Paytm buys majority stake in ticketing platform Insider.in

Digital payments company estimates that market for organised events in India is around Rs 4,000 cr

India’s largest digital payments startup Paytm has acquired a majority stake in online ticket booking platform Insider.in as it looks to take on the country’s largest events and movie ticket booking service, BookMyShow.

Paytm said the partnership would enable its 218 million registered customers to discover a wide range of events and book them instantly. The financials of the deal or Paytm’s overall holding in Insider.in were not disclosed.

“Events discovery and ticket booking is a challenge for customers and organisers alike. We believe that digital discovery and events marketing expertise will increase supply of quality events in India. This is a natural extension for us,” Madhur Deora, chief financial officer, Paytm, said in a statement.

The digital payments company estimates that the market for organised events in India is around Rs 4,000 crore, and online ticketing accounts for just 10 per cent of that. The opportunity for growth in the space is huge, with current market leader BookMyShow already making profits from its operations. Paytm has steadily expanded its movie ticketing presence, with a coverage of 3,500 screens across 550 cities. The company claims it sold 25 million movie tickets in 2016, about a fourth of what BookMyShow did in the same period. While Paytm’s focus has largely been on movie tickets, the deal with Insider.com will help it get into the lucrative events segment as well.

“Our partnership with Paytm will enable us to reach more organisers and event-goers, and exponentially grow this ecosystem in India,” said Shreyas Srinivasan, founder and CEO at Insider.in.

While Paytm recently raised $1.4 billion from Japan’s SoftBank Group and is looking at aggressive spending to grow new business units such as online ticket booking, BookMyShow too is looking at expansion.

The company recently acquired restaurant recommendation engine Burrp from Network 18 for just Rs 6.7 lakh.

The deal saw BookMyShow absorb all employees and restaurant partnerships of Burrp. The company justified the purchase by saying that food complements movie-going in India, as in both were social activities.