Online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow (BMS) on Thursday joined hands with the WhatsApp's business pilot programme, WhatsApp For Business. As part of the partnership, the ticket booking platform has made WhatsApp a default ticket confirmation channel for all its users. According to BookMyShow, the company is the first Indian online ticketing brand to integrate with WhatsApp for Business.
"WhatsApp has definitely become a preferred mode of communication for millions of people in our country and we could identify tremendous value in making it a default ticket confirmation channel," said Ravdeep Chawla, Head of Product, BookMyShow, in a statement. The feature has been rolled out and the company aims to cover its entire user base in the next few weeks.
Users who book tickets on BookMyShow would now receive a message on WhatsApp with the confirmation text or an M-ticket (mobile ticket) QR Code along with an email. The feature was earlier in its beta phase and when we tried contacting BMS via WhatsApp, we received an automated response saying that the service is not fully functional yet. The BMS Phone Number which can be contacted via WhatsApp and shows the verified badge was found at the BMS website.
WhatsApp recently started authenticating businesses through a closed pilot program. It places a green badge next to a business contact which indicates that the business is verified by WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned messaging service also said that it is building and testing new features for small companies via a free WhatsApp Business app and is developing an enterprise solution for bigger businesses who operate on a large scale with a global base of customers like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks. WhatsApp says that “These businesses will be able to use our solutions to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, delivery confirmations, and other updates.” WhatsApp for Business is also expected to charge businesses for the service in the future.
BookMyShow had recently introduced "plan-it" — an in-app messaging feature for friends and families to interact with each other in real-time along with booking movie tickets within the chat window.
With inputs from Digit NewsDesk