Paytm, India’s largest mobile-first financial services platform announced that its entertainment vertical sold over 52 million movie and event tickets in 2017, becoming the country’s fastest-growing entertainment ticketing platform. The company saw an exponential 5x growth as compared to 2016, the year of launch for Paytm’s movie ticketing and event booking platform.

Paytm’s user base and its aggressive addition of multiplex & single screens across 660 cities resulted in this exponential growth. The platform powers online ticketing for 4,000 movie screens, with 1,600 screens from regional chains being added in the last year. The company is aiming to sell over 100 million tickets by end of this year, further expanding its presence in the movie and events ticketing space across the country.

Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer and SVP, Paytm said, “After an exceptional 2017, we have had a great start in 2018. Our aim this year is to become market leader in entertainment ticketing category and sell over 100 million tickets across India. We will continue growing the overall ecosystem by adding single-screen cinemas and expanding into smaller cities and towns.”

“We are leveraging the Paytm ecosystem to offer a seamless experience to our users, both online on the Paytm app and offline at the cinemas. Paytm users can pay for their movie tickets and food, parking and transport with a single app. Already, 50% of our movie goers also use Paytm to pay at the cinema, nearby food outlets, parking at the mall or taxi rides. ” Deora added.

Paytm currently contributes 25%-30% towards the opening weekend box office collection of major movies. It has also been working closely with leading production houses supporting them with marketing campaigns and analytics. This has helped partner production houses to refine their marketing strategy to target cinema lovers.

Apoorva Mehta, CEO, Dharma Productions, “Given that e-ticketing is the future of our revenues and online purchase of movie tickets are at an all time high owing to our government’s digitization drive, our partnership with Paytm holds immense significance with respect to our goals. We at Dharma have been working closely with Paytm since Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and each association turns out to be bigger and a better than the previous one. We've started linking sales data back to the marketing of films in a way that has never been done before. We're also looking forward to setting bigger targets and newer trends with the exciting Dharma line-up in 2018-19.”

In March 2016, Paytm launched its movie ticketing platform in partnership with PVR, the leading and most valued multiplex chain in India. In last 2 years, it has also partnered with major multiplex chains like Cinepolis, INOX and Carnival Cinemas to expand its footprint across India.

Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Limited, “The partnership with Paytm as our e-ticketing channel partner for over 20 months has grown from strength to strength. With Paytm becoming a household name in the country, it has helped PVR leverage its demographic presence to acquire new customers tapping their impulse habit of watching movies. In view of the immense digital & social media explosion among millennials, PVR has been able to reach out this increasingly important & growing consumer segment.”

In South India, Paytm has forged exclusive partnerships with leading regional multiplex chains like SPI Cinemas, Suresh Productions, V Celluloid, SVC and Anusri Cinemas, which has helped the company gain market share in the South Indian movie industry. All major national and regional chains are now available on Paytm, with the platform contributing 30% of their overall ticket sales. The company is currently working to onboard more regional theaters with single and multi-screens to bring them online.

Introduced Movie Refunds & Movie Passes for the first time:


Paytm has dramatically broadened the scope of online movie ticket booking in India by adding groundbreaking user-friendly features. It has been the first to launch 100% refund on ticket price upon cancellation for users who may want to book early but are worried that their plans might change. Paytm has also launched Movie Pass subscription, an affordable option for movie fans who like to see movies every weekend. It even hosted exclusive premieres of major movies like Wonder Woman, Thor Ragnarok and Dunkirk before the actual release, giving hardcore fans an opportunity to watch Hollywood blockbusters before anyone else in India. This has led to a surge in consumer interest and brought more loyal audiences to the theatres.

Rudrarup Dutta, SVP and Head of Marketing, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, "As more and more audiences move online to book their movie tickets, Paytm has become one of our most important partners not only for bookings but also for communicating and engaging with consumers. The flexibility and aggression that the ‘Paytm’ team has shown have helped us create many interesting consumer propositions like pre-book, special icons, and customized communication to consumers across the Paytm consumer base getting newer audiences to online ticketing."

“Paytm is the country’s largest payments and commerce platform. This gives us an opportunity to market to their wide consumer base and enable easier transactions. We were one of the first ones to explore partnership with Paytm and are very happy continuing to do so”, says Venky Mysore, CEO, Red Chillies Entertainment.

“Our business philosophy is to provide the best-in-class online and offline experience to our customers while helping cinemas and studios increase their business. We see massive potential in growing online ticket sales for movies across metros, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India. In addition, regional movies contribute 35% of our overall sales. We are bullish about regional content and will continue to invest in these markets. We also look forward to increasing our presence by partnering with regional cinemas and production houses.” Deora added.

Emerging as one of the leading Live Entertainment ticketing platforms:


Paytm has also entered live entertainment ticketing and is emerging as one of the leading players in the space. Paytm has successfully ticketed over 8000 events last year and is rapidly expanding its presence in the category. In July 2017, it acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, an events ticketing platform. Paytm and Insider’s events platform now sells India’s largest collection of events across Music, Sports, Comedy and other lifestyle categories. Paytm was the exclusive ticketing partner for matches in recently concluded India home-season where India played Sri Lanka and New Zealand. It was also an exclusive ticketing partner for the leading teams from sporting events like Pro-Kabaddi, ISL and Pro Wrestling. It has been exclusive partner for flagship music events like Bacardi NH7 Weekender and concerts of leading artists: AR Rahman, Arijit Singh and Diljit Dosanjh.

"The events landscape has seen an incredible growth in the last few years. At Paytm, we believe that our ability to reach millions of transacting users will help the organizers to scale rapidly. We look forward to partnering with organizers and taking them to customers across India " Added Deora.
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