BookMyShow clocks 27% rise in net sales, losses widen 

Mumbai-based online ticketing platform BookMyShow posted a 27% rise in net sales for the financial year 2016-17 as its losses widened, filings with the Registrar of Companies show.

Run by Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the company’s consolidated net sales rose to Rs 300.6 crore ($46.2 million) in 2016-17 from Rs 236 crore ($36.2 million) in 2015-16, the filings stated.

Its standalone operational revenues, which cover its India business, alone generated over Rs 299.5 crore ($46 million).

The company’s losses stood at Rs 139 crore ($21.4 million) in 2016-17 versus a mere Rs 1 crore ($153,600) in 2015-16.

Its total expenses almost doubled to Rs 473 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 248 crore in 2015-16 driven by a rise in advertising expenses, which stood at Rs 146.5 crore ($22.5 million) in 2016-17 as compared to Rs 30 crore ($4.6 million) in the year-ago period.

While BookMyShow’s online ticket booking arm clocked a 30% growth in terms of value from Rs 176.7 crore ($27.1 million) in 2015-16 to Rs 230 crore ($35.3 million) in 2016-17, the growth rate was nearly half of that registered in the year-ago period.

Email queries sent to BookMyShow, seeking comment, didn’t elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.

In a previous interaction with TechCircle, a company spokesperson said, “BookMyShow continues to register healthy growth year after year, which is ahead of the market and in line with our business objectives and strategy.”

Competition for Mumbai-based BookMyShow and Chennai’s TicketNew has intensified ever since Paytm Wallet, operated by Noida-headquartered Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, started online ticket-booking services in March 2016 to diversify its offerings. Paytm claims to have sold over 52 million movie tickets in 2017, clocking over 500% growth in the volume of tickets sales since its launch in May 2016. 

BookMyShow is one of the most heavily funded companies in the media and entertainment sector in India, having raised a total of $128 million. It counts New York-based investment firm Stripes Group, Reliance Industries-controlled Network 18 and venture capital firms Accel Partners and SAIF Partners as its investors.

The company has made a number of acquisitions over the past few years to consolidate its position. In 2017, it acquired video-on-demand platform Nfusion, restaurant-discovery platform Burrp, do-it-yourself event registration and ticketing platform Townscript, and Hyderabad-based ticket-booking platform MastiTickets.

In 2016, it picked up a majority stake in Chennai-based fan-relationship management solutions provider Fantain Sports Pvt. Ltd. The previous year, the company bought a majority stake in Bengaluru-based social media analytics startup Eventifier. In 2013, it acquired Chennai-based online ticketing firm TicketGreen.

In January this year, financial daily Mint said the company was in advanced talks to raise $50-60 million (about Rs 320-380 crore) from private equity firm TPG Growth.

BookMyShow’s parent Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd was founded in 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande. Bigtree Entertainment initially assisted theatres with inventory management. The firm launched BookMyShow in 2007 and is now present in over 350 towns and cities across India.