BookMyShow To Foray Into International Event Ticketing To Push Non-Movie Revenues

With its Indian arch-rival Paytm pacing up its ticketing business, online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow now aims to take its non-movie business international.

According to reports, the company is aiming to scale its non-movie business over the next two years and wants to bring it on par with its movie ticketing business. It will be venturing into segments such as international sports, live entertainment, and experiences across countries.

“About 30% of our revenues currently come from the non-movie ticketing segment. We intend to grow this to 50% by 2020,” said Albert Almeida, COO, non-movies, at BookMyShow.

He further revealed that BookMyShow’s non-movie ticketing business has been growing at about 60% annually since 2012. From 100 events in 2007 in this segment, BookMyShow now boasts about 60,000 shows and 12,000 unique events listed on its platform as of 2017.

As part of its international expansion strategy, BookMyShow will co-produce the Tony-award winning production of Rodgers And Hammerstein’s The King And I and is looking to list between 500-1,000 international events on the platform this year.

“Our growth pace in movie ticketing is limited due to inflation and infrastructure issues such as a limitation on the number of existing cinemas. Hence, it makes sense to shift our focus to the next big category which offers tremendous growth, especially since there is a huge market of travellers that we can target,” added Almeida.

It is to be noted that BookMyShow is currently struggling with reduced growth rate and increasing expenses as revealed in its financials for the fiscal year ending March 2017.

In comparison, Paytm claimed to have achieved 5x growth in online ticket sales in 2017 as it sold 52 Mn movie and events tickets. It now aims to sell over 100 Mn tickets by the end of this year and is working towards bringing onboard more regional theatres with single and multi-screens to provide them with the online exposure.

BookMyShow is aggressively looking for improved revenue streams in its business segments. As indicated by media reports, the ticket value of international events has a 40-50% higher markup in comparison to Indian events.

[The development was reported by ET.]