In its latest announcement, Snapdeal has revealed to have acquired Freecharge, a mobile transactions platform. However, there is no word on the financial terms related to this acquisition.
FreeCharge is a mobile commerce platform wherein users can pay their mobile, DTH and utility payments across major operators. It will continue to function as an independent platform. With this acquisition, Snapdeal will be able to offer a wide range of products and services such as mobile recharge, financial services and utility payments.
Both companies will work together to offer seamless shopping experience to customers across both the platforms. “FreeCharge will continue to function as an independent platform and all aspects of FreeCharge’s shopping experience will remain intact. The companies will collaborate to offer a seamless shopping experience to customers across both the platforms offering an even wider range of products and services,” Snapchat wrote in its official blog.
“With this acquisition, Snapdeal becomes the largest mobile commerce company in India offering the widest range of products and services, including financial services, mobile recharge and utility payments with an exponentially growing user base of over 40 million,” the blog adds.
Speaking about the announcement, Kunal Shah, Co-Founder & CEO, FreeCharge said, “FreeCharge is at the forefront of the mobile commerce revolution which is taking place in India right now. We have been ahead of the curve and as a result, 85% of our transactions originate from mobile, these transactions have very high repeat customer behavior. The partnership with Snapdeal comes at the right time, I foresee this as an opportunity to accelerate our road map in India and reach out to millions of users across the country. As a brand, Snapdeal has a massive recall and we are very excited to be a part of the team that is creating the biggest digital ecosystem of the country.”
Snapdeal, backed by SoftBank Corp, competes with Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc’s India unit in the country’s online shopping market, which is expected to be worth $102 billion by 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.
Easy availability of smartphones and cheap data plans have resulted in most of those transactions to be made via apps, where consumers use their mobile phones for everything from buying clothes to booking movie tickets.
Freecharge allows users to top up amounts on their mobile phone or internet connections and get coupons as reward for using its service.
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