With Alibaba — one of the biggest ticketing platforms in China — looking to expand it’s base in India, BookMyShow plans to sell a minority stake to Flipkart, a move that will give the latter’s loyal customer base a wider access, reported Business Standard.
BookMyShow, with a profit of Rs 3.1 crore on a revenue of Rs 248 crore made in the March 2016 financial year, has been facing competition from Paytm (backed by Alibaba), leaving them with slow sales growth lately, added the report.
Livemint reported that Flipkart is interested in outright ownership of BookMyShow, but have settled with the purchase of a minority stake in the company.
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According to the Business Standard report, India’s movie ticketing market alone is expected to be around $2.5 billion, with 10-15 percent comprising of online players, largely BookMyShow.
While the online movie ticket booking business is expected to grow, the movie theatre business has been shrinking in India over the years. From about 12,000 theatre screens it has reduced to 9,500 screens over the last five years. Zeebiz reported that this largely occurs due to a decline ranging from shrinking single-screen theatres to rampant piracy.