Now host virtual parties as online events up the entertainment quotient

A lot can happen virtually; even birthday parties for your kids. Yes, you read it right. You can plan a birthday party for your child online and make it a digital get-together.

Along with friends and family, you can take the entertainment quotient a notch up by getting artistes to join the party, but virtually.

How can you plan an online birthday party?

Online ticketing platform Paytm Insider launched a new digital property called Private Parties on June 16. Since then, the platform has organized around 20 such parties.

On the platform, you can choose a suitable time and date and also the artiste of your choice, after which, you will get a link and other booking details which can be shared with the guests.

The size of such parties is limited to 50 guests, while the price ranges from Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000.

When it comes to artistes, there are currently about six to seven including Aparna Athreya – TEDx speaker and founder of the Kid and Parent Foundation; Amit Kalantri – illusionist, and Usha Chhabra – author and performance storyteller.

Currently for children under the age of six years, Paytm Insider’s next focus for the new property is to expand to teenagers and adults with comedy acts, DJs and more. With the expansion, every category will have around 10 to 15 artistes.

But, why pay for an online party? Why not organize one on your own?

There is a lot of digital content available. Children can watch YouTube videos and get entertained. But, ultimately, all that is passive experience, said Shreyas Srinivasan, CEO, Paytm Insider.

“On online platforms, content doesn’t change on the basis of how your kid reacts. Also, your kid is not seeing his other friends watch YouTube. Content consumption online is a solitary, and not a social experience,” he said.

Industry players from the live events space say that the 'new normal' for this industry won't be the same as earlier even when the coronavirus situation settles. The current situation has made people reconsider their habits and they will make informed choices.  This is why, they believe, that online events will grow as a category.

Will such a concept work in smaller markets?

Srinivasan said pricing will matter in markets beyond metros.

“There might be takers in smaller cities if pricing is around Rs 1,000. But, if the price range is above Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 then the target market is bigger cities,” he said.

For smaller markets , the pricing is lesser even for on-ground events, when compared to metro cities.

Private parties more scalable online than offline

Also, when it comes to taking private parties offline, Srinivasan said that for them it is important to get the digital experience right because it is much more scalable as there is no location or travel constraint.

On-ground to digital – the changing face of live events 

Digital has been the focus this year for Paytm Insider due to the absence of on-ground events in view of the coronavirus-driven lockdown.

The platform is doing 600 digital events every week and has done close to about 5,000 online shows so far.

Compare this to on-ground, the company did 30,000 events last year.

This means that when it comes to keeping people entertained even without on-ground events, Paytm Insider has left no stone unturned. Through digital events, which the platform launched on April 22, it has kept the entertainment quotient up.

The platform sees 5,000 to 6,000 daily transactions. Both transactions and users coming on to the platform is seeing a 10-15 percent growth week-on-week.

In the last two months, platforms like BookMyShow and Paytm Insider have adapted to the new normal of live events going digital. From comedy to music, both the platforms have offered numerous live digital experiences to consumers.

Digital still a growing category

When it comes to revenue, digital is not as big as on-ground.

“Ticket size of digital events ranges between Rs 150 and Rs 300. Most tickets are in this range,” said Srinivasan.

He also said that there was an 80 percent reduction in business due to no events happening.

“Some of the revenue has been filled by digital; it is a growing category but, on-ground live event was an existing big business, which has fallen off the cliff,” he stated.