Concise insights on global finance.
-----------------------------------------------
IN THE BAG. Ambitious digital startups typically burn oodles of cash trying to win consumers. India’s storied Tata conglomerate has a different problem. It has been looking to stitch together its customer-facing offerings spanning tea and salt at Tata Consumer Products (TACN.NS) , luxurious Taj resorts at Indian Hotels (IHTL.NS) , electric vehicles at Tata Motors (TAMO.NS) and gold, watches and spectacles at Titan (TITN.NS) . The group’s purchase read more of one of the country’s biggest online grocers suggests how it plans to link everything into a super-app .
Tata might have spent about $1 billion on BigBasket, according to Indian media. The Alibaba-backed (9988.HK) startup is potentially the most important feature in the group’s yet to be launched all-in-one app that aims to replicate the reach of Asian giants like Tencent-owned (0700.HK) WeChat or Singapore’s Grab. Groceries remain the holy grail of many e-commerce outfits because consumers purchase such items the most frequently. Tata’s app will be further anchored by other recent acquisitions including e-pharmacy 1MG. For now, the Indian group has bagged a top item. (By Una Galani)
On Twitter https://twitter.com/breakingviews
Earlier in Capital Calls:
Klarna $50 bln value beats richly priced rivals read more
Third Point activist flips script on Dan Loeb read more
German fashion IPO is surprisingly reasonable read more
Lenovo’s battery is running low read more
Airbus opens the short-haul throttle read more
Breakingviews
Reuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.
Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com . All opinions expressed are those of the authors.