- On Wednesday Jeff Bezos expressed his interest in SMEs in India. Amazon is investing ₹ 7,000 crores in our country.
- Bezos’s 3-day visit to India started on Tuesday visiting Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat.
- Amazon Pay India has received ₹ 1,355 crores from Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt Ltd and Amazon.com.incs.Limited.
Before people can say that Amazon is a behemoth eCommerce player, people know it by everything store. Amazon aims to sell everything that a consumer can think of on its website.
This might sound crazy, but Jeff Bezos the mastermind behind Amazon carries the same vision. With time he has been delivering what he envisions.
But this time he leaves us astounded not only by visiting India (again), but Jeff has announced that Amazon is investing around ₹ 7,000 crores in diverse enterprises in India.
During his 2020 tour to India, Jeff is said to visit some top officials from Indian constituency, business leaders and SMBs.
“21st century is going to be the Indian century. This country has something special: Its dynamism. I also predict that the most important alliance in the 21st century will be between India and the US” said Bezos.
The company will use its global footprint to export Make in India goodies worth $10 billion by 2025. Bezos commented that SMBhay summit will focus on discussions around how technology adoption can enable SMBs in India.
But everything has repercussions! Even after Jeff visiting India and Amazon investing ₹ 7000 crores, thousands of small-scale traders’ union under Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) are planning to hold protests around the country during Bezos’s stay in India.
Traders believe that with Bezos’s investing in India, they might be eaten up the giant and might not have the same independence as before. Giants like Amazon & Flipkart have been in media talks for the same practice.
Small vendors have always been reluctant to sell their products on these platforms. Some believe that these giants sell their products at low prices (lower than what these vendors offer to their customers) so that customers purchase the product through eCommerce websites.
When the vendor wants to exit from their portal, they have to face even more challenging times. The same product is available on their site at a much lower rate than what these vendors offer, which leaves the vendors with no choice but to necessarily sell their product through these portals.
India’s antitrust body Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation into alleged violations for the same by Amazon and Flipkart.
Coming back to Jeff Bezos his plans seem to be entirely different. Last year in October, Amazon invested more than ₹ 4,400 crores in its various units in India (precisely in the marketplace and food retail). Amazon will be competing closely with Zomato & Swiggy
“In the last 2 years, Amazon has poured in more than half a billion dollars into its Indian payment business alone. That’s stunning and an indication of how competitive the payment space has become in India” says Vivek Durai, founder, Paper.vc, a business signals platform.
For Amazon, the US and India have been the topmost markets globally. With the rise in mobile-phone users with better internet connectivity along with users started purchasing online, Amazon (and others) don’t want to miss out on millions of shoppers in India. This fairly explains why Amazon is investing so much in India from time to time.
It was great to see the eCommerce legend coming back to India and expressing his interest. Only time will tell the real intentions behind it. But for now, it is a piece of good news for the country. While we see conglomerate Amazon is investing in India, the future of eCommerce seems nothing but as bright as the shining sun.
