A vote of confidence from Amazon:
Amazon to Invest $2 Billion in India
By Dhanya Ann Thoppil
Wall Street Journal
July 30, 2014 2:13 a.m. ET
BANGALORE, India— Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it will invest $2 billion to expand in India as competition for customers heats up in the fast-growing, South Asian e-commerce market.
"We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India," Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon said in a statement.
Investors have been pouring money into India's online retail market as e-commerce seems to at last be taking off in the country. Brokerage Nomura expects online retailing in India to grow 11-fold to $23 billion in the next four years.
Amazon's announcement comes just a day after its local rival Flipkart Internet Pvt. announced that it had raised $1 billion in fresh funding to expand.
Flipkart, India's largest online marketplace, was started by two former Amazon employees in 2007. On Tuesday Flipkart said its existing investors, including Tiger Global Management, had agreed to provide more funds along with new backers, including Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund GIC and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Amazon's investment comes less than a year after it launched Amazon India website to sell books, DVDs, electronic goods and fashion accessories. It entered India in 2012 through its price-comparison website Junglee.com.
More than 17 million products are sold on its website which acts as a distributor for thousands of small and medium-size businesses.
Amazon doesn't sell products directly to customer as Indian law bars foreign direct investment in multibrand retail companies.
To get around the restrictions Amazon allows merchants to use its website, storage facilities and logistics network to sell and deliver their products. Amazon makes money by charging those retailer fees for this service.
The company has two warehouses in Mumbai and Bangalore. On Monday, it said it plans to open five more warehouses.
online.wsj.com  |
