Mumbai-based Big Tree Entertainment, that owns and operates online ticketing entertainment platform BookMyShow, has registered 30% growth in operational revenues, to reach ₹391 crore in FY18, from ₹300.9 crore in FY17, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies, sourced from Tofler.
Standalone operational revenue, attributed to the company’s Indian business, accounted for ₹386 crore out of the overall ₹391 crore.
While the company saw its revenues rise, net loss continued to slip to ₹162 crore in FY18, from ₹128 crore in the previous year. The movie ticketing platform has largely remained profitable in the past, but its losses started to pile up, once it started to expand its non-movie business, competing with other platforms like Paytm.
Revenue attributed to online ticket booking services accounted for ₹271 crore, marking a growth of 18% in FY18, which is notably slower compared to 30% during FY17. the company, however, added an additional ₹12.5 crore to the revenue stream from its new live event ticketing business.
With Paytm foraying into the online ticketing space, tightening the competition by luring customers through discounts and cashbacks, played a crucial role, apart from BookMyShow’s expansion expenses, in the widening of its losses.
According to industry sources, Paytm sells around 4-6 million tickets every month, compared to over 13 million by BookMyShow.
Non-movie ticketing business has been growing at about 60% annually since 2012. Its audio entertainment offering, Jukebox, launched last year, has grown at about 45% monthly in terms of user growth.
“BookMyShow continues to make strategic and long-term investments in new and existing businesses and expanding geographies, many of which are already yielding results as evident from our strong growth in revenues. Keeping the customer at the core of all our decisions and in line with our vision, these investments form a significant part of our business strategy and are vital for the overall development of the ecosystem we operate in,” said a spokesperson of BookMyShow.
In July 2018, BookMyShow raised ₹685 crore in a series D funding round led by TPG Growth, in order to scale its non-movie business.