Amazon fastest growing marketplace in India: Jeff Bezos

Bengaluru: Amazon India is the fastest growing marketplace in India and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile in the country, according to Amazon founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos.

In a letter to shareholders early on Thursday, Bezos cited data from market analytics firms comScore and SimilarWeb to highlight Amazon’s dominance in India. He also highlighted data from analytics firm App Annie to point out that the firm’s mobile shopping app was the most downloaded shopping app in India last year.

Amazon’s Prime subscription service, which globally now commands over 100 million members, has also grown rapidly in India, with Bezos adding that Amazon Prime grew faster in India in its first year than in any other country in its history. Bezos also said Amazon Prime Video is investing heavily in original Indian content. “Prime selection in India now includes more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers, and Prime Video is investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and over a dozen new shows in production,” said Bezos.

The latest shareholder letter from Bezos highlighted that India remains the company’s most important market outside its home market, the US, and has assumed greater significance for the e-commerce giant, after it lost out in China to Alibaba.

Amazon has so far pumped in $5 billion to grow its business in India, and Bezos has indicated that the company will not hesitate to plough in more into a country where it is locked in a high-stakes battle with local arch-rival Flipkart—which currently is in advanced discussions to sell a majority stake to Walmart, Amazon’s biggest rival in the US.

While Amazon has in the past cited similar data to back up its claims of being the fastest growing marketplace in India, it still continues to lag Flipkart.

According to at least half a dozen executives from both companies, Flipkart still remains ahead of Amazon in India in terms of gross monthly sales, including sales from fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong.

Flipkart owns both Myntra and Jabong.

Mint reported on 12 April that Amazon India plans to cut prices and increase spending over the next few quarters to increase its market share in the company’s most important international market, after struggling to close the gap with Flipkart.