Revenue Streams: How India's Top Companies Actually Make Money | Quick ₹eads

by Karnivesh | 23 December, 2025

When you walk into a Reliance Fresh store in Mumbai, you see groceries. When you open the Flipkart app, you see smartphones and fashion. When you visit an HDFC Bank branch, you see loan officers. When you ride a Hero MotoCorp motorcycle, you feel the engine.

But if you look at their financial statements, you discover something shocking: what you see is not what makes them money.

India's biggest companies have perfected the art of building complex revenue engines where the "face" of the business the part you interact with is often a low-margin loss leader. The real profit comes from an invisible second business stacked beneath it.

This is the story of how India's corporate titans actually generate their billions.

1. Reliance Industries: The Refinery Running a Retail Experiment

Reliance Industries is India's largest company by revenue, bringing in roughly ₹3.2 lakh crore annually as of FY2024-25. But the story of how that money is made reveals a company very different from what most Indians believe.​

When you walk into Reliance Fresh or Reliance Trends, you're entering what looks like a retail business. The store has groceries, clothes, and products. It looks like a Walmart or Carrefour.

But the numbers tell a different story.

The Revenue Breakdown:​

• Refining & Petrochemicals: ₹1,64,613 Crore (51.4% of revenue)

• Retail (Fresh, Trends, AJIO): ₹88,637 Crore (27.6% of revenue)

• Telecom (Jio): ₹44,209 Crore (13.8% of revenue)

• Oil & Gas Exploration: ₹6,440 Crore (2.0% of revenue)

Retail seems massive nearly 28% of revenue. But here's the trick: retail operates on razor-thin margins of around 5%, meaning for every ₹100 in sales, Reliance keeps just ₹5.​

The real profit machine is Refining and Petrochemicals. This segment generates about 51% of revenue, and because it's an oil refinery and chemicals business with scale, it operates at margins around 15-20%. That means every ₹100 in sales generates ₹15-20 in profit.​

The Strategic Reality:Reliance Fresh and Reliance Trends aren't profit centers they're market penetration tools. By offering groceries at competitive prices, Reliance Fresh captures customer wallet share and builds loyalty. Meanwhile, the refinery and petrochemicals business silently funds the entire operation and generates the real cash.

It's a masterclass in bundling: a low-margin retail business uses the profits from a high-margin commodity business to subsidize customer acquisition.

2. TCS: The Maintenance Company Hiding a Consulting Powerhouse

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is India's second-largest company by market cap. Most Indians know TCS as an "IT services company" they think of software developers writing code and maintaining systems for global corporations.

That's technically true. But it's only half the story.

The Revenue Geography:​

• Americas: 45% of revenue

• Europe: 22% of revenue

• Asia Pacific (including India): 33% of revenue

• India specifically: Just 8.9% of revenue (but growing at 52% year-on-year)

TCS makes revenue from two very different types of work:

1. Maintenance & Development: This is repetitive, standardized work maintaining existing software, running IT operations for clients, basic coding. Profit margin: ~18%.​

2. Consulting Services: This is high-value advisory work helping companies digitally transform, building new strategies, implementing complex systems. Profit margin: ~22%.​

Here's the beautiful part: Most of TCS's revenue ($27+ billion) comes from maintenance work. But TCS uses that stable, recurring revenue to fund a smaller consulting practice that generates disproportionate profit.

The maintenance business is the "boring" foundation; the consulting business is the "exciting" profit engine. And in FY2024-25, TCS's success in India's public sector (growing at 52% year-on-year) is proof that they're repositioning toward higher-margin consulting work.​

3. HDFC Bank: The Retail Machine Powered by Wholesale Banking

Walk into any HDFC Bank branch, and you see retail banking: a young professional opening a savings account, a homebuyer applying for a mortgage, a student getting an education loan.

HDFC Bank's financial statements tell a more complex story.

The Revenue Breakdown:​

• Retail Banking (Mortgages, Personal Loans, Credit Cards): ~82% of income from operations

• Wholesale Banking (Corporate Loans, Trade Finance, Investment Banking): ~55% of income from operations

Wait those add up to more than 100%. That's because of double-counting and fee structures. Let us explain the real breakdown:

Revenue Sources:

• Interest from Retail Loans: ~69% of operational revenue

• Interest from Wholesale Loans: ~25% of operational revenue

• Fees & Commissions: ~6-8% of operational revenue

The Profit Reality:

• Retail Loans (home loans, personal loans): These are high-volume, low-margin products. A home loan at 6.5% yields lower returns because of lower default risk. Profit margin on retail: ~2-3%.

• Wholesale Banking (corporate loans, investment banking): These are lower-volume but higher-margin products. A corporate client paying 7.5% for a ₹100 crore loan, plus fees for advisory services, generates meaningful profit. Profit margin on wholesale: ~4-5%.

The retail consumer thinks HDFC Bank exists to give them a home loan at 6.5%. In reality, HDFC Bank exists to capture that retail customer, use their deposits as cheap funding, and then deploy that capital at higher rates to corporations.

The retail business is the customer acquisition channel; wholesale banking is the profit engine.

4. Flipkart: The Loss Leader Building a ₹1 Billion Advertising Machine

Flipkart's story is perhaps the most transparent example of how Indian companies hide their real business model.

