Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is exploring options to acquire a stake in Hotstar, the leading video streaming service of Star India. With this move, Flipkart aims to take on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix which are going great guns in recent times. According to a new Livemint report, Flipkart wants to bet big on video content and as a first step, the company is looking to buy a stake in Hotstar. However, the report did not reveal the amount of stake Flipkart aiming to acquire in Hotstar.
Flipkart Aims to Attract More Internet Consumers by Partnering With Hotstar
In recent times, the demand for video-streaming services in India has grown tremendously. OTT video streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix are enjoying a great time in the market right now. Especially, Netflix has seen a large chunk of users joining the network, thanks to the Indian Originals content it produced in the last one year.
Netflix is investing a lot in developing content aimed at Indian audience. As a result, we saw some of the well-recognised content such as Lust Stories, Ghoush, Sacred Games and so on. Amazon Prime Video is not far behind, but the Indian Original produced by the company didn't receive a good response from the audience.
Flipkart now believes that content has a massive business opportunity going forward and the company is now looking for potential stake purchase in Hotstar.
Flipkart Also Held Preliminary Discussions With Netflix
Three persons aware of the matter said to Livemint that Flipkart also had preliminary talks with Netflix for an alliance, but they just remained as talks. When the publication approached Flipkart for comment on talks with Hotstar regarding stake purchase, the e-commerce portal didn't respond. However, a Hotstar spokeswoman denied the topic stating that there were no such talks held with Flipkart.
‘This query has no basis in facts. No such conversation is happening with Flipkart or any others. We are well resourced and on a velocity of growth that is ahead of almost every other consumer Internet company in India. As flattered as we are by the rumours, the service is too valuable for such conjectures to be even entertained,” the Hotstar spokeswoman said to Mint.
But the spokeswoman said Hotstar is open to partnerships which will help the company grow in India and beyond.
Flipkart Already Has a Tie-Up With Hotstar, But Not for Content Streaming
For the unaware, back in July, Flipkart launched a video ad platform in collaboration with Hotstar. Also, Hotstar is one of the Internet partners Flipkart has partnered with for its customer loyalty programme, Flipkart Plus.
In other news, Flipkart is now a Walmart-owned company as the US-based retailer acquired 77% stake in the Indian e-commerce portal. At the moment, Walmart is in the process of acquiring necessary approvals from the Indian government for its Flipkart acquisition.
