Updated: Times Internet Limited (TIL)*, the digital arm of The Times Group, has partnered with HDFC Bank, to launch a co-branded credit card that will provide customers with discounts on dining & movies.
While the partnership period or the financial details of the partnership were not disclosed, the company stated that the card is currently available in eight cities, namely Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, and Chandigarh.
Archana Vohra, Vice President and Business Head at TIL, told MediaNama that they plan to extend this initiative to other parts of the country, depending upon the response in these eight cities. However, she didn’t disclose any specific timeline for this rollout.
What it will offer
The credit card will be available in two variants – Titanium and Platinum and users get reward points depending on the card they use and where they spend and they can redeem this as air miles and catalog based redemption options. Platinum card is a premium variant and provides cardholders to higher reward points as compared to Titanium card.
Vohra claimed that the company has tied up with significant number of movie outlets & dinning, among others to offer discounts on the card. These include Fun cinemas, Cinemax, Movietime, Cinepolis, among others. However, its worth noting that the company has not partnered with any single screen movie theaters.
Vohra also mentioned that exclusive welcome offers include Dominoes, Jawed Habib, Shaimak Davar Dance Academy, Ferns and Petals, Indiatimes Shopping, NEXT, Cheemo Leather Boutique, and Gini and Johnny. Also, she added that there will be a lot of synergies between the card and the company’s properties in the future. Interestingly though, TIL does not offer any benefits on its deal site Timesdeal right now.
QR Code: The card also comes with a QR code which one can scan on their smartphones to reach www.hdfcbank.timescard.com, where customers can view the latest offers and also register for the Card. While this approach to direct users to a single location to browse through all discounts makes sense, we wonder how many people will actually use their smartphones to scan a QR Code. In our opinion, the QR Code technology has a ‘one time charm’ where users make use of the app and forget later on. It would be interesting if TIL releases a report in future on the number of leads it received from QR Code on its homepage.
Other Times Internet developments
In February 2013, the company had launched a new mobile app called GreetZAP, that allows users to send mobile greetings. The app is currently available on Android as a free download and on WAP platform with an iOS version coming the next few weeks.
Earlier this year, Times Internet had launched mobile apps for its music streaming service Gaana.com, covering all the major mobile platforms including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Java. The app allows users to browse through curated playlists, search for individual songs, stream and play songs, add them to custom playlists, create radio stations featuring similar music, and listen to their friends’ favorite music. Times Internet claims that Gaana app has registered 400,000 downloads across all smartphone platforms till now, up from 200,000 downloads reported earlier this month, however the company hasn’t disclosed any platform-wise break down.
In January, TIL had also inked a strategic partnership with Gawker Media (Gawker), the independently owned & operated American online media company that has eight websites with over 40 million unique visitors, worldwide. Through this partnership, Times Internet was expected to manage and drive local Indian destinations for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com, Gawker Media’s technology focused sites.
* Disclosure: Times Internet is an advertiser with Medianama