When you shop on Flipkart, you see product prices. A phone for ₹20,000. A shirt for ₹1,000. You believe Flipkart makes money by taking a commission on these sales.

Technically, yes. Realistically, no.

The Revenue Breakdown:​

• Marketplace Commission: ~65% of revenue

• Advertising & Services: ~35% of revenue

But here's the problem: Flipkart's commission on most categories is 2-15%. On a ₹100 product, it keeps ₹2-15. That's so thin that if there are any operational costs (server, support staff), Flipkart barely breaks even on the transaction itself.​

The real money is in advertising.

When a seller lists a product on Flipkart, Flipkart can make it visible or invisible. Want your product on the first page of search results? That's an advertising fee. Want a promotional spot during peak hours? Advertising fee. Want your product highlighted as "Best Seller"? Advertising fee.

The margins on advertising are brutal: Flipkart keeps roughly 80-90% of advertising revenue as profit. A seller paying ₹10,000 for sponsored ads generates ₹8,000-9,000 in pure profit for Flipkart.​

This is why Flipkart isn't primarily a retail company it's an advertising platform disguised as a marketplace. The cheap goods are the bait. The seller fees and advertising are the trap.

5. Hero MotoCorp: The Motorcycle Dealer Running a Finance Business

Walk into a Hero MotoCorp showroom, and you see motorcycles and scooters. The dealer will quote you a price—say, ₹65,000 for a motorcycle.

What you don't see is the finance desk in the corner, where Hero MotoCorp's real profit is being generated.

The Revenue Breakdown:​

• Two-Wheeler Sales (Motorcycles & Scooters): ~92% of revenue

• Finance & Other Services: ~8% of revenue

In Q1 FY2024-25, Hero sold 15.35 lakh units, generating ₹10,144 crore in revenue. On the surface, this looks like a hardware business.​

But the profit story is different.

Motorcycle Sales Margins: Hero MotoCorp's net profit margin on vehicle sales is roughly 5-6%. On a ₹65,000 motorcycle, Hero keeps about ₹3,000-3,500.

Finance Services Margins: Hero MotoCorp owns a finance subsidiary (Hero FinCorp) that finances the purchase of motorcycles. If a customer pays ₹65,000 via Hero's finance partner at 12% annual interest, Hero Finance earns 25-30% profit margins on that interest income.​

Here's the brilliant part: 70-80% of Hero customers buy their motorcycles via finance. That means Hero MotoCorp makes ₹3,000 on the vehicle sale and ₹8,000-10,000 in finance profits. The total profit per customer isn't ₹3,000 it's ₹11,000-13,000.

The motorcycle is the sales channel; the finance product is the profit engine.

The Pattern: Revenue vs. Reality

Let us break this down across all five Indian giants:

Company	What You See (Visible)	What Makes Real Money (Hidden)	Margin Difference
Reliance	Retail stores (Fresh, Trends)	Refining & Petrochemicals	5% → 15%
TCS	Maintenance & Support Services	Consulting & Advisory	18% → 22%
HDFC Bank	Retail Loans (Mortgages)	Wholesale Banking & Deposits	2-3% → 4-5%
Flipkart	E-commerce Marketplace	Advertising to Sellers	2-15% → 80%
Hero MotoCorp	Motorcycle Sales	Finance Services	5% → 25%+

India's Fortune: Revenue Breakdown of Major Indian Conglomerates (FY2024-2025)

The Profit Illusion: Visible Business vs. Hidden Profit Drivers in Indian Companies

Why Does India Keep Building These Models?

This pattern isn't accidental. It's a deliberate strategy that works in the Indian context:

1. Customer Acquisition: Low-margin visible products act as hooks. A ₹65,000 motorcycle gets you in the door. An HDFC mortgage gets you a customer for life. Once captured, the customer becomes valuable for higher-margin services.

2. Scale First, Profits Later: In a competitive market, companies prioritize market share over short-term profitability. The visible business captures share; the hidden business generates profits once share is established.

3. Regulatory Arbitrage: Some products (like mortgages) are heavily regulated or competitive, so margins are thin. Other products (like advertising or finance) operate in less transparent markets, allowing for higher margins.

4. Bundle Lock-in: By tying high-margin products to low-margin ones, companies create customer stickiness. Hero knows that if you buy a ₹65,000 motorcycle on their financing, you're likely to do future business with them.

The Lesson for Investors and Consumers

If you're investing in Indian companies, never just look at headline revenue. Ask yourself:

• What is the real profit center? Revenue can be misleading. Look at where margin expansion is happening.

• What is the low-margin business? That's often the customer acquisition tool, not the actual business.

• What would collapse if one segment disappeared? That's the critical business.

If you're a consumer, understand that the low prices you're getting the ₹1,999 monthly Jio plan, the ₹65,000 Hero motorcycle, the cheap Flipkart prices aren't subsidized from charity. They're subsidized from hidden profits elsewhere in the system.

The model works because companies are essentially playing a long game: lose money on the visible business, capture customers, and make money on the invisible one.

India's corporate titans have mastered this art. They show you one number, bank on another, and build empires on the difference.

Understanding that difference is the difference between seeing India Inc. clearly and seeing only what they want you to see.