Skipping the queue

Manan Gupta (26) is a quintessential modern day Indian consumer. Technically suave, Gupta owns two credit cards, a laptop with data card and a smartphone that keeps him connected 24x7, and is a hardcore movie buff.

“I don’t remember the last time I stood in a queue and bought a movie ticket,” he says. Thanks to online ticketing sites like www.kyazoonga.com and www.bookmyshow.com, along with ticketing sites of leading multiplex chains, queues are now a thing of past.

According to Ashish Hemrajani, founder and chief executive officer of bookmyshow.com: “Indian consumers are demanding world class service that is convenient and provides value for money.” The portal recorded sales of over Rs 15 crore for 3 Idiots and Avatar.

With lofty sales of Avatar and 3 Idiots, Hemrajani can claim that consumers view online booking as the most fitting way to book tickets for movies, events, plays, sports or music concerts. Today, Hemrajani’s site gets about 2 million unique users every month and is growing over 40 per cent a year.

His view is shared by Neetu Bhatia, co-founder of Kyazoonga.com. “Things have changed in the last few years in the online ticketing segment,” she says.

Bhatia and her two friends quit their jobs in Silicon Valley to start the venture in 2006 and have witnessed a shift in consumer mindset since then. “The fact that e-commerce still struggles in India, the rise in online ticketing trends says a lot about consumers’ readiness,” she says.

Bhatia argues that movie tickets are the second biggest consumer goods to be sold in the country. On average, about four billion movie tickets are sold every year in the country, she calculates. Movie tickets and cricket matches are already the two biggest revenue generators for online ticketing portals, as per industry reports.

While cricket matches don’t take place round the year, they are the second biggest revenue drivers for online portals. KyaZoonga, which handled online tickets for the first season of Indian Premier League (IPL), is all charged up for the third season. BookMyShow, too, has tied up with three teams — Delhi, Mumbai and Punjab — for online booking. Bhatia estimates that for cricket matches, about 25 per cent of the tickets are sold online.

The revenue model for online ticketing sites is such that consumers have to shell out a convenience charge for every transaction, irrespective of the price of the ticket. Convenience charge (per transaction) for booking movie tickets could be between Rs 25 and Rs 50. Tickets for IPL, too, will have convenience charges.

Weaving benefits of technology, portals have tied up with different distribution channel partners, allowing users to choose their seats, a feature that Hemrajani is betting on. “You can not only pick a seat of your choice, but also choose the stand you want to be in,” Hemrajani says.

Bhatia says that the portals have to keep in mind the convenience of clients as well as consumers. “We make sure that the best delivery options are provided so that the consumer sees the ease of using online services.”