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Movies are not just an industry. It is a celebration and likely to celebrate like a festival. Movies have a great demand all over the world. Flim fans will be very desperate to see their favorite star movies in a theatre. This blogs is over Bookmyshow startup story
Getting into the movie theatre nowadays is so easy. The process is made so effortless. The whole credit goes to online ticket booking platforms.
Earlier we have to stand in queue and want to wait for our turn to get tickets. In addition, we have to come hours earlier to ensure to get tickets for that show.
If we want to watch any stars movies the experience is terrible. There will be a huge audience outside the theater and fighting in the queue. To control the people police sometimes raise their “laaties” against people.
Black tickets, illegal ways of buying were common those days. They would charge thrice over the original prices of the tickets. This led to a burden for film lovers.
Bookmyshow an online ticket booking platform put an end to all this drama and Hungama. This platform allowed users to book tickets prior and the process was so easy. All would happen in just a few clicks.
Bookmyshow was founded by Ashish Hemarajani in 1999. This platform made its users book their tickets at home or in their comfort zones. Tickets will be available for movies, concerts, and live event streamings.
This platform has a presence in 650 cities of India and other five countries like Indonesia, Singapore, UAE, Sri Lanka, and West Indies. Bookmyshow is valued at 3000 crores.( Bookmyshow Startup Story)
How Bookmyshow started
Ashish Hemrajani founder of Bookmyshow.He graduated from Sydenham Institute of Management in Mumbai.
Further, he joined in JW Thompson company and started working. It was an advertising company.
Bookmyshow Idea
Most often Ashish used to be distressed because of the smoky environment in his workplace. All were smoking and drinking in the workplace.
To get rid of this work for some time he planned for vacation. During the tour in South Africa, he comes across the scenario, where rugby match tickets being sold on the radio.
Bookmyshow idea emerged in this way. Ashish was quite amazed at this idea. He was eager to implement this idea in India.( Bookmyshow Startup Story)
Also Read : The Whole Truth startup Founder
Bookmyshow Initial stage
As soon as he came to India Ashish resigned from his job. He was so desperate to start his own company. With the help of the other two co-founders, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande founded BigTree Pvt Lmt in 1999 later renamed as bookmyshow.
During those times there was no high internet penetration in the country. Minimal credit cards and slow 2G connections. These all factors made the company work differently.
Ashish Hemarajani would take the tickets from the theater in bulk. Later he would be sold in his platform. They would deliver a ticket to the customer’s doorstep.
The initial days of Bookmyshow were fully manualized and all the work was done hands-on. So they had a call center with a high employee. They around 150 employees in Mumbai.
Ashish Hemrajini would deliver tickets to customers’ doorsteps. To save from spam they would get their written description from the customers who have received tickets.
It was tough to operate this kind of business and also the company was also not profitable. Later, JP Morgan had invested in the initial stages. To make the situation worst .com bust had occurred in 2002.
The company declined and merely survived. There were no investors in their favor. Bookmyshow company employees reduced to just 6 in number. The period 2002 -2006 was very difficult to survive. Subsequently, they managed to uphold the company.
Bookmyshow plans ( Bookmyshow Startup Story)
Bookmyshow changed their plans to work efficiently and make some profit. Instead of selling tickets, they started to build ticket booking software. Then urged theatres to inculcate the software.
This is was the game-changer. Later bookmyshow had never turned back. People started to book tickets online in huge numbers. Day by day their income graph started to increase up the sky.
Bookmyshow growth
Bookmyshow had not been affected much by the 2008 financial crisis. Further development of multiplexes and malls fuel their income.
Bookmyshow recorded the highest ticket sale in a single month over 5 million tickets in 2014. They became ticket booking partners to IPL teams like Punjab kings, Delhi Capitals, and Mumbai Indians
Presently Bookmyshow has 1500 employees all-around and presents 5 different countries. The Company sells nearly 15 million tickets per month.
Bookmyshow acquisition( Bookmyshow Startup Story)
The company started to acquire small companies to expand their services and create a monopoly. Their acquisitions are
- Masti Tickets
- Burrp
- Nfusion
- Townscript
- Fantain
- Eventifier
- Ticket Green
This is the story of struggle. Bookmyshow had seen a lot of up and downs and founders had shown great kind of boldness and braveness. They made all the efforts to save the company in tough times.
Bookmyshow startup story should be the lesson for every entrepreneur. Patience and perseverance are the key tools to build a big company like Bookmyshow. ( Bookmyshow Startup Story)