Global e-commerce major Amazon will invest an additional three billion US dollar in its India operations to take investment in the country to over five billion US dollar, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has said at the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present.
“Amazon will invest three billion US dollar more in India. This is in addition to the two billion US dollar announced in 2014. We have already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy,” Bezos said at the event
The infusion underlines how Amazon India is ramping up its cash burn rate at a time when local rivals like market leader Flipkart, and Snapdeal are conserving capital and focus more on unit economics.
Amazon India has already overtaken Snapdeal in terms of number of shipments, and is moving close to leader Flipkart’s market share. It is also looking at India as a key country from which it can source goods directly and sell to its customers around the world. The company has a long-term vision to be the primary middleman connecting factories in India and China with customers in the US and Europe.
The e-commerce leader, which gets most of its international revenue from the UK, Japan and Germany, doesn’t break out sales from India. Revenue from a group of other international markets, including India, reached 7.4 billion US dollar in 2015, or 6.9 per cent of total sales.
