Alibaba might acquire an Indian site for online movie ticket booking

Alibaba, the Chinese-American e-commerce company, is considering the acquisition of an online movie booking site in India, to get a hold of India's retail entertainment business.

The Jack Ma-founded company holds major shares in India’s popular digital payment app Paytm.

Also read: Alibaba all set to take B2B in India to a whole new level, to aid sellers on its platform

"Within the group, there is already a momentum like the Paytm investment," He Xiaopeng, president of mobile business at Alibaba, told ET. "We are also going to have some investment in online movie tickets booking sites."

He added that they are looking for sites similar to BookMyShow, a major player in the industry.

Also read: Paytm is looking to make its next billion dollars in travelling and movie ticketing business

As per recent reports, Alibaba Pictures, the movie and TV content arm of Alibaba group, was in talks for buying a major stake in Orbgen Technologies, the owner of platform TicketNew.

The reason why Alibaba is attracted to India is that even though there is a global slowdown, the number of mobile phone and internet users in India is continuously growing.

The entry of Reliance Jio in the telecom sector is being seen as a good sign by Alibaba, since the low data tariffs offered by Jio would only mean a rise in the number of internet users.

(Image source: CNBC)