Paytm Entertainment Receives $8.95 Mn backing from parent entity.

One 97 Communications, the parent company of digital payments giant Paytm, has invested $8.95 Mn (INR 61 Cr) into Paytm Entertainment, its wholly owned subsidiary, said the company in a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Paytm Entertainment is into ticket booking for movies and other entertainment channels. Paytm had acquired Chennai-based online ticketing platform Ticket New earlier this year for ramping up its operations in the ticket booking business. 

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.It is also considered as the crucial time for Paytm which is targeting 100 million movie and event tickets sale in 2018.

After entering the ticketing segment back in March 2016 in partnership with PVR, Paytm has scaled its ticketing business to 660 cities.In July 2017, it acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, an events ticketing platform, to tap into the rapidly growing live entertainment space in India. A report by The Ken suggested that Paytm took a majority stake in Insider.in for $5.42 Mn (INR 35 Cr).

Apart from acquisitions, Paytm has also been eyeing loyalty products to lure customers. In April, Paytm introduced movie ticket loyalty program called Movie Pass, which allows paying subscribers to watch movies at a discounted rate.Movie Pass was one the earliest adoptions by Paytm in loyalty program segments. On the other hand, BookMyShow hasn’t introduced any such loyalty program.

In February, the company claimed to have achieved 5x growth in online ticket sales in 2017 by selling 52 Mn movie and events tickets. Madhur Deora, chief financial officer and senior vice-president, Paytm, had claimed that the company currently contributes 25%-30% towards the opening weekend box office collection of major movies.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 19-year-old company BookMyShow.