It was already reported that the rivals of Amazon in India, like Flipkart and Paytm are keen to find the way to counter its Amazon Prime Video offering that has helped the American giant gain a larger customer base apart from raising a decent revenue stream. It has now been reported by Mint that Flipkart could enter into an arrangement with the Star Group’s Hotstar to fill this gap and enjoy the best of both worlds; an entertainment cum sports streaming avenue on its platform and escape the need to invest millions of dollars in getting exclusive contents created for this purpose.
The premise is that merely having shoppers visit the ecommerce sites once in a while does not hold the same promise as the entertainment channel on the same platform that gets visited daily to view a serial or a live sports event.
Mint reports that the talks could just be in the initial stages and still a long way to go. It is also not clear if the talks include Flipkart making an investment in Hotstar and if so to what extent. It is however pointed out that there is already an existing relationship between the two, with Flipkart Plus, the feature equivalent of Amazon Prime hosting Hotstar’s video advertisements.
The report suggests that Flipkart, under the leadership of its CEO Kalyan Krishnamoorthy, has been holding discussions with others like Netflix as well for a possible association but the talks did not go anywhere. Hotstar has denied any talks with Flipkart but concludes by saying they are open to any tie-ups in future.
Flipkart is under compulsion to expand its ecommerce offerings beyond just a few categories that build up the revenue for them. Observers have pointed out to the failed attempt by Flipkart to take a position, however small, in ticketing startup BookMyShow.
There are reports of Flipkart showing interest in the food delivery business and other startups too, with talks with Swiggy and Urban Ladder being reported.