Flipkart is in discussion for a tactical joint venture with BookMyShow, the ticketing platform, in a decision that will witness it build out its transaction offerings and services in opposition to Paytm. The discussions, which are at a beginning stage, may witness the Tiger Global-supported ecommerce major pick up a noteworthy minority share in BookMyShow, claimed 2 sources aware of the talks.
A joint venture with BookMyShow, the market leader, will offer Flipkart, which is also making out its transaction platform PhonePe, a play in the ticketing segment and a more recurrent use case to customers for its service. The discussions, if they materialize, will pit Flipkart in opposition to Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video in a more and more contested market of online entertainment in India. Both BookMyShow and Flipkart did not react to email questions sent by the media. “Flipkart in addition with PhonePe and BookMyShow is an equivalent competition to business of Paytm. The subsequent step for Flipkart might be to turn out to be a video platform such as Amazon Prime Video (and involve content), so they are well placed to go down that road,” claimed founder of Pocket Aces, Ashwin Suresh, to the media in an interview. Pocket Aces makes the popular series of Filter Copy.
Partnership of Flipkart with BookMyShow, to roll out an entertainment service, is the newest amongst the top 3 ecommerce majors’ decision to build out incorporated service verticals further than their basic ecommerce platform. Amazon Now and Amazon Prime Video through Local Finds has been progressively building its services and hyperlocal offerings. Paytm too has been making its armor in an analogous direction via its latest buy of discovery and deals platforms Little and Nearbuy. It also obtained up a share in Insider, the events platform, previously this year.
“Amazon and Flipkart will both wish to build various service capabilities all over the platforms for their present user base and in that background, various such tactical partnerships will be expected as they seek to build out services (further than just the ecommerce platform),” claimed a sponsor in Flipkart who did not want to be identified.