appears that the duo is gearing up to give tough competition to BookMyShow. BookMyShow is the undisputed market leader in both movies and events category with almost a 70% market share, as per industry estimates. The movie-ticketing market in India is slated to be in the vicinity of $2.2 Bn to $2.5 Bn and, of this, online ticketing has so far constituted only 10%-15%. However, the online movie ticketing market is growing 10% annually.

Burrp however, will continue to run as a separate business and will not be a part of any of BookMyShow’s movie F&B led businesses.