India’s one of the leading e-commerce marketplace Flipkart is reportedly in talks for a strategic partnership with ticketing platform BookMyShow. As per the report from the Economic Times, the move could see Flipkart making an investment for a minority stake in the company.
Experts believe that a partnership with market leader BookMyShow will give Flipkart a more frequent use case for its payments platform PhonePe.
The Bangalore-based e-commerce firm is taking the route similar to that of Paytm, which recently acquired a stake in Insider.in — an online ticketing platform. Paytm was also in talks to acquire deals and discovery platforms Little and Nearbuy for expanding its presence to other sectors.
With this partnership, Flipkart could also introduce entertainment offering on its platform, as the company looks for more ways to integrate service verticals and move beyond just e-commerce marketplace.
Similarly, e-commerce giant Amazon is also making a clear statement of moving beyond the e-commerce model with the launch of Local Finds, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Now.
BookMyShow, which has been dominating the online ticketing market in the entertainment sector, has been focusing on original content offering for both video and recently launched audio entertainment vertical JukeBox.
The company has also introduced local language content for both its video and audio platforms to penetrate better in tier 2 and 3 cities. It had raised ₹550 crore last year led by Stripes Group, valuing the company at over ₹3,000 crore.