Indian Express exploring e-commerce to monetise its vast audience

New Delhi: Going beyond advertising and subscription revenue, Indian Express is planning to expand into India’s $70 billion e-commerce industry, intending to capture a piece of the e-retail advertising market and content-to-commerce opportunities.

Sanjay Sidhwani, CEO of Indian Express Digital Media, revealed to BestMediaInfo.com that the platform is carefully observing the development of the ONDC platform, waiting for it to mature, and evaluating how Indian Express can enter into the e-commerce space without holding any inventories.

For the record, earlier in May, Jagran New Media, the digital arm of Jagran Prakashan, joined forces with the ONDC Network to launch Khojle.com, its own e-commerce platform.

Sidhwani said, “The sustainability of news media now relies on having multiple revenue streams. Advertising is everywhere, from bank applications to e-commerce sites. Media organisations need to explore other revenue opportunities beyond traditional subscriptions and advertising. E-commerce, especially with platforms like ONDC, becomes a natural choice.” 

He commented further, “ONDC fragments the e-commerce infrastructure, allowing media organisations to act as shopfronts without worrying about delivery or stocking. This model is easy to implement due to high footfalls, similar to a store in a mall that runs ads and sells products without stocking them.”

In an earlier interview with BestMediaInfo.com, T Koshy, MD and CEO of ONDC, mentioned that the platform is in talks with more publishers to ride the e-commerce wave. 

This occurs amidst a challenging period for news media platforms, which are grappling with retaining their advertising revenues as tech giants such as Google and Meta continue to dominate the digital adex in India. 

Digital news media platforms are already in a battle with tech giant Google, advocating for a fair share of ad revenue and proper content monetisation. 

Compounding their challenges are e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, which are securing a significant portion of the Indian digital advertising expenditure (adex). During the last fiscal year itself, Amazon and Flipkart alone amassed more than Rs 10,000 crore in ad revenue.  

In 2023, e-retail platform advertising commanded 22.49% of the overall digital media spend, amounting to Rs 9,149 crore, according to a dentsu report on Indian adex. 

Along with that, a big chunk of brands’ digital advertising spend is also going to content-to-commerce across social media, short video apps, and e-commerce platforms. 

News platforms partnering with ONDC and venturing into e-commerce and content-to-commerce will enable them to claim a portion of the expanding e-retail advertising expenditure (adex) pie.