BookMyShow lays off 200 employees

Movie and entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow has laid off 200 employees after finding it difficult to cope with Covid-19 induced lockdowns and disruption in the industry. The company’s co-founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani announced the news on Twitter.

This is the second round of layoffs for the company due to the pandemic. BookMyShow had let go and furloughed 270 employees or 18.5% of its workforce in May 202o. With this second round, the company has downsized its workforce by over 35% since last year.

Detailed queries sent to BookMyShow didn’t elicit any immediate response. We will update the story in case they respond.

While layoffs were frequent during the first wave of Covid-19 as many companies including Oyo, MakeMyTrip, TravelTriangle, Meesho and Bounce reduced their employee headcount, this is the first major layoff by a growth-stage startup during the second wave.

In May last year, BookMyShow said that it had 1,180 employees after the downsizing and furlough exercise. With the second wave of layoff, it now has less than 1,000 employees. It’s worth noting that employees across functions have been taking a voluntary pay cut in the range of 10-50% from the past year.

With the cinema halls and theatres largely out of business for more than a year due to the pandemic, revenues of online ticketing platforms such as BookMyShow are down by over 70-80%, as per industry sources.

Meanwhile, to deal with the disruption in its core business, BookMyShow had launched live streaming platform BookMyShow Stream in April 2020. It has also been testing virtual events space and conducted popular electronic music and beach party festival ‘Sunburn’ 2020 virtually.

Founded in 1999, BookMyShow has raised about $225 million across six institutional rounds from investors including TPG Growth, SAIF Partners (now Elevation Capital) and Accel Partners. It was in talks to raise up to $100 million and check into the coveted club of unicorns. However, it appears the deal fell through because of the pandemic.