Amazon Growing Rapidly In India, Says Jeff Bezos, But Calls For Regulatory Clarity

After laying out plans to infuse $630 Mn (INR 4,472.50 Cr) into three of its Indian businesses — Amazon Pay, Amazon Retail and Amazon Sellers Service, the US-based ecommerce giant’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos believes that the company is doing extremely well in India and its business is growing very rapidly in the country.

According to a Livemint report, Bezos told reporters that although the company is doing very well in India, he still hopes for regulatory stability in the country.

Amazon’s CEO also said that the company has always wanted regulatory stability in India. “Regulatory stabilisations in India are stable on time and that’s one of the things we’re hoping will now be true. We’ll see,” Bezos added.

In the latest infusion, Amazon Seller Services, which runs the marketplace, reportedly got the largest chunk to spend on more discounts, promotions and marketing. Whereas Amazon Pay will continue the cashback and focus on adding more merchants.

For the success of its operations in the Indian market, the CEO credited Amit Agarwal, head of Amazon’s India operations. Interestingly, Agarwal has worked with Bezos for over 20 years. “Agarwal is an extraordinary leader and is doing really well,” said Bezos.

In India, the US-based company faces direct competition with Walmart-backed Flipkart. Besides ecommerce services, Amazon also competes with Flipkart’s Phonepe with Amazon Pay.

With investments come losses, however, both these companies are working to reduce their losses. Recently, Amazon Seller Services, the Indian registered company for the online marketplace has narrowed its loss to INR 5,685 Cr for the financial year ended on March 31, 2019.

Along with the loss incurred by its other Indian entities, the US-based ecommerce giant’s losses in India stood at over INR 7000 Cr in FY 18-19.

On the other hand, Flipkart’s parent company, Flipkart Internet, also reported a 40% increase in its losses. The loss amounts to a sum of INR 1,624 Cr for the financial year ending March 31, 2019. Notably, last year, the company was able to cut its losses by close to 30%.