Even as Flipkart is ahead of rival Amazon India, its global parent Amazon is confident of its prospects in India. And the indication for this is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ comments on the Indian marketplace. Economic Times reports that Bezos said last week that Amazon India is the country’s most popular web marketplace.
This seems to signal towards its intent to invest billions more into the country’s fast-growing ecommerce industry. “We’re grateful that customers are responding – Amazon.in is the most visited and the fastest growing marketplace in India. It’s still Day 1 for ecommerce in India, and I assure you that we’ll keep investing in technology and infrastructure, while working hard to invest of behalf of our customers and small and medium businesses in India,” Bezos said, as per the ET report.
According to Amazon’s first-quarter earnings, while it beat Wall Street expectations, losses in its international business increased nearly four times primarily because of the expenses in India. This is a clear indication that Amazon is indeed betting big on the Indian market.
Analysts questioned Amazons expenditure on India and what effect it may have on the company’s global profitability. “As far as the level of investment is concerned, it is certainly one of our important investment areas. We see a lot of potential for the country and our business there,” Brian T Olsavksy, CFO of Amazon responded.
Amazon’s global net sales rose 23% to $35.7 billion and net profit rose 41% to $724 million.
In India, it’s not just the ecommerce website. Amazon is also set to take on the online streaming market with the launch of Amazon Prime Video. It also most recently launched the Amazon Fire TV Stick in India, customized for the Indian market.
“Our India team is moving fast and delivering for customers and sellers. The team has increased Prime selection by 75% since launching the program nine months ago, increased fulfillment capacity for sellers by 26% already this year, announced 18 Indian original TV series, and just last week introduced a Fire TV Stick optimized for Indian customers with integrated voice search in English and Hindi,” Bezos said, as per the ET report.
Amazon has already committed $5 billion in investments to outrun rival Flipkart in India. The competition in the Indian market is getting tougher by the day. With the acquisition of eBay and a merger with Snapdeal in the pipeline, Flipkart is the big fish that Amazon needs to beat. However, there are other players like Shopclues, and Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall that are growing fast as well.
But with a range of offerings for the Indian market apart from being just an online shopping website, it remains to be seen if that gives this ecommerce giant an edge over the others in India.
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