Walmart takes on Amazon with free streaming

Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart plans to start a free Indian video streaming service in coming months, escalating a fight with Amazon by borrowing its rivals' tactics.

India’s biggest online retailer plans to roll out video streaming for members of its Flipkart Plus loyalty program by September ahead of the peak Diwali shopping season, people familiar with its plans said. The service is currently in beta mode, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal strategy.

Flipkart Online Services is getting into a red-hot market but playing catch-up by taking a page from Amazon’s playbook. The US retailer’s Prime Video service had for years proven instrumental in retaining shoppers and attracting new ones. A streaming offering could help level the playing field with Amazon, which for years has devised award-winning shows such as The Marvelous Mrs Maisel for global audiences.

Flipkart won’t initially produce originals -- a route that’s proven costly for online platforms including Netflix -- and instead license content from the likes of Walt Disney Co. and local studios such as Balaji Telefilms, the people said. In-house content could come later, they added. The news was reported earlier on Monday by Money Control.

In a departure from Amazon Prime, Flipkart Plus video-streaming will come free just like its no-subscription fee loyalty program. Flipkart shoppers can become members by amassing 300 “super coins,” at a rate of 2 for every Rs 100spent on its platform.

Users can exchange those tokens for items from flight tickets and food delivery to car rentals and music streaming subscriptions. And, again unlike its rival, the Indian company doesn’t automatically offer deals on shipping, with free delivery limited to only very few products.