BookMyShow could seal a strategic partnership with Indian online shopping giant Flipkart as it seeks to defend its market share against rivals in the region’s movie ticketing sector.
The talks, which are at a preliminary stage, may see the Tiger Global backed ecommerce group pick up a significant minority stake in BookMyShow, three people aware of the discussions told the LiveMint business news website.
According to LiveMint, Flipkart – which had revenue of $2.2bn in 2016 – is interested in outright ownership of BookMyShow, but talks have largely steered towards purchase of a minority stake in the company. BookMyShow may be valued at up to $700m (£525m/€595m) if the proposed deal goes through, LiveMint’s sources said.
It is suggested a partnership with BookMyShow will give Flipkart an opportunity to build its profile in the ticketing market and improve its offering to customers and members.
BookMyShow would benefit from investment and the opportunity of gaining access to Flipkart’s 100 million claimed customers. Both would be advantageous for BookMyShow as it defends its market share in the face of growing competition from PayTM and TicketNew, both of which are associated with Chinese giant Alibaba Pictures.
India’s movie ticketing market alone is expected to be worth around $2.5bn this year, with 10-15 per cent already being captured by online players, largely BookMyShow.
Ashish Hemrajani, Founder & CEO, Bigtree Entertainment / bookmyshow.com joins the 2018 speaker line up for TheTicketingBusiness Forum on 17-18 April, Manchester.
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