After launching Amazon Pay, Amazon now Venturing into Online Movie Ticketing Business

The e-commerce giant, Amazon is putting its hands into another segment in the Indian market. Amazon is entering into the online movie tickets niche. TechCrunch reported that the e-commerce giant has partnered with Indian online movie ticketing firm, BookMyShow. 

With this collaboration, BookMyShow will be reportedly introducing its booking facilities on Amazon’s website as well as its application. 

The e-commerce firm has taken this move after months of launching flight tickets services on its website; it has been done in a bid to make Amazon Pay into a renowned payment application. Likes of Amazon are employing a similar strategy in the Indian market.

Starting today, Amazon users in India can book movie tickets from the “movie tickets” category under “shop by category” on the shopping site or through the Amazon Pay tab, the e-commerce firm, Amazon said in an interview with TechCrunch. 

BookMyShow, which leads the online movie ticketing market, is the exclusive partner for this new offering, the two companies said, reported the cited media agency. 

Other Expansion Plans 

To gain traction in other newly entered segments, Amazon is offering additional services to the users who employ it for booking tickets for movies. According to the cited media report, e-commerce would be offering 2 per cent cashback on every ticket that a user purchases. After November 14, 2019, the company will also provide INR 200 cashback to the users on purchasing a ticket.  

Stretching its reach, the e-commerce company joined hands with Cleartrip. 

The company was paying a promotional fee to Amazon, but declined to offer specifics, Balu Ramachandran, SVP at Cleartrip, said in an earlier interview with the cited media agency. 

Is Deal Profitable for BookMyShow? 

BookMyShow, which has a headcount of 1,400 employees, sells nearly 15 million tickets every month. The company has its foothold in more than 650 towns, as well as cities, in India. One of its arch-rival is SoftBank-backed payment firm, Paytm which forayed in the online ticketing business three years back. 

Since the arrival of Paytm, the payment firm has taken over some of the market shares of BookMyShow by rendering cashback offers on the purchase of every ticket. 

According to EY-FICCI, the media and entertainment in the country is up to $23.9 billion which depicts that the consumer's spending on the web is surging. Over 50 per cent of the movie ticket being sold by the main four multiplex chains in the nation in the past years has happened through the web. 

“Through the partnership, the company will be able to access Amazon India’s “deep penetration across tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” Ashish Hemrajani, Founder and CEO of BookMyShow, said in an interview with TechCrunch. 

In the past month, Amazon has initiated a new attribute that permits Amazon Pay users to pay their internet, mobile and utility bills. It is the foremost time when the e-commerce company is rendering its functionalities in the market; it reportedly decides to bring this in the US in the offing.