Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday that Amazon would invest an additional $3 billion in India, taking the company’s committed investment in the country to $5 billion.
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The ramped up investment comes as Amazon faces competition in India from local rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal. “Our Amazon.com team is surpassing even our most ambitious planned milestones”.
After struggling for market share in China – the world’s most populous country and the second-largest economy – e-commerce giant Amazon Inc.is trying to make sure it fares better in India – now the world’s second-most populous country, projected by the United Nations to overtake China by 2022, and the ninth-largest economy in 2014, according to the World Bank.
Bezos also announced the opening of a Web Services Cloud division and Amazon’s largest software engineering development centre outside the USA in Hyderabad, adding that both would help create jobs.
Bezos made the announcement at the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington which Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended.
The Amazon India system works differently from their version in the United States where they rely primarily on local logistics companies to deliver their goods.
At a time when domestic e-commerce companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal are struggling to bring in fresh funds, the American online retailer is boosting its investments in Asia’s third-largest economy. Apple, Amazon, Google, and Uber have queued up to have their second largest development centers, outside the U.S., in Hyderabad all within a radius of 10 kilometers.
Overall, Amazon’s global segment, which includes all markets outside North America, is growing much more slowly than its home base. The king of e-commerce also talked about how he had a “soft corner” for small entrepreneurs as he was one too, not very long ago. Bezos is now the world’s fourth-richest man.
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Bezos stressed that the investments would help start-ups in India and further accelerate the country’s role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship. Speaking at the Code Conference, Bezos said he focuses on three things for Amazon’s retail business: selection, price and speed of delivery.
