The New 'BookMyShow'
Analysing BookMyShow and its new features, the value proposition of TVOD and SVOD, and more.
Welcome back! Today for Understanding Nuances, we bring forward to you an analysis on BookMyShow. We talk about how it has changed over the years and deep-dive into its new features. We also talk about the value proposition of TVOD and SVOD in India. So, without wasting any of your time, let's begin!
A name that comes to our mind when someone says book movie tickets is BookMyShow. BookMyShow solved the biggest single use case - online ticket booking with live seat availability. It started out by providing online ticket booking services to people, but lately, it has expanded into offline and online entertainment verticals. Over the years, BookMyShow has ventured into multiple territories. They launched their streaming service back in Feb'21. Pandemic coupled with the rising online entertainment industry has pushed startups present in every nook and corner of the country to adopt a digital-first value proposition in their product.
BookMyShow's value proposition starts when you think anything about entertainment. Online, offline doesn't matter. I believe this is one of the best times for players like BookMyShow to grow and expand. Super efficient payment infrastructure (UPI, wallets), internet availability, smartphone penetration, pandemic, people stuck at home - isn't this the best time to cement a place in the online entertainment industry? Anyways let's stick to the theme and do a little deep-dive on the app and industry.
You can refer to the home screen of BookMyShow below as we speak more on it.
Did you notice a Buzz Section on the bottom navigation bar? The short reward cycle and low attention span of consumers is forcing digital apps to make sections where people can get those short doses of engageable content at very high speed. We have talked about this in our previous article as well.
The Buzz section is actually a very impressive enhancement by BookMyShow.
Buzz helps users identify trending movies, TV series and latest trailers. Youtube does it; Netflix does it. What's new in this?
Buzz on BookMyShow serves as the trigger point for the purchase cycle on BookMyShow. Internal triggers are hard to create. A good fraction of purchases begins from advertisement nowadays, which is an external trigger, and companies invest a humongous amount in marketing and advertising.
BookMyShow leverages the marketing spend of other companies. Think about it. A Salman Khan movie spending lakhs of rupees in marketing, promoting people to go out and watch it in theatres is indirectly promoting sales of online ticket booking and hence BookMyShow share of sales. In fact, Salman Khan would also realise that the majority of his fans would not watch his movie on OTT or Netflix (Have you ever watched a Salman Khan movie on Netflix?), so it's better he promotes his movie on BookMyShow as well.
Okay, enough of strategy and marketing, 'let's talk business now'. By Business, we mean app.
What is one thing that is missing in BookMyShow?
Even after so many years (the company was founded in 2007, the parent company in 1999), it is still finding its market and users. BookMyShow released a streaming service and TVOD (transactional video on demand) type subscription on top of it. The feature didn't do well, primarily because it's not the right time. Services like SVOD (subscription video on demand; Netflix, Amazon Prime) are still at a pre-maturation stage in India. TVOD - which is basically renting movies for a time period (30 days in most cases), is not something the Indian crowd are ready to invest in. They would either switch to Netflix or go out to watch the movie itself. It's tough to make Indians pay for service. Netflix and Prime are now very acceptable to the Indian pocket, but renting a movie still is not. Maybe TVOD doesn't need to replace SVOD at all. TVOD can work well in between the release time of movies and the time it comes on SVOD. In the USA, sales of TVOD begin when movies are out of theatres but still not available on Netflix/ Prime or any SVOD channel.
What's missing, then? Did you think of this answer yet? How can BookMyShow take the next leap?
This is solely my opinion, but I believe the problem lies in 'having visibility at the correct time'.
Is there a workaround? - Impromptu plans and activities is BookMyshow's biggest competitor. Sometimes people just forget the process; they do not plan, they stay disorganised. Be it going to movies or any outdoor activity; something should nudge you to BookMyShow at these critical moments. What if BookMyShow enters B2B real big. Imagine driving through Uber on a Friday evening. Sitting in the cab, you see an expected ETA to the restaurant, and there is a small section where you can see the latest activities around you (powered by BookMyShow). You see a live comedy show near your restaurant, and you instantly book your seat. What if BookmyShow starts providing API services in all relevant checkpoints - when driving in a cab through Uber, booking a slot on Zomato dine etc. We are not only talking about movie tickets but a whole lot of other entertainment channels that BookMyShow provides to users.
I will finish on this thought, and you can tell us your thoughts on BookMyShow or any apps in general. Reach out with your ideas at understandingnuances@gmail.com; we assure you we will share your ideas with due credits.
We’ll be seeing you next week with another teardown. Until then, if you enjoyed today’s article and found it insightful, do share ‘Understanding Nuances’ among your friends and peers!