District by Zomato focused on acquiring users, pilots in the ‘going out’ business

“Today, your needs for going out are met from different apps and tools, such as Google Maps or other specific apps," Ganjoo said. “Can we create something for out-of-home consumption that is compelling enough to check at least once before you go out?"

While District cannot solve problems like traffic and lack of parking that deter people from an evening out, Ganjoo says he wants the app to remove other kinds of “friction" and encourage people to go out. Google Maps may help a user plan their route to the nearest bar, gig, or movie theatre, but District should be their go-to app to see if there's something worth going out for in the first place, he said.

District aims to become a hybrid consumer app that merges restaurant bookings with entertainment and retail. The app offers access to comedy clubs, concerts, spa appointments and offline shopping vouchers. “There is nobody doing this in the world and in the way we are trying to approach it," Ganjoo said. “We don’t have a parallel. There are bits and pieces being addressed in the US and Southeast Asia."

For now, Ganjoo says, the company is not as worried about the margins from the going-out business and aims to acquire more active users, retain them, and nudge them to use the app more often than booking tickets to the occasional movie or hot concert. “Broadly, the attempt here is to bring a diverse set of use cases to go out," Ganjoo added. “When you go out, do you find value in using District? What is the friction to going out? After going through [the] District [app], can we get you to change your going out plans?"

In its shareholder letter for the June quarter, parent firm Eternal said the company expects District to scale up to $3 billion in net order value and $150 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda). The app reported 2 million monthly active users who transacted roughly two times a month on the app.

Revenue from going out stood at ₹207 crore in the June 2025 quarter, down marginally quarter on quarter but more than double year on year. However, the division is loss-making—in Q1, it reported ₹48 crore in operational losses.

Frequent users

For now, District is largely focused on increasing this active user base, retaining these users, and prompting them to keep using the app. About 40% of their new users come from online advertising, and 30% each from first-time customers looking to buy tickets to a big event selling exclusively on the app. Another 30% comes from Eternal’s other apps, Zomato and Blinkit.

“We are consistently seeing that the quality of users we are getting from Zomato and Blinkit is higher," Ganjoo said. “The AOV [average order value] is higher for those customers, retention, and the 7-day activation rates are also higher." However, he declined to give details on these metrics. “The top of the funnel is huge for us on Zomato and Blinkit; we are getting to be in front of them even if it’s just for awareness." For now, though, Ganjoo says, one of District’s big aims is to ensure a customer who downloads the app for a big event like comedian Kevin Hart’s show or the Rolling Loud India concert does not delete the app once the show is over.

Apart from offering them movie tickets and dining out options, the app is hoping to keep customers hooked with a pilot programme called ‘Stores’. Now in its fourth month of operation, Stores lets customers find apparel and footwear shops, salons, jewellery and furniture showrooms, and other offline outlets near them. Besides, you can pay shopping bills in the app and get discounts at some retail outlets. Ganjoo says the pilot is an attempt to increase transaction frequency; for now, customers use the app most for eating out, followed by buying movie tickets.

Regional focus

Besides producing large events with big foreign names, such as the Feeding India concert featuring international popstar Dua Lipa and the tour of stand-up comedian Kevin Hart, Ganjoo said District is also attempting to build a roster of smaller, regional events that can sell as many as 30,000-40,000 tickets per show. This includes Navratri garba events in western India and concerts of local music sensations in South India.

Although he did not disclose financial details of the Stores app, Ganjoo said this pilot programme could become an additional source of ad revenue for Eternal, as retail outlets offer to pay a “discovery fee" or other such costs to appear in search results for District customers. Some retailers have begun doing so, but Ganjoo said it is early days.

In-app advertising has become a serious source of revenue and hefty profits for online retailers, including quick commerce and food delivery apps Zomato and Blinkit. The Economic Times reported in November that both Blinkit and Zepto will likely cross ₹1,000 crore in ad revenue from brands selling on the platform in FY25.

Despite the surge in the events business and other offline, in-person activities, analysts tracking Eternal are ambivalent about District’s long-term growth prospects. In a note this week, Goldman Sachs’ brokerage arm said it estimated the company’s going-out segment will grow slower than the management’s guidance. Yet, per Goldman Sachs’ estimates, Eternal’s revenues from going out will grow 65% year to ₹254.3 crore in the September 2025 quarter. Much of Eternal's rich valuation comes from its quick commerce arm Blinkit, even as the food delivery business slows down and the B2B arm Hyperpure remains a marginal presence.

"Eternal's valuation is almost entirely determined by just two vectors right now—food delivery and quick commerce," said an analyst tracking the stock, requesting anonymity. "Frankly speaking, companies like Eternal, Swiggy, and now Urban Co. are getting extremely rich valuations purely because there is momentum in the market for such consumer and services stocks. But can one assign a valuation to District over a five-year period with a DCF [discounted cash flow] method today? No, I don't think so. In fact, it is hard to accurately project anything for these stocks beyond FY27 because not only are they trading at very rich valuations, but they face the danger of a persistent slowdown in the consumer economy."

Besides, the analyst added, despite offering a bouquet of "going out" services, District will have to invest a lot of money to acquire the existing user base of rivals like BookMyShow and keep pumping discounts on other services like shopping and eating out. "Swiggy is under pressure to make profits, so it may not be able to invest as much in its ticketing and going out business, which will be launched officially soon. But Zomato is sitting on a lot of cash, so it has room to invest."

Shares of Eternal, the parent company, closed 2.9% up on Thursday, compared to the benchmark Nifty 50, which closed flat. This was partly due to buy calls from top brokerages, including Goldman Sachs.