District by Zomato
A social planning and group-intent layer that turns District from a transaction platform into the place where the plan is formed.
The problem
Going out with friends is usually a coordination problem, not a discovery problem.
The hypothesis
If sharing intent with friends and converting it into a plan is easy, coordination friction drops and bookings rise.
The artefact
“Plan with Friends” — an intent-to-book layer on every event, movie and restaurant.
01The opportunity
Coordination, not discovery, is the bottleneck.
A user may have several friend groups and a free weekend, but no easy way to know who else is free, who would actually be interested in a given event, and when the group should stop waiting and just book. Today that conversation happens on WhatsApp and Instagram DMs — entirely outside District.
Current user journey
Fragmented coordination
The conversation happens outside District entirely.
High response latency
Friends may take hours or days to reply.
Poor visibility
The initiator manually tracks who's actually interested.
Decision paralysis
No deadline means even interested people never commit.
Lost intent
Coordination friction kills discoveries before they convert.
No social graph
District has little visibility into who users go out with.
02The hypothesis
If District lets users share intent to attend an experience with friends, set a response deadline, and convert collective interest into a booking — coordination friction drops and group bookings rise.
The shift: from “I found something I want to book” to “I found something we could do together.”
03The product: “Plan with Friends”
Core flow
Step 1 — Discover
A user finds an event, movie, restaurant or activity. Instead of only Book Now, they also see Interested and Plan with Friends.
Step 2 — Create a plan
The initiator picks the experience, date/time, group size, friends to notify, and a response deadline.
Diljit Dosanjh Concert
Saturday, 8 PM
Interested with: 8 friends
Respond by: Thursday, 8 PM
“I’m free Saturday. Anyone in?”
04Notify & respond
Friend notification — one tap, deep-linked to the event
Ridhima wants to go to the Diljit concert 🎵
Saturday • 8 PM · Respond by Thursday, 8 PM
Interest dashboard — status at a glance, no extra WhatsApp thread needed
Diljit Concert · Saturday, 8 PM · 5 / 8 friends interested
| A | ✅ Interested |
| B | ✅ Interested |
| C | ⏳ Pending |
| D | ❌ Can't make it |
| E | ⏳ Pending |
05The deadline mechanic
Without a deadline, this feature just recreates an endless group chat. A visible countdown — with a reminder nudge to anyone who hasn't responded — forces a clean transition from intent to commitment to transaction.
06From intent to transaction
6 people are interested 🎉
Ready to make it happen?
Book for the GroupOnce the response window closes, District can support one person paying for everyone, split payments, individual payment links, group seat selection, and a single booking confirmation shared with everyone — minimizing the steps between collective interest and an actual transaction.
07Why this compounds
The acquisition loop
Every existing user becomes a potential distribution channel.
Higher conversion
Reduces the friction that today causes interested users to abandon a booking they couldn't coordinate.
Increased frequency
Users return to District to plan something, not only when they've already decided to book.
Friend-graph creation
District gains real visibility into who users actually go out with.
Organic acquisition
Inviting friends gives non-users a concrete reason to download District.
Cross-category discovery
A friend invited to a concert may stay for dining, movies or other events.
08Who it's for
The Planner
Usually initiates plans and wants to know who is available.
Pain point
Spends significant time coordinating people.
The Passive Participant
Wants to go out but rarely initiates plans.
Pain point
Doesn't want to participate in lengthy group conversations.
The Busy Friend
May be interested but needs a clear deadline to decide.
Pain point
Misses plans because responses happen asynchronously.
09MVP scope
Must have
- —Add / follow friends on District
- —“Interested” CTA
- —Select friends
- —Create a plan
- —Response deadline
- —Push notification
- —Interested / Can't make it response
- —Plan dashboard
- —Reminder notification
- —Group booking CTA
Could have later
- —Split payments
- —Group chat
- —AI-generated recommendations
- —Availability-based recommendations
- —Recurring friend groups
- —Shared wishlists
- —“Everyone's free” calendar matching
- —Personalized group recommendations
10Guardrails & privacy
A social graph raises real privacy stakes. Visibility should be controlled at the plan level, not assumed to be visible to the entire friend network. Users should be able to:
- —Hide an event from specific people
- —Choose exactly who gets an invitation
- —Keep their interests private
- —Disable social notifications
- —Remove or block friends
Example: a user might want to share “Interested in a Sunday brunch” with Friend Group A but not Friend Group B.
11Measuring success
North star
Social Plans → Booking Conversion Rate
The percentage of plans created through the feature that ultimately result in a District booking — connecting social intent directly to commerce.
Engagement metrics
| Metric | Formula | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Plans created / active user | # plans created ÷ MAU | Whether users adopt District for social planning. |
| Friends added per user | avg. friends per user | Adoption of the social graph. |
| Friends invited per plan | avg. invitees per plan | Breadth of social distribution. |
| Interest response rate | # responded ÷ # invited | Effectiveness of the notify/respond loop. |
| Interests uploaded per user | avg. per user | Frequency of expressed intent. |
Conversion metrics
| Metric | Formula | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Plan → booking conversion | # plans booked ÷ # plans created | Core efficacy of the feature. |
| Incremental bookings | treatment vs. control lift | Bookings genuinely added, not shifted. |
| Group booking rate | % of bookings from a social plan | Share of bookings that are multi-participant. |
Growth metrics
| Metric | Formula | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Friend add rate | new friends added ÷ active users | Social graph growth. |
| Invite → download | invitations ÷ downloads | Acquisition efficiency of invites. |
| Invite → activation | download → first meaningful action | Prevents optimizing for downloads alone. |
12Validating the bet
Guardrail metrics — don't optimize for engagement alone
- —Notification opt-out rate
- —Notification spam rate (per user)
- —Plan abandonment rate
- —Booking cancellation rate
- —Friend removal / block rate
- —Negative feedback ("too many notifications", "didn't understand why")
Control
Existing District experience.
Treatment
Existing experience + “Plan with Friends,” measured on booking conversion, frequency, sessions/user, friend additions, group bookings and retention.
“Does reducing social coordination friction generate incremental bookings and engagement — rather than simply shifting existing bookings into a new interface?”
“I want to do something this weekend” → “Here are the people who want to do it with me” → “We're going.”
The opportunity isn't adding a friends feature. It's making District the operating system for going out with people.