Zomato, the NCR based lifestyle site has forayed into ticketing solution with the launch of its New Year Event section (http://zomato.com/newyear). The company added Events a few months back and has timed the launch of its online ticketing solution with New Year’s eve, ensuring enough buzz around the launch (they have also launched print ad campaigns).
Zomato’s Events section, which lists over 500 upcoming events across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, has gone live with over 175,000 tickets for New Year’s Eve parties (translating to INR 40 Cr of ticket inventory online). Tickets will be available for more than 30 venues in each of the four cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.
Competition for Ayojak/Buzzintown?
This is, I’d say is the most credible competition for online ticketing providers like Ayojak/DoAttend and importantly, the event listing guide, Buzzintown. Zomato has taken an underdog approach towards monetization and I won’t be exaggerating to say that Zomato’s real game starts where most of lifestyle guide’s focus stops. That is, monetization via transactions instead of purely relying on banner ads/eCPM model.
Zomato’s biggest differentiator in this game is existing relationship with lifestyle venues, which other ticketing providers will find difficult to crack (to start off, Zomato is not charging any convenience fee unlike other portals).
Though the key here is to see whether Zomato does a good job in building the backend for event organizers (read our Comparison of Online Ticketing Services) and provides relevant solution to them or not.
Also, what happens after new year? Do they plan to get into the turf of Bookmyshow? Surely an interesting initiative to watch out for.
– Zomato recently raised $3 million funding from InfoEdge and claims 2 million monthly visitors to the site.
– Recommended Read: Guest article by Zomato cofounder: 9 Entrepreneurial Lessons [Money solves only a single problem..and that’s Money!]
