Tale of 3 digital ecosystems in India?—?Jio vs Amazon vs Walmart-Flipkart (Part -4)

In this 4th and final part of the series, I will be comparing these 4 digital ecosystems across Media/Content/Entertainment and Others/Misc sectors followed by a summary across all the sectors:

Jumping directly onto the overview through the table below:

8) Media / Content / Entertainment –

This sector is spread across various mediums and channels of distribution and estimated to grow at CAGR of 13.5% during FY19-FY24 period with projected market size of $44 billion by 2024. For the ease, I have divided this sector into 6 segments namely i) Gaming ii) Music iii) Books & Magazine iv) News Content v) Entertainment vi) Events & Movies.

i) Gaming – Indian Gaming market was pegged at $1 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow to $2.6 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 43%. In this segment, Jio has JioGames which is its indigenous development along with some other properties like Riot games, Gameloft and FB Games. Amazon has an in-app Fun Games and similarly Flipkart, Paytm and Snapdeal have in app games section through which they are getting into gaming.

ii) Music – Here Jio rules the roost with their app music Jio Saavn(acquisition of Saavn), as well as Google’s Youtube Music and Play Music. Amazon had also launched Amazon music which is decently popular but relatively in early days. There is an opportunity for Flipkart & Softbank ecosystem to build/acquire someone in this space.

iii) Books & Magazine – Here again, Jio leads with multiple properties across online as well as offline channels like Jio News, Jio Mags, Network 18 print media and to add to it is Google’s play books and podcasts. Amazon too has some reasonable presence in the digital format through Kindle and Audible. Apart from these, they have also invested in known publisher Westland Books. Flipkart & Softbank ecosystem do not have any presence here currently.

iv) News Content - Jio rules this space hands down with numerous properties across websites and TV channels like Jio TV, Jio TV+, Jio News, Network18 News, MoneyControl, First Post, CNBC, etc as well as Google News. Amazon, Flipkart and Softbank ecosystem have hardly anything here and have a huge scope to acquire some startups here.

v) Entertainment – With numerous properties across DTH and Internet/App ecosystem, Jio is a clear leader in this segment. They have Network18 channels which include Colors, MTV, Viacom, etc. They have presence in VOOT, AltBalaji and Eros as well as apps like JioTV and Jio Cinema. Apart from these, through their partnership with Facebook, they have Facebook Watch & Instagram TV and with Google they have Youtube Go & Play Movies. Amazon has Prime Video which is gaining some traction but still early days for them. Flipkart and Softbank ecosystem have very miniscule presence currently in this segment and there is a reasonable scope for them to change that.

vi) Events & Movies - In this segment, Reliance Jio has a stake in market leader Bookmyshow platform whereas Paytm has acquired Insider platform. Amazon and Flipkart ecosystem doesn't have much here there is an opportunity to acquire some startup in this space.

My Take

I believe Jio ecosystem will continue to enjoy the leadership position in most of the segments in the Media & entertainment/content space with some competition from Amazon. However, the target audience for both Jio and Amazon ecosystems is quite different and hence both will be able to build good business for themselves. Flipkart & Softbank ecosystem don’t seem to be keen on this space at the moment and I believe they might not focus on it in the near future also.

9) Others / Miscellaneous –

This sector includes all the various ventures which all these 4 ecosystems are present in which have not been covered in the above 8 sectors discussed before. These includes segments like Hardware, cloud services, IOT, Travel & Accommodation, Consumer brands and many more.

Jio has good presence across multiple segments with companies like Jio Switch, Jio Cloud, Jio Security, Jio Phones, etc. to name a few. Along with their partners Google and Microsoft, this segment expands to different levels with presence ranging from Microsoft Azure to Google Maps. The combined Jio ecosystem expanse is just very wide to cover in this article.

Coming to Amazon, they have Amazon Web Services(AWS) which is the cash cow for the company and many new age ventures are their customers. They also have Amazon Drive for cloud data storage. Flipkart ecosystem has invested in many startups like Qikpod, Nestaway, ZAPR, Ninjacart, etc. whereas Softbank ecosystem has invested in accommodation space unicorn Oyo, spectacles giant Lenskart and Quickfixcars(a Policybazaar subsidiary).

This is my brief on how these 4 ecosystems stack up against each other in the Media/Content/Entertainment and Others/Misc sectors. Also, this is the last article in this series of Tale of 3 digital ecosystems in India — Jio vs Amazon vs Walmart-Flipkart. Please reach out to me if you are building on any of the opportunities outlined above or you have thoughts on what other opportunities could be created. Also, happy to understand your thoughts on how do you think about this comparison.

You can read the previous 3 articles here – Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Disclaimer — All the views/analysis in the article above are my personal views and does not indicate views of the firm I work with.

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