Alibaba Pictures Group, an entertainment unit of Alibaba group, purchased most of the stakes in ticketing firm TicketNew by spending Rs 120 Crore in a deal that was all-cash in nature. Four associates from Alibaba Pictures Group will connect the TicketNew’s board.
The 10-year-old bootstrapped firm, aimed on movie ticketing, was searching out for a premeditated investor. “We were a money-spinning firm, recording a 60% development. Venture Capital (VC) deal was not a choice for the development that we were looking forward at,” said CEO and Founder of TicketNew, Ramkumar Nammalvar. The current squad will carry on to run the processes after acquirement, too.
Having its headquarter in Chennai and other offices in the U.S. and the U.K., the firm will use its presence across the country to expand and add in multiplexes. “Before the investment, we had our presence in South India, restricted mostly to neighborhood theatres. We look after the online ticketing for those theatres that are not able to afford the infrastructure and IT of their larger counterparts. With this acquirement, we will have our presence in more than 330 cities and have joined with 1,200 theatres,” added Nammalvar.
The CEO further added that with the acquirement, TicketNew will also assist elevate the share of tickets obtained online. “In India, nearly 15% of the movie tickets are obtained online as compared to 80% in China,” he claimed.
Alibaba Pictures, which was previously named as ChinaVision Group of Media, was purchased by the parent company 3 years ago. In China, Alibaba Pictures controls its business of ticketing via its Tao Piao Piao subsidiary.
The online ticketing market is ruled by BookMyShow, which has in its realm made quite a name for ticketing for events and films. TicketNew in contrast presently tends to aim on movie ticketing that is pure-play in nature. The Chinese multinational company had previously spent in consumer Internet firms including Paytm, Snapdeal, and Ola. But this was not enough for the company and thus it took this step.
Well, Alibaba made a smart move by acquiring TicketNew thus making sure to maintain its profit chart going up.
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