On cockroaches and and drunk-texting, how BookMyShow came to be an industry giant
“We are an invested, high-growth company. Unlike others, we are not interested in a land grab, market share or valuation metrics,” said BookMyShow CEO Ashish Hemrajani.
Very few services are as ubiquitous as BookMyShow. Meeting most of the nation’s ticketing needs, the platform covers several cities across the country- from Aalo to Yelagiri- and a range of event types. Founded in 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani, the company lived through a period of rapid change within the country and its economy.
At the turn of a millennium
It was during a backpacking trip across South Africa and Botswana that BookMyShow founder Ashish Hemrajani quit his job at JWT. He had gotten inebriated during a wine tasting session and texted his former boss that he was quitting his job- something he would only realise the following day.
“I didn’t want to waste any good red wine (by spitting it out). So by three in the afternoon, I was smashed out of my brains. It started with smoking and ended with alcohol. I was on my youth hostel bed and I sent the most expensive message worth Rs 186 to my boss, and said I was quitting. I realized this only the next day,” stated Hemrajani.
BookMyShow was born upon his return to Mumbai. The company saw success during its initial years but soon found itself on the brink of nonexistence after the dot com bubble burst in 2002.
Today, BookMyShow is undoubtedly a market leader, in the sphere of event ticketing.
A pandemic caused pause
“As far as our sector was concerned, and I speak for our sector and not just for myself, we were the first to be shut down and the last to open. There was no respite,” said Ashish.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, the company had to enforce pay cuts and downsize its teams to survive. With the ticketing and live events industry sustaining a great deal of impact over the past few years, BookMyShow was invariably affected as well.
The company launched its new pay-per-view video-on-demand (TVOD) in February this year, thus allowing consumers to pay according to the movies they watch. As the economy slowly opens up, Ashish expects a hike in demand in 2022-24. Furthermore, the company is looking to monetise on its premium use base.
“We have a loyal and sticky customer base and we know about their payment modes, other details, and movie preferences. We are sitting on India’s 80-90 million customers on top and data monetisation is another piece, which is very integral to BookMyShow,” stated Ashish.
On perseverance
Ashish and, by extension BookMyShow, has seen several troughs and crests through the course of the past two decades, this unicorn- thus has displayed historic levels of perseverance in the face of economic crashes and pandemics.
“First of all, it’s (Unicorn) a mythical animal and an ugly one at that with a horn,” claimed Ashish. “I’m a cockroach; we survive. You put us in the middle of a nuclear holocaust or inside a microwave oven, we survive.” He added, “We come to the trenches every day, rolling our sleeves, we survive.”
This proclivity for survival displayed by this company has allowed it to pave a place for itself at the top of the ticketing industry within India.
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