Alibaba enters Indian internet space with investment in ticketing

NEW DELHI: The Chinese infotainment giant Alibaba Group’s entertainment arm Alibaba Pictures Group Limited has invested Rs 1.2 billion to acquire a majority stake in Chennai-based online ticketing platform TicketNew.

This will enable TicketNew to strengthen its position and expand its services across India.

This is Alibaba Pictures’s first acquisition outside China in internet ticketing industry.

TicketNews presently has around 3,000 screens in its network across India with an average ticket booking history of 100.000 per day, it is learnt.
With the partnership in place, the company hopes to take its network to cover 300,000 in the next eight months, the source added.

TicketNew Founder Ramkumar Nammalvar while TicketNew has a strong base in the South, especially in the neighbourhood theatres in tier-II and tier-III cities, it does not have much presence beyond that.

Nammalvar said the company wanted to reach wider audience and expand to other cities, which requires substantial financial and technological resources.