Back Story:
The year was 2001/2/3, and there was a new movie experience on the block. And there was new mall culture introduced in Mumbai for my age individuals.
Early Success:
Somehow I got to know about R-Adlabs Playes movies for INR 50.0 only.
Now every day I find myself watching at least one movie, or sometimes three in a row.
At that time, classmates would find themselves bumping into each other as theatres went house full.
First Evil Thought of Money Making:
After say half a year, cinema hall increased price to INR 250.0, and suddenly all shows were abandoned and empty with no people, or 4 or 5 people per show. Sometimes they have to cancel the shows.
Then brought down price to INR 150.0, then people started visiting cinema halls again but lost all houseful boards that existed at start with a 50 rupee price tag.
With their rule to not bring your own food and selling MRP chocolates and soft drinks at five times the price, it made matters worse.
As intent to watch a movie on a bigger screen, which is unavailable anywhere else, drinks can be found at one tenth the price anywhere, or even you can make it at home. As Bharat don’t have a culture of drinking soft drinks.
Partner in Crime and Partner in failure:
Then came the Hollywood replica called BookMyShow.
While booking Marathi Play tickets, I found I spent almost 120 rupees on travel, around 50 on food, and 1000 rupees on the actual expense of ticket purchase.
At that time, BookMyShow would charge 25 rupees per ticket booking interaction on their portal.
So the ticket booking experience was less expensive as I saved more than a hundred rupees and saved my travelling time.
Real and Comman issue with Indian Software Industry:
But the portal was half-backed and had its own bugs and issues. Payment gateway was faulty, and they had their own fare share of black hat design. Notification will never work, and I have to dismiss newsletter opt-in confirmation as they will start sending marketing emails as the cancel button colour varies from light grey.
Today BookMyShow charges 25 rupees per ticket, so if I book ten tickets, then I have to pay them 250 rupees as platform fee. And which can be saved by me visiting cinema halls in real life.
The Result:
Today, 2024, R-Adlabs are nonexistent or closed down, and I have not booked any tickets on BookMyShow for the last 5 or 6 years.
A Lesson from someone’s failure:
So what do you think as a digital media company is adding value to the customer’s movie ticket booking experience or creating nuances in their life with your third-class buggy portal code and failing payment gateway? Which doesn’t match with real chair numbers in the hall, or sometimes two tickets get issued for the same chair number.
Thanks and Regards
Mandar Apte
Leave a Reply