According to regulatory filings, Amazon has invested $260 million in India in past one month. This is a part of the whole $5 billion investment plan for the Indian e-commerce market. In a recent meet with the PM Narendra Modi, Jeff Bezos had cleared his intentions to keep the aim high for India and his special interests for the Indian e-commerce market.
Up till now, Amazon India has been able to receive $2.3 billion of those promised investments from Jeff. Amazon India has been articulate on how it spends its investments. The main focus has clearly been the diversification of the product range. Moreover, it has also invested heavily on the logistics as well. Amazon India has also pumped up its investments in warehouses to strategically place itself as a competitor with all the required resources.
Amazon’s latest push for India’s share of e-commerce market is not isolated. It comes at a time when SoftBank invested $1.4 billion into Paytm. Moreover, it also invested $1.4 billion into India’s homegrown e-commerce startup Flipkart.
The negotiations of Flipkart and Snapdeal will turn this into a cornered fight between Flipkart and Amazon. That is if Snapdeal accepts Flipkart’s offer.
Amazon had lost its territory against Alibaba in China. It would not like to lose its foothold in India. Therefore it is beefing up its investments and strategically spending on various verticals related to e-commerce.
India is neutral territory for Amazon. As both the Chinese players and the Amazon will have an equal share of the market to compete upon. In China that was not the case for Amazon. However, a lot will depend on how Amazon will play its cards. With its deep pockets, it can surely withstand the assault from the east given the diverse and open market opportunities in India.
