Flipkart and Amazon are the two dominant forces in the Indian e-commerce industry, but Amazon’s diverse portfolio of services, especially the Prime Video platform, gives Amazon a slight edge over Flipkart. Flipkart is now planning to invest in videos in order to challenge Amazon on yet another front after e-commerce.
In an interview with the EconomicTimes, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy revealed that the company will launch a video platform and collaborate with other companies to produce video content such as movies.
“At a high level, I can say we will launch video. The company has focused on quality products made affordable across private label and fintech solutions. At the core… the focus will not change from that. So will we get into producing and directing movies on our own? The answer is no. We will partner”, Krishnamurthy said
Flipkart’s video offering could be offered as a perk for the Flipkart Plus loyalty program, which is similar to what Amazon does with its umbrella Amazon Prime subscription program.
In another interaction with Mint, the Flipkart chief hinted that the company might partner with a video content company to produce the video content and plans to offer them as part of the Flipkart Plus package. “It’s a very unique loyalty programme and the uniqueness of the loyalty programme hasn’t fully played out yet. If the Indian customer wants content as part of that, then we will offer content to the Indian customer as part of the loyalty programme”, Krishnamurthy was quoted as saying.
However, he did not rule out the possibility that Flipkart might also build a video content platform on its own from scratch. Hotstar might be the prime target for Flipkart when it comes to implementing the company’s partnership-based video content strategy. Flipkart was reportedly looking to buy a stake in Hotstar and launched the ‘Shopper Audience Network’ in collaboration with Hotstar to serve shopping ads to viewers.
Details about Flipkart’s plans for offering video content are scarce right now, but it is certain that Flipkart is gearing up to challenge Amazon when it comes to India’s booming video streaming market.
