This Is India’s Fastest-Growing Company With Largest Paid Subscription User Base!
Amazon India has performed exceptionally well and the country has helped the company to achieve many milestones last year.
Within a few years of its launch in India, this US-based e-commerce company has become one of the largest organisations in the country. With millions of active users and lakhs of orders placed every day, Amazon has become the fastest-growing company in India.
The company website has been the most visited site on both desktop and mobile and one of the highest numbers of orders were placed.
Last year, Amazon India’s shopping app had been the most downloaded shopping app in the country, Bezos said in his annual shareholder letter, published on Wednesday.
India’s Fastest-Growing Company
Amazon India has performed exceptionally well and the country has helped the company to achieve many milestones last year. Founder Jeff Bezos also doubled the investment in the country and committed a $5 billion capital for the Indian market. The organisation faces direct competition from market leader Flipkart.
Amazon has been continuously pumping money into its India unit. Amazon Seller Services has till now received over Rs. 8,150 crores (around $1.3 billion) investment. The capital infusions have helped Amazon India to fight it out against the homegrown e-commerce leader Flipkart.
Backed by investors such as SoftBank, Tencent and Microsoft, Flipkart has stayed on top in spite of intense competition from Amazon.
Amazon’s Largest Market Outside US
The growth numbers suggest that Amazon India will soon be the company’s largest market outside its home market US. It is being predicted that India will account for over a fifth of the Amazon’s total international sales by the end of 2025.
The Indian unit of Amazon India will hit $81 billion in gross merchandise value and $2.2 billion in operating profits in next four to six years.
Talking about the losses, the company has lost over $3 billion last year where it was pumping in cash from the US to fight off domestic rival Flipkart. In comparison, the company lost $1.28 billion in 2016 on its India business.
Amazon Has More Than 100 Million Prime Members
Amazon has exceeded 100 million paid Prime subscribers on its platform, Bezos said in the shareholder letter. The company had held these numbers closely for a long time which forced the analysts to estimate a figure based on the surveys and sales.
For the first time, the company came out with a number. Last year Amazon shipped more than 5 billion Prime orders worldwide and India is one of the primary markets for Prime members.
In 2017, more new members joined Prime than in any previous years since it was launched 12 years back.
According to the letter, the company will keep investing to expand internationally and to build a brick-and-mortar presence around the world. The company has been in a state of war with Walmart over prices to dominate in the retail business. Now, as the retail giant is planning to expand in India with Flipkart, it will pose a big threat to Amazon’s business in the country.
Bezos has said, the company will keep investing in new and innovative products like Echo smart speakers and the AI-enabled Alexa digital voice assistant.
