To up the ante in online entertainment ticket booking, digital payments behemoth One 97 Communications has invested Rs 61 crore into Paytm Entertainment, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Noida-based company.
Apart from ticketing, this is the third investment from the Alibaba-backed company in this month. The other being CreditMate and Paytm’s yet to be launched wealth management vertical – Paytm Money.
The move comes a month after Paytm’s acquisition of Alibaba-owned movie ticketing platform TicketNew for $40 Mn. It is also considered as the crucial time for Paytm which is targeting 100 million movie and event tickets sale in 2018.
With the latest capital infusion, Paytm will exert more pressure on incumbent BookMyShow.
To compete with BookMyShow Paytm has left no stone unturned since its launched the vertical in 2016. For beefing up it’s positioning in the segment, the company recently acquired TicketNew and bought a majority stake in Insider.in.
Apart from acquisitions, Paytm has also been eyeing loyalty products to lure customers. In April, Paytm introduced movie ticket loyalty programme called Movie Pass, which allows paying subscribers to watch movies at a discounted rate.
Movie Pass was one of the earliest adoptions by Paytm in loyalty program segments. On the other hand, BookMyShow hasn’t introduced any such loyalty program.
Paytm forayed into the online movie ticket space with a partnership with PVR Cinemas in 2016. Since then it grew aggressively and tied up with more than 4,000 movie screens across multiplex brands including PVR, INOX, and Cinepolis among various regional chains.
Currently, the movie ticketing market in India is estimated to be worth nearly $2 billion and has been growing at 10 per cent annually. Paytm has been able to disrupt the market and fighting the lone battle with the 19-year-old BookMyShow.
The development was first reported by ET via RoC filing.
