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Two By Two Fri, 14 Feb 25 |
An abridged, narrative version of the latest episode of Two by Two, The Ken’s premium weekly business podcast. |
Going out of India is easier than going out in India. More and more affluent Indians are choosing to go abroad to experience events even when the same are available in India
| 4 min read |
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Subscribers to The Ken have probably read that headline before. It was the first edition of The Nutgraf published this year, written by Praveen Gopal Krishnan (or PGK, as we like to call him at The Ken). That piece—one of our most read this year—gave a first-hand account of how PGK ended up going to Australia to watch a historic Boxing Day Test match between Team India and Team Australia.
It was also an indictment of how utterly terrible live-event experiences have become in India—whether that’s for sports, concerts, or standup shows. Just look at the botched up ticket sales for the India leg of Coldplay’s world tour; comedian Trevor Noah being forced to cancel his shows in Bengaluru; or the litany of infrastructure complaints that accompany pretty much any large event held in the country.
I don’t think anyone would argue that live events in India have problems. But just how big are they? Big enough to convince people to travel out of the country for a better experience? Why?
We wanted to find out. So a couple of weeks ago, we ran a survey for Two by Two listeners asking three simple questions:
Have you made a trip abroad to attend a live event in 2023 or 2024?
Did you have the option of attending the same (or equivalent) event in India?
Why did you choose not to attend the same event in India?
We got a lot of responses—many expected, some surprising.
In episode 29 of Two by Two, co-hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and PGK sit down with Shreyas Srinivasan, former Chief Product Officer at Paytm* and founder of Paytm Insider, which has now been acquired by Zomato and rebranded as District, and Sudhir Syal, former CEO of Bookmyshow Indonesia and Bookmyshow Middle East, and founder and CEO of Startify, to tease out where India is falling short. And what we can do to fix things.
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You can also listen to the 10-minute trailer where Shreyas explains what he thinks is the “least worst algorithm” to distribute tickets:
Venues beyond major cities
One factor that came up, both in the survey and the podcast, was the groaning, outdated, overloaded infrastructure in most of our largest cities.
Shreyas had a couple ideas about where such events could be happening instead.
Shreyas: We need one really entrepreneurial government representative who wants to take a non-traditional entertainment city and make it an entertainment city.
You just need one, because as soon as one happens, 10 others will happen. Because it becomes internal competition.
It’s one of the things I am fairly gung-ho about, especially in Bengaluru—because it has always had a dearth of good venues especially after we shut Palace Grounds. There’s a large venue being commissioned at the airport, which has two advantages: there’ll be metro connectivity to it, and 70% of that build-out has happened.
[…]
The Adani airport in Mumbai is (also) looking at it. I think those are our saviours, where there is a central hub that is close to the airport. I think that’s the immediate solution.
I’m also very optimistic about small cities. I think a big part of where Zomato and Bookmyshow will win is in the small cities. It’s possible you can build a venue for much cheaper, you can operate it for much cheaper.
A lot of the infrastructure issues are not as prevalent as they are in the bigger cities.
[…]
It’s in the breadth and not at the top of the pyramid.
Ticket booking à la IPOs
Another solution that was mooted, this time for ticket bookings, takes inspiration from a pre-existing system that you wouldn’t immediately link to live events or entertainment.
Shreyas: We have a beautiful KYC payment system called UPI.
We have done something amazing with IPOs, where you can use UPI to set up an IPO subscription, and you get an allotment depending on how many people subscribe and the amount of money the company wants to raise.
This is my solution (to ticketing), which I have now propagated to various people across the industry.
People have no issues submitting their details in anticipation of an IPO and then being told at some point whether they got it or not. Why wouldn’t they be okay with that for ticket bookings too?
They’re not waiting for it on the page. The frustration comes from being on the page, right?
[…]
The user experience on that page is just the most horrendous thing, and both Bookmyshow and Insider do it.
[…]
I think we can mimic what we do with an IPO. It’s slightly different from a lottery.
Make it part of tourism?
But without largescale investments in infrastructure, almost every other solution would be bandaids on a stab wound, at best. Sudhir had a couple of thoughts about how to go about fixing this.
Sudhir: One is continuous investment in entertainment venues, solely for the next two decades.
[…]
Because I’ve seen what the UAE was without these venues and what it is now. The big venues in the UAE now do 50–60% of the events. It brings costs down, higher profitability, and better experience.
Two is better lobbying and liaisoning between the government for events and live entertainment to be seen as a central part of the tourism mandate.
To me, at least, the second point seems like an important lever to exploit—because it would link the Indian live event experience to its rich history and wealth of beautiful getaways.
But this is a long game. The Dubai example, for instance, while encouraging, isn’t completely replicable in India, given the vastly different economic landscapes. What is evident is that if things remain as is, more and more Indians with money to spare will choose to go outside India to attend their next concert or Test match.
Do listen to the full episode and join in on the discussion by writing to us at [email protected].
Take care, and see you next week.
Regards,
Hari Krishna
*Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken.
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Hari works as a producer and researcher on Two by Two and First Principles. He’s from a “little village in Kerala where nothing much happens”, enjoys reading books (although he loves buying them even more), and appreciates films—be it on Netflix or Criterion.
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