Amazon India Debuts Free In-App Video Streaming To Rival Flipkart Videos

Amazon India Debuts Free In-App Video Streaming

Amazon has put a video player called miniTV inside its Android shopping app for customers in India, and it will soon extend the service to its iOS app and web apps, according to a company blog post.

Amazon India described the offering in the post as providing “trendy and fresh videos for free — no paid subscription required.” Within the months, it will add additional “exclusive” content.

“miniTV has professionally-created and curated content across web series, comedy shows, tech news, food, beauty, fashion and more,” the post stated. “The list includes leading studios, such as TVF, Pocket Aces and leading comedians — Ashish Chanchlani, Amit Bhadana, Round2Hell, Harsh Beniwal, Shruti Arjun Anand, Elvish Yadav, Prajakta Koli, Swagger Sharma, Aakash Gupta and Nishant Tanwar.”

Amazon also offers Prime Video in India — in English and also, according to the post, in nine languages spoken in India. Unlike Prime Video, miniTV doesn’t require a separate app for users of smart devices. Prime Video, however, can be streamed to separate screens, but miniTV can’t.

In addition to shopping and enjoying free entertainment, users of Amazon mobile apps also can make payments, the post stated.

The latest offering, available only in India, comes about a month after the company stated it is “on track” to meet its public forecast for growth in the country, PYMNTS reported.

“As we continue to work with small and medium businesses in our ecosystem, we remain committed to bringing new tools, technology and innovation that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian businesses, boost exports from the country, help create jobs at scale and contribute to the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” Global Senior Vice President and Country Head of Amazon India Amit Agarwal said in a prepared statement in April. “As the world around us is more digital than ever with the internet and technology becoming an integral part of our lives, we see a massive opportunity to empower millions of SMBs across the country and remain committed for Amazon to be a catalyst for such accelerated progress.”

The expression “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” in Hindi has been used in political circles to mean, in English, “a self-reliant India.”