ETtech Morning briefing: E-comm think tank meet, Paytm-TicketNew & more

1. Prabhu to Chair First Ecomm Think Tank Meet

What's the news?

Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will on Tuesday chair the first meeting of the think tank set up to frame a national policy on e-commerce.

“The think tank on the Framework for National Policy on E-commerce will seek to collectively deliberate on the challenges confronting India in the arena of digital economy with a view to developing recommendations for a comprehensive and overarching national policy on e-commerce,” department of commerce said in a statement on Monday.

What will be discussed?

Some of the issues that will be discussed by the think tank include physical and digital infrastructure, regulatory regime, taxation policy, data flows, server localisation, intellectual property rights protection, FDI, technology flows, responding to disruptions in industrial organisation, need for skill development and trade-related aspects. Read more.

2. Amazon's food retail plans in a soup?

What's the news?

Amazon’s plans to take its wholly-owned food retail business nationwide has hit a snag, with the government asking the US e-commerce giant to keep separate equipment, machinery and warehouses for its food products and not to mix or share anything with its marketplace business.

What is Amazon doing?

Amazon has now sought clarification from the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) whether it can share some of the warehouse staff, entry and exit doors at warehouses, barcode machines, trollies and other paraphernalia for its food-only venture with its flagship Amazon.in, a person familiar with the development said.

The Seattle-based online retailer has also sought the department’s permission whether it can maintain the “segregation virtually,” the person said. Read more.

3. Counterfeit products still a problem

What's the news?

Sale of counterfeit products still remains a significant problem for online shoppers across many e-commerce sites, with two recent surveys saying that over a third of the customers have faced this problem.

What do the numbers say?

A survey conducted by LocalCircles shows that 38% consumers out of 6,923 respondents have received a counterfeit product from an e-commerce site in the past one year. Among the leading e-commerce sites, consumers said they had received counterfeit products on Snapdeal at 12%, while 11% said Amazon and 6% cited Flipkart, the survey showed.

Another survey conducted by market research platform Velocity MR showed that every one out of three online shoppers has received fake products while shopping online in the past six months. The survey was conducted among 3,000 respondents. Read more.

4. Paytm in talks to acquire TicketNew

What's the news?

Digital payments and e-commerce company Paytm is in advanced talks to acquire Chennai-based online movie ticketing platform TicketNew, according to two persons familiar with the development, as it looks to fortify its entertainment ticketing business.

What does this mean for Paytm?

Paytm will acquire TicketNew from Alibaba Pictures at the price at which the latter had bought it, the persons cited earlier said, pegging the deal at anywhere between $30 million and $40 million. The acquisition is likely to be completed by next month, they said.

Paytm is vying with market leader BookMyShow for a larger share of the country’s online entertainment ticketing industry, and the acquisition of TicketNew would help it strengthen its position in the market. The payments firm is likely to invest some capital in TicketNew’s business to enable faster growth in the south Indian market. Read more.