BookMyShow (BMS) is an online ticketing platform. BMS offers its users various movies and entertainment events across categories like music, sports, workshops, theater plays, and more.

• BMS is a market leader in the movie ticketing sector capturing around 75% of the market
• BMS sells close to 15 million tickets each month
• The BMS app has been downloaded by 50 million users (last checked in September 2023)
• The BMS website has 2 billion annual page views close
• BMS has 30 million active users spread across 650+ towns and cities across India
• BMS website and app offer users access to various other events and workshops based on location, interests, and activity type
• In addition to ticketing products, BMS also offers a TVoD (TV on demand) product in the form of "Stream". Users can buy or rent movies and watch them on demand on their smart devices.

BMS currently monetizes mainly through:

1. Commissions on ticket sales from event organizers & cinema halls
2. Convenience fees (~10%) from users
3. Ad revenue (banners on the app and website)

The company has been using the same business model for most of its existence, generating around 1000 Cr in revenue for FY23. While the current monetization model is successful for BMS, I think there is still more potential to be tapped from the platform's core and power users. In this report, we will be exploring the framework and strategies for deepening BMS's user monetization.

1. Litmus Test

1a. Retention

Understanding the retention rates for apps in industries like entertainment, shopping, lifestyle, travel, and sports. We can make an informed guess that the retention curve for a ticketing business will flatten out in 3-4 months. Below is an illustration of how the curve would look.

The responses from my online survey (n=19) got back results that supported the assumption. Close to 50% of the respondents said they used the app in the last month. Approximately 60% of the respondents said their app usage frequency is < 3 months and 41% said they used it in < 6 months.

Natural frequency for BMS users:

1. Casual users: 1-2 times in 6 months. Only one type of event was booked
2. Core users: 1-2 times in 3 months. 2-3 types of events booked (movies included)
3. Power users: 1-2 times a month. 3-4 types of events booked (movies included)

Note: Sub-products have negligible usage frequency (per my research). None of my respondents have tried BMS stream.

1b. Engagement

The results of my user research show good usage frequency - 21% of respondents said they used BMS multiple times a month, 26% said they used it once a month and 31% said they used it once in 2-3 months.

The user also displayed interest in booking for more than 1 event type on BMS:

• 15.7% said they only used BMS for booking movie tickets
• 26.3% said they booked tickets for 2 event types including movies (Movies + Music being the popular bundle)
• 36.8% said they booked tickets for 3 event types including movies (Movies + Music + Comedy being the popular bundle)
• 26.3% said they booked tickets for 4 or more event types including movies
• 2 out of the 19 respondents ONLY used BMS for non-movie events

1c. Willingness to pay

There are 30 million active users of BMS and 50 million app downloads. More than 50% of the users I spoke to were not using any other app for exploring events or movies. BMS has over 75% market share in the movie ticketing space.

In order to understand which user segment is ready for up-sell/cross-sell monetization opportunity. Let's look at the different ICPs for BMS

ICP Segmentation

2. Monetization Experiment

Experiment - 3-month membership subscription

Hypothesis: Increase the ARPU by 40% with a subscription bundle (ex: Swiggy One) to the core and power users.

• Each subscription is valid for 3 months and users have to repurchase after it expires
• There are 4 subscription offerings in total - Silver, Gold, Gold+ and Diamond
• Subscription pricing ranges from 599 - 2499 INR
• The subscriptions offer varying value to the users based on their needs and requirements. These are main factors on which the bundles differ from each other:
• • Number of ticket per movie
  • Number of free movies
  • Discounts on non-movie events
  • Number of free movies on BMS stream
  • F&B discount offers
  • Exclusive deals and early bird access to tickets
  • VIP experiences (Ex: Lounge access, Star meet & greet, signed merchandize etc)

Additional information regarding the subscription:

• All free tickets are capped at 300 INR and the users need to pay the balance for any ticket that costs over 300
• Free tickets cannot be availed on high demand show timings and days (ex: public holidays, Release days etc.)
• 20% discount for non-events is capped and limited to the number of events as per membership type. (Ex: Gold+ members don't get 20% discount on the 3 event they book during their active membership period)
• Silver membership cannot be shared (only one user login)
• Gold, Gold+ and Diamond subscriptions can be shared by 2 users
• Silver membership offers 1 free ticket per movie and extra tickets needs to be purchased (in case of a group booking)
• Early access is only for event ticket and not movie tickets

3. Monetization Framework

3a. Who to charge?

Based on the survey results and 1:1 interviews with active and churned users, here is the assumed RFM Matrix for BMS:

The user groups are bucketed based on recency of usage, frequency of usage and # of use cases. The ideal user for 3-month subscription product is someone who's a high frequency user and has paid for movies and events on the platform. The 3 buckets to focus on to beta-test the subscription model are:

• Champions
• • A champion user has used the app in the last month
  • A champion user has displayed a usage frequency of 2-3 times a month
  • A champion user has booked tickets for movies and 2+ events in the last 3 months
  • A champion user had tried 3+ event types (Music, Comedy, Theatre, Art workshops etc.)
  • ICP-3 user fall in this bucket

• Loyalist
• • A loyal user has used the app in the last 1-3 months
  • A loyal user has displayed a usage frequency of once a month
  • A loyal user has booked tickets for movies and 2+ events in the last 6 months
  • A champion user had tried 2+ event types (Music, Comedy, Theatre, Art workshops etc.)
  • ICP-3 user fall in this bucket

• Potential Loyalists:
• • PL user has used the app in the last month
  • PL user has displayed a usage frequency of once a month
  • PL user has booked tickets for movies and 1+ events in the last 6 months
  • A champion user had tried 2+ event types (Music, Comedy, Theatre, Art workshops etc.)
  • ICP-2 user fall in this bucket

In addition to the above 3 buckets, the subscription product can be offered to resurrect "About to sleep" users and "Can't lose them" users.

