Source: The Economic Times India
Ecommerce giant, Amazon India, is categorical that the $1 billion investment announced by Jeff Bezos during his recent trip to India would be used for long-term development of its operations and not for deep discounting or cover losses. “A lot of our investment is focused on the long-term and if we only look at the short-term, we would not be doing the right thing for the country. We have been able to build over 50 world-class, multi-million dollar fulfillment centers. We have enabled 8 lakh artisans and weavers by partnering with 15 plus states and central government and 2.8 lakh women entrepreneurs by partnering with institutions like SEWA,” Gopal Pillai, VP – seller services, Amazon India told ET Digital. “We would not be able to do this if we are just focused on the short-term. We are putting a lot of investment today, so that it can be beneficial 5-10 years down the line.”Bezos had announced an investment of $1 billion to digitise SMBs in the country, but Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal created a flutter when he said Amazon is not doing any favour by planning to invest a further $1 billion in India.Goyal added that it was surprising that a marketplace model like Amazon was incurring heavy losses, and wondered if it was because of deep discounts it provides. “They may have put in a billion dollars, but if they make a loss of a billion dollars every year, then jolly well they have to finance that billion dollars.
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