How Zomato plans to win events biz: Invest in stadium infra, hope Swiggy doesn't buy BookMyShow

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal

Zomato, the number two player in events and going out industry, will make moves to become the market leader going past BookMyShow, which is the leader in the space currently, in the coming months, Zomato’s co-founder and group CEO Deepinder Goyal told Moneycontrol in an interview.

“We were the number three player in the game (events and ticketing) earlier. Now, we become number two (behind BookMyShow). We’ll gun to be number one at some point and hope that Swiggy doesn’t buy BookMyShow,” Goyal said.

Zomato and Swiggy already compete in the food delivery market and are also arch-rivals in India’s red-hot quick commerce industry which has grown to $5.5 billion in under four years.

While they were evenly poised till a few years ago, Zomato has widened the gap in recent years and now has a clear lead over Swiggy in both businesses.

Goyal’s comments come after Zomato decided to double down on its going out and live ticketing business by acquiring Paytm Insider in an all-cash deal for Rs 2,048 crore in August. The decision comes at a time when an increasing number of people are stepping out and booking tickets for artists like Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Diljit Dosanjh, Bryan Adams and several other concerts.

“I don't know why, but everything in the events and concert ticketing business is taking off for some reason nowadays, which is something we can add on to. It was always boring here in India but we can make it fun,” Goyal said.

To make events and concerts more fun and worthwhile, Goyal believes that more needs to be done. “We’ll have to (build stadiums) at some point. Otherwise, the song, the artists, the work and experience will not really be worthwhile. We won’t build like a Zomato stadium but we will partner with someone and propose to upgrade the infrastructure and give the stadium a facelift,” Goyal said in the interview to Moneycontrol.

“We can take care of the capex, and in exchange ask for 40 rental free days in a year,” he added.

For Zomato, investing in stadiums or capex spend will not be a worry as it had over Rs 12,500 crore ($1.5 billion) in cash reserves at the end of the June quarter (before the Paytm Insider deal. Latest figures yet to be filed).

The going out business had a gross order value (GOV) of Rs 3,225 crore as of FY24 and is estimated to grow to over Rs 10,000 crore by the end of FY26, Zomato had said in a stock exchange filing earlier.

“Six months ago, we used to say we have 3.5 business arms. Zomato, Blinkit, Hyperpure and we used to say dining out. But now that 3.5 has become 4 (after the planned Paytm Insider acquisition) so we have a lot on our plate,” Goyal told Moneycontrol while underscoring how important the going out business has become over the past months.