Subscriptions can also be pitched with promotional discounts to "Promising" user and "Needs attention" users.

Let's also look at the survey results and check if the core and power users cross 50% of the user base.

• 21.7% said they use BMS 2-3 times a month (Power)
• 34.8% said they use BMS at least once a month (Core)

Therefore it can be confirmed that the current power and core users combined are > 50% of the user base of BMS. This is another positive signal to test out a monetization opportunity to increase the AOV of the users.

3b. When to charge?

With 30 million active users and 50 million downloads, BMS definitely clears the user value creation step. Let's look at what is the currency for perceived value of BMS user:

Dopamine: Users come to BMS to explore movies and events that they can enjoy with their family, friends or even a like minded group of people. The dopamine is delivered at various stages of the User flow (see image)

Time: Users are looking to maximize on their leisure time and wish to spend time on joyful experiences that are aligned with their interests & desires.

Understanding the user flow, I identified few moments where the user perceives the most value from using BMS:

1. Exploring for specific movies & events on the app
2. User books tickets (movies or events)
3. Event experience is joyful & meets user expectations

Some of the ways to communicate the value of membership to champion/Loyal users:

1. In app banner on event pages with ticket prices >2000 INR (when users are exploring events)
2. Offer high value users the option to buy membership during a checkout

Note: The membership plans can be pushed to core & power users via promotional campaigns right before mega party events such as New years, Holi and Dussehra/Dandiya parties.

3c. What to charge?

BMS currently monetizes mainly through:

1. Commissions on ticket sales from event organizers & cinema halls
2. Convenience fees (~10%) from users
3. Ad revenue (banners on the app and website)

Of the above mentioned sources, BMS users only pay the convenience fee which is charged based on Output (number of tickets, number of movies/events)

The core value proposition of BMS is find events and theaters around the city and book tickets online hassle free. The core action done by the user on BMS is purchasing tickets.

In addition to Output, BMS can start charging for Efficiency (Savings) and access:

• Access: Offer early access to tickets and VIP experiences (Ex: Lounge access, Star meet & greet, signed merchandize etc) with the membership

• Efficiencies: Save X% on event, F&B purchases + get free stream rentals with the memberships

3d. How much to charge?

Since there is no membership subscription offered currently on BMS. There was limited scope for doing user research on price sensitivity and willingness or price vs value. Instead I looked at the post popular subscription purchases made by BMS users (from my survey + interviews)

Since BMS is a market leader in its industry, it is not competing for user spend with other ticketing platforms but rather with other subscriptions products that compete for BMS users' disposable income. I looked at major OTT apps:

BMS power and core users see value going to movies at the theaters and attend other events in their city. They usually watch movies at multiscreen theaters and spend on an avg >250 rupees per ticket. The attend events with ticket prices starting from 500 rupees.

Here are the 4 tiers of 3-month subscription offering to increase the AOV of BMS active users:

Comparing the per month price of Silver and Gold, they fall well in the comparable range of the top 4 OTT subscription prices. Hence, I propose the above mentioned pricing to run a beta-test with select power and core users of BMS.

Price vs. Value

3e. How to show pricing?

Before we get down into pricing page designs, let's understand how the users will be made aware of the membership subscriptions on the BMS website & app.

Website (Home page + Event pages)

Mobile App (Home screen + Event screens)

Pricing Page Design (Website)

Cognitive biases applied in BMS membership pricing page:

• Middle category bias: The Gold plan is preselected, highlighted an also labelled as the "Best Value" plan of the options presented to the users
• Strike effect: The user sees that the prices have be struck off and the current prices are discounted. This is to make the users feel that they are grabbing a deal for something that they are convinced of the value offered.
• Decoy effect: The diamond plan was put in place to act as a decoy and nudge the users into opting the Gold plan for best value and price. (Diamond plan is for the extreme champion users of BMS)
• Surround effect: The Diamond plan has extra offering such as VIP experience and free merchandise which isn't quantifiable but justifies the higher price point it is being offered at.

System - 1 vs System - 2

AOV vs. User disposable income

Most of the current users spend less than 2000 INR in a month towards BMS:

• 47.8% spend less than 500
• 43.5% spend 500-2000
• 8.7% spend 2000-5000

Taking the above percentages, the current AOV is 935 INR

The current average yearly income of BMS user is
= 0.174x25+0.174X30+0.13x2.5+0.174x8+0.13x12.5+0.13x18 = ~15 Lakhs

The average monthly income = 1.25 Lakhs

Assuming the disposable income to be 20% of the total, average disposable income = 25000 INR

AOV : Average Income = 975 : 25000 = ~ 1 : 25

In addition to the above insight, BMS has a monthly frequency of usage and the users aren't committing for a long time ( > 1 year) with the membership.

Therefore for the above reasons, BMS membership buying process is recommended to be built with a System-1 design approach.

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Rishi Ulapu
GX18