Journey on the beginning of your career and association with Times Prime I started my career with McKinsey & Company and then founded an e-commerce startup. Chiclique, enabled NRI clientele to buy Indian designer wear. In 2014, I joined Times Internet and led a team that worked on business strategy, alliances, and monetization of digital properties. I also spearheaded TimesPrime – a strategic initiative in the digital subscription space that included multiple key businesses of Times Internet. Being associated with Times Prime since its early days, I was given the responsibility to head the company in 2019. It has been an incredible and fulfilling journey so far!
Why should anyone avail of the Times Prime Membership? Times Prime membership is for all digital natives who transact online – whether they are paying for content, booking a cab, shopping, or even investing. The super-membership includes subscriptions and benefits from some of the most loved brands in the country, covering every high-frequency usage category – entertainment, food, health and wellness, shopping, travel, and more. Through the ‘Purple Carpet’ experience, members also get access to movie screenings of Hollywood blockbusters at the best theaters across the country.
Which all brands are associated with TPM? To name a few – Disney+ Hotstar, Discovery Plus, and Sony Liv in OTT; TOI+ & ET Prime in the news; CureFit, Headspace, and Pharmeasy in health and wellness; Uber for cabs, Google One for cloud storage, Starbucks for coffee and EazyDiner for dining out. In a nutshell, the best brands come together to form the most comprehensive lifestyle membership in the country. We still start the day by asking ourselves what more we could offer our members! The long-term vision of TPM? Our vision is to make Times Prime the membership of choice for all digital natives in the country. Irrespective of what online service they use, they should be able to do it under the Times Prime umbrella.
What categories of services do you significant in? Whom do you think are the more prominent players in a similar domain? Times Prime enables access to 15+ premium subscriptions, and members can enjoy exclusive offers and discounts on 30+ amazing brands. Times Prime, owing to its unique blend of bundled offers and benefits is a product that is distinct from any other subscription offering in the existing market.
Is there something you would like to modify in the Indian ecosystem for the acceptance of your services? You can have multiple pointers to this.
Across the world, subscription models have proven to be highly effective and pivotal to business growth and are increasingly being adopted by a generation that is trying to reduce decision fatigue. Recent changes for recurring payments by the regulator have impacted all subscription businesses and more importantly consumer experience. These changes have also affected the adoption of digital payment and services at scale. I believe creating a policy framework conducive to the growth of digital payments and subscriptions is going to be the key in the coming years and that is imperative to acceptance of our services as well.
What happens once the tenure of any free service subscription is completed? Does it auto-renew or get deactivated? Our members get to use multiple subscriptions via the Times Prime app for a pre-decided period. We recently conducted a pilot, allowing our members to top up some of their subscriptions via the Times Prime umbrella, and the results have been very encouraging. Very soon,
Role of Times Prime in contributing to the industry? Times Prime is uniquely positioned to play an essential role in the subscription ecosystemfrom a consumer perspective as, the preferred membership that gives access to multiple subscriptions and benefits to users and from an industry perspective as a growth driver for subscriptions.
