Amid Flipkart talks to pick up stake, BookMyShow ties up with Amazon Pay

Amid investment talks with Flipkart, BookMyShow has tied up with rival Amazon to allow transactions on its platform using Seattle-based company's payment arm Amazon Pay.

Amazon Pay, which rolled out third-party payments in July, mainly accepted for online movie booking, traveling ordering food online and has now tied up with 25 brands online stores. It is currently live on Redbus, Abhibus, Faasos, Freshmenu, Box 8, Haptik, Komparify, and Niki, among others.

Amazon pay was launched in December last year and this new development came soon after it got a prepaid instrument (PPI), or a wallet licence from banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this April. The wallet service is also directed at frequently transacting users and those from the tier-II locations and those on low-bandwidth networks to reduce friction in payments.

The company also plans to sign up government institutions such as electricity boards and insurance companies to create use cases for Amazon Pay outside its online marketplace.

Earlier, Amazon has infused Rs 130 crore into its payments entity, Amazon Pay India in July, this year and it is further planning to raise around Rs 1600 crore, as per the RoC filings.

“Flipkart and Amazon will both want to build multiple service capabilities across platforms for their current customer base and in that context, multiple such strategic partnerships will be likely as they look to build out services (beyond just the e-commerce marketplace),” said an investor to the Economic Times.

Meanwhile, Flipkart’s interest in BookMyShow appears to be aligned with its strategy to fuel the usage of PhonePe. The Bengaluru-based company is in the preliminary stage to invest in the online movie and event booking platform. In case, the deal goes through, PhonePe is likely to see a surge in the transaction and more frequent use case for its users.

Amazon Pay: Website