With its microdrama foray, Flipkart isn’t really betting on becoming an entertainment company. It is testing whether the move can become another layer of its commerce and advertising engine
What if the next thing you buy on Flipkart
starts with a love story, a cliffhanger or a 90-second drama? The ecommerce giant is betting that entertainment could become the next leg of its commerce play.
Flipkart is now stepping into one of the hottest formats in digital entertainment: microdramas. At first glance, the move could look like classic trend-chasing, but Flipkart has been evaluating the category for nearly a year now.
According to sources close to the company, this is a calculated experiment and not a FOMO-driven bet, triggered by the explosion and adoption of short-story formats in the country.
Besides, there may be more to the opportunity than watch time. Microdramas offer something conventional ecommerce advertising struggles to do. They allow putting products inside the story rather than simply placing ads around it. Plus, they can be produced relatively cheaply and quickly.
In this quest, Flipkart plans to source content from Pinkvilla, the entertainment digital media platform it acquired last year in an undisclosed deal. The company has also held discussions with several standalone startups to license content.
The strategy may not be about building another streaming platform but testing whether entertainment can become another layer of its commerce ecosystem — one that can keep users engaged, create new advertising inventory and nudge consumers to make a purchase.
Interestingly, the microdrama foray isn’t Flipkart’s first stab at bringing entertainment into its commerce ecosystem. Flipkart has experimented with content for years, from launching Flipkart Video in 2019 and exploring a stake in Hotstar in 2018 to its recent Netflix partnership. Even Flipkart-owned Myntra launched Myntra Mohalla, a six-episode microdrama series, last year.
All things considered, can the format help the ecommerce giant crack something it has been chasing for years?
One reason microdramas make sense for Flipkart is that they offer a relatively low-cost way to experiment with content. Building a Netflix-style streaming business would require enormous investments in original programming, technology and customer acquisition.
Microdramas operate on a very different cost structure. Producing a microdrama series in India currently costs around ₹15 Lakh, including actor fees and other production expenses. For Flipkart, the category makes for an attractive test bed.
Licensing provides an even cheaper route. Existing microdrama platforms are licensing non-exclusive shows for around ₹2 Lakh to ₹5 Lakh per series for one year.
But cheap content is only half the battle. The bigger challenge is content supply. Flipkart is not a production house, and microdramas depend on a steady stream of new episodes and stories to keep audiences returning.
“Licensing can solve the initial library problem, but a long-term content strategy would require Flipkart to build relationships with creators, studios and production companies or eventually develop its own production engine,” an industry expert said.
That is where the experiment gets interesting. Flipkart does not need to spend billions to find out whether entertainment works for its users. It can afford to fail cheaply first and scale only if the data makes the case.
The more interesting part of Flipkart’s microdrama strategy may not be the content itself, but what happens inside the content.
According to an industry executive, Flipkart’s existing creator-led product content has not necessarily delivered the kind of engagement the company is looking for. Microdramas, however, offer a different proposition. Instead of an influencer simply talking about a product, brands can potentially become part of the storyline itself, opening up a new advertising format for Flipkart.
A fashion brand, for instance, could have its products woven into a series. A beauty company could build a storyline around a particular product category.
The economics could go beyond impressions. Flipkart already has the brands, consumer data and commerce infrastructure. If it can show that viewers who encounter products inside microdramas are more likely to discover or purchase them, the company could build a new bridge between brand marketing and commerce conversion.
This is where Amazon becomes a useful comparison. Amazon has combined commerce with Prime Video and other entertainment properties, giving advertisers more ways to reach consumers at different stages of the purchase journey.
Flipkart does not currently have an equivalent owned entertainment ecosystem. Its Netflix partnership gives Plus members access to streaming, but Netflix’s content remains someone else’s property.
Microdramas could give Flipkart a chance to experiment with content that it owns or controls more directly, and with content that can be designed with commerce in mind from day one, the executive quoted above said.
Flipkart’s microdrama experiment also comes as the company needs higher-margin revenue streams. Flipkart Internet’s operating revenue grew 14.4% to ₹20,493 Cr in FY25, but the marketplace arm still reported a ₹1,494 Cr net loss. Concurrently, its ad revenue jumped 27% YoY to ₹6,317 Cr in FY25, accounting for around 31% of operating revenue.
From a monetisation perspective, the microdrama foray comes at an interesting time. The format could give Flipkart another piece of advertising inventory to sell to brands already spending on its platform.
The opportunity becomes even more attractive if Flipkart can connect content exposure to actual shopping behaviour. An advertiser could potentially see not just how many people watched a branded microdrama, but whether they subsequently clicked on, searched for or bought the featured product.
For Flipkart, then, microdramas do not need to become a standalone entertainment business to justify the investment. If a roughly ₹15 Lakh production can create a branded-content property, generate engagement and eventually translate into measurable commerce, the economics could be compelling.
Microdramas are only the latest addition to Flipkart’s growing list of bets outside traditional ecommerce. Over the past few years, the company has moved into quick commerce, travel, entertainment partnerships and logistics, while now exploring food delivery and ticketing.
The common thread: find more reasons for an existing Flipkart customer to open the app, transact more frequently and generate more value for the platform.
But several of its newer businesses are yet to turn profitable. Ekart reported a ₹1,515 Cr net loss in FY25, while Cleartrip lost ₹651 Cr. This makes the pursuit of additional revenue pools increasingly important.
Flipkart already has thousands of brands selling on its platform and a growing advertising business. Microdramas could give these advertisers another format.
Currently, Flipkart’s bets may look scattered, but they point to a larger ambition: turning the commerce giant into a platform that gives users more reasons to stay, all while monetising each of those moments.
Be it microdrama, food delivery or ticketing, what Flipkart is trying to achieve will work only if all the moving parts align well. So, can Flipkart get all its verticals to work in tandem, or risk ending up with a portfolio of businesses rather than a true ecosystem?
[Edited by Shishir Parasher]
Source: Inc42
