If one follows the Bollywood stars about investments, one can
certainly make a fortune. They used to invest heavily in real-estate and gold.
With growth in financial markets, they must have made good bounty in stock
markets. They certainly made their active presence felt in all forms of media
and especially digital media. This must have convinced them about the power of
digital world and prompted them to invest in e-commerce.
Here are a few e-commerce ventures in which bollywood stars have
invested:
Yatra.com : This is a travel portal,
which allows booking of flights, hotels, holidays and train tickets. Salman
Khan has picked up stake in this venture and started endorsing the site through
TV commercials. This Dabaang star can certainly make a dent in competitors
market share.
Babyoye.com : This is one of the
first and popular online store selling baby products. Karishma Kapoor has not
only invested but also acting as brand ambassador in this venture. I am sure
her 'karishma' must be making a difference to sales of this fast-growing company.
Celebwears.com : Did you ever
come out of a movie and felt that you should own one of those apparel or
accessories worn by the stars? Check out celebwears.com. Vatsal Seth &
Sohail Khan started this venture to satiate the needs / desire of all the
Bollywood fans across the globe. The number of movies getting released does not
seem to match what is offered through this site.
Herstyle.in : An online e-tailing
store selling apparel, accessories and lingerie. Neha Dhupia has invested in
this venture and endorsing the site. I guess this adventure of hers would not
go down like her movies.
Ticketplease.com : This site
sells movie tickets online. An attempt is made to engage the viewers with
contests, loyalty and news but the currency is not maintained. Ajay Devgan and
Sanjay Dutt, who invested in this venture must have considered it as a
non-performing asset.
Grouphomebuyers.com : An
initiative to allow groupbuying of houses as the name suggests. Shilpa Shetty has a stake in this
venture and talks about sales of 3-digit crore rupees. I have my own doubts
about these numbers after looking at what is offered on the site.
I am sure the movie stars of tollywood, kollywood, sandalwood and
others must be following a similar trend in their regions. With the stars
bringing their personal image and following to the table, e-commerce and
Bollywood would form a perfect blend to make a far-and-wide impact.
Apparently, this trend of investing in e-commerce ventures is going
to be followed by cricketers and politicians :-)
What do you think?