Snapdeal, an Indian online marketplace similar to Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba, reached a deal to acquire FreeCharge, an Indian mobile transactions service.
The move makes Snapdeal a full mobile payment service provider. According to the company, 75 million recharges of mobile accounts take place per day in India, which has a mobile phone subscriber market of approximately 800 million.
The age of monolithic ecommerce platforms is over; it is now time to build an impactful digital commerce ecosystem in India that is multidimensional and inclusive, delivering well defined experiences to consumers, said Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive of Snapdeal, in a April 8 press release. .
In the release, Kunal Shah, co-founder and CEO of FreeCharge, added that, 85% of our transactions originate from mobile [and] these transactions have very high repeat customer behavior.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the companies said that FreeCharge will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary despite more integration with Snapdeal.
