Times Prime: A new gamut of elevating lifestyle for India’s youth

A glimpse at your smartphone today will tell you just how many subscription-based services have pervaded our lives. Be it booking a cab, shopping, ordering food or booking a table at a restaurant, there’s always an app for that. But at some point subscription fatigue has to become a real phenomenon right?

This is where Times Prime, the super App from Times Internet, comes into play. Rapidly rising as one of the most preferred lifestyle super-apps, Times Prime, offers an extensive range of benefits on a single platform, from shopping to entertainment and lifestyle, brands like Starbucks, Myntra, Uber, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, Google One, and many more. The idea is simple — instead of paying for different subscription services, pay for one -- and you can access all of these at once.

Celebrating Times Prime’s success
In line with digital transaction industry trends, about 70% of the Times Prime app's MAUs are male users, while the rest are female.

Times Prime members can access multiple apps and services with just one subscription thus delivering great ROI for members, without compromising on their experiences – precisely the reason why Times Prime has witnessed an exponential growth of 300% over the last 3 years..

According to Harshita Singh, Business Head, Times Prime, over 20,000 brand benefits are unlocked on the app daily with weekends seeing further spikes. The member base spans 18 Indian cities, with UPI (48%) being the primary mode of payment followed by credit cards (21%) and then wallets.

“To sustain this growth momentum, we will continue to launch exciting benefits and experiences that are valued by the transacting digital natives in the country. We also want to continually upgrade the app experience to better showcase the new categories and to enable discovery of the range of benefits” Singh told Business Insider India in an interview.

She added that while Times Prime’s users come primarily from metro cities in India, the app has been seeing increasing demand from all regions. Over-the-top (OTT) and news content are consumed often, along with services like booking cabs, restaurants, grooming and events. “When we were initially trying to get brands to buy into this concept it was hard! But there is a flywheel that exists in bundles- good brands attract more good brands. We also deliver immense value to our partners - scale, user quality, transactions, and that's why they choose to be a part of Times Prime year on year,” she said.

New categories, special benefits
The company is also planning to introduce new categories and add special benefits for subscribers, including top restaurants in India. A number of other OTT brands are also expected to be added, along with kids' brands, fashion, lifestyle, travel and other services.

Singh said that the app was originally created with digital natives in mind, but has since progressed to high frequency use cases, even if they aren’t digital. “Currently we have a strong presence in the Online-To-Offline (OTO) space as some of Times Prime benefits and experience can only be enjoyed offline. One good example can be our Grooming & Wellbeing benefits. Similar to this, our members book curated Times Prime experiences & events like Purple Carpet, The Gourmet Table, History & Food Walks, Photography walks, offers on tea & coffee and mixology sessions on the platform to enjoy them at some of the top venues with other members. We are seeing a strong demand for this category and have a number of exclusive properties in the pipeline,” she added.

The subscription business isn’t the company’s only revenue model either. “The beauty of a subscription offering is that people pay you for their own loyalty. As a platform that gives us a lot of leverage to be a launchpad for new subscriptions, D2C offerings, ticketed events, thus resulting in monetisation opportunities beyond the subscription paywall,” said Singh.

Further, Singh noted that with performance marketing getting more expensive to scale now, brands can take advantage of platforms like Times Prime. Super apps like these can deliver access to a larger audience at the same time, increasing short term returns on investment and widen the reach.

Disclaimer: Times Prime is part of Times Internet Limited and Business Insider is a part of Times Bridge, a company of Times Internet Limited.