Nightlife blooms into an organised sector
“Where’s the party tonight?” may be a popular song from the Bollywood movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. But for Saarthak Gupta, founder of mypurplemartini.com this seemed like a bright business idea.
In 2008, he set up mypurplemartini.com as a nightlife portal, which gave people information about the hottest parties in their respective cities.
“When I came back from the UK in 2008, I found that the nightlife scenario was unorganised in India. In the UK, there is an established nightlife culture. Betting on the future of Indian nightlife culture, the concept of a nightife portal came to life,” said Mr Gupta.
The increasing prosperity of people in cities prompted a culture of nightlife in the country, which has been ably tapped by mypurplemartini.com. The portal tries to connect the clubs and night life event organisers with this growing class of party goers.
Mr Gupta, who is an avid party goer, took loans from the banks to start the project.
Initially, there were concerns on whether people were open to such ideas or would accept it in the Indian party circuit. But Mr Gupta, who has bachelors in human resource management from University of Leeds, United Kingdom found that the idea clicked with the partygoers and was a major hit among them.
“We found that the clubowners accepted the idea with open arms and so did the partygoers,” said Mr Gupta.
He claims that mypurplemartini.com became profitable in the first year of its operations itself. "We are investing the earned money back into the company,” says Mr Gupta.
Going further, there are plans to launch a mobile application considering the website has already crossed the 7-lakh subscriber mark.
“Most of our subscribers are youngsters who are in the age group of 18 to 30 years. They belong to the earning class, who are doing well in their professional careers,” said Mr Gupta.
The portal also works as a social networking site which connects people, who like to go to parties. They can share their experience or information about parties they are going.
The website also gives information about various parties in cities across the country. The website h-as lakhs of hit every month.
“Every day there are some events going on in the city. People can register andkeep a tab on them,” said Mr Gupta. Many Bars also advertise about events.
The portal also organised a nightlife convention, which was held at Goa in October 2013 for all people involved with the night-life industry. It was mainly organised for facilitating better networking among them.
Nightlife industry players from across the country met to discuss various issues affecting the industry. The portal has a dedicated event management division and has produced, conceptualised and executed events.