Even as coronavirus locks down events, Paytm Insider takes it all online

Live events may not be happening due to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, scare, but the industry has not given up.

The digital medium has given live events a new lease of life as artists are going online to perform and entertain audiences.

Take the example of one the biggest comedy festivals, The Circuit, which was scheduled to take place in March but was kept on hold due to the COVID-19 disruption. The festival is going digital with the help of online ticketing platform, Paytm Insider.

So, you can have a good dose of laughter watching 40 of your favourite comedians including Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Sumukhi Suresh, Neeti Palta, Amit Tandon, among others.

The digital version of the festival called Sit Down Comedy started streaming live from April 22 and will go on till April 26 with three shows scheduled each day.

“On-ground events are no happening. It will be a long time when real events will come back. So, we started thinking of how we could make a real event go digital, Shreyas Srinivasan, CEO, Paytm Insider, told Moneycontrol.

He also added that he expects digital events to scale up quickly and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if they do.

“Everything we have done so far has been sold out. Two shows of stand-up comedian Sahil Shah were sold out. Lockdown Love, the play that was performed live was sold out. Most of The Circuit shows are sold out. Less than 10-15 percent tickets are still available. So, there is an appetite for digital shows,” he said.

Digital events -- additional revenue model
Going digital is helping Paytm Insider get back to business.

“It is the same model for us like real events. We take a cut on all sales. Our business model remains the same. Digital has been a saviour for us in this situation. In last one month, we have worked harder than the last one year,” said Srinivasan.

He also has set a target to bring the digital business revenue at par with Paytm Insider’s physical business revenue.

Create digital events in three easy steps
The platform’s three step event publishing process can help Srinivasan achieve the set target.

Using the self-serve tool on Paytm Insider, an event is created automatically for organisers at a set time on the supported web conferencing platform (Zoom).

The platform has also ensured that the digital event is restricted to ticket buyers only and limited to one login per buyer.

Customers who purchase tickets get their access details on the ticket and a reminder when the show is about to go live. Organisers can also send timely reminders and messages to the attendees from the backend via WhatsApp or email.

Srinivasan explains that these events are not plain live streaming as they are more interactive.

“When you attend an event like a music concert it is not about just listening to music, it is about interacting with people. Similarly, these digital events let viewers interact with each other and they can get one-on-one time with the artists as well,” he said.

Going online -- a hope for live events industry to bring back lost businessDigital events are silver lining for the live events industry, which has been hit hard due to the pandemic.

“Since lockdown, most on-ground events have been postponed. For us, April and May are massive because we ticket four Indian Premier League (IPL) teams out of the total eight teams. But all was lost this year so far. Last year, we hosted around 25,000 on-ground events, which brings the monthly average to 2,000 to 2,200 events per month. As for this year, we have done five to 10 digital events this month and currently have 180 digital events listed on the platform,” said Srinivasan.