Amazon launched its India marketplace business at Amazon.in earlier today, beginning with only books, movies and TV shows with mobile phones and cameras expected soon. Here are some initial reactions on the launch:
The Economic Times: Amazon has been actively lobbying with the Indian government to relax the regulations against foreign e-commerce companies and allow foreign direct investment in online retail. Amazon global vice-president Paul E. Misener had met with the commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma on Friday to discuss the issue. Read more at The Economic Times.
StartupCentral: Indian e-commerce market has seen several local Amazon clones mushroom over the past few years. Now that the original finally has feet on the ground in India, expect more of those clones to head to the graveyard. Read more at StartupCentral.
PCWorld: Junglee.com will continue to operate, as it meets a different requirement. A fulfillment center has been set up in Mumbai outskirts and other centers will be set up depending on the growth the company sees in India. Read more at PCWorld.
NextBigWhat: In a interview to the publication, Amazon India Country Manager Amit Agarwal points out Amazon.in currently provides pin code level delivery estimates automatically, which is very hard to achieve due to complex taxation laws. Read the interview at NextBigWhat.
Amazon.in Hosted In Ireland? Pravin Jadhav of Wishberg pointed out that Amazon.in is hosted in Ireland and not in Singapore which is the closest data center, to which Santosh Panda of Explara (previously Ayojak) pointed out that most of the companies operate out of Ireland since Ireland gives a lot of tax rebate.
Deepak Abbot, former Chief Product Officer at Reliance Entertainment Digital and now AVP-Product at One97, however says that Singapore data center has higher latency than Ireland data center and Amazon recommends Indian gaming companies to opt for Ireland data centers. This was seconded by Network18’s Engineering & IT head Anand Jain, who added that Ireland also gets preferential rollout treatment for new initiatives that Amazon Web Services (AWS) launches. Read the whole discussion here.
(Any other interesting comments on Amazon.in launch? Let us know)
Tweets About Amazon.in Launch
So Amazon.in is here. Nice to see they charge for CoD & want to make profit unlike our other VC-funded ecom charities:)
— Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) June 5, 2013
Some more hat tip on Amazon India. An email in my inbox. 🙂 twitter.com/vijayshekhar/s…
— Vss (@vijayshekhar) June 5, 2013
Was expecting lower book prices on international books on the new Amazon.in Disappointed. I get full US prices minus discount in INR.
— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) June 5, 2013
amazon.in launched today. This is a very Starbucks Vs Amma’s Bru Filter Coffee situation.
— Sharada Annamaraju (@suitcaseindian) June 5, 2013
Amazon.in listing is crappy – a Telugu movie, Mallu actors listed as actors, and a Hindi movie thumbnail and descrp – goo.gl/2ftPL
— Nikhil Narayanan (@nikhilnarayanan) June 5, 2013
People are complaining about little discounts at Amazon.in, well think again – Amazon is not about discounting. Their game is different.
— Sarsij Nayanam (@sarsij) June 5, 2013
” You can also return items you no longer want or need within 7 days of receipt of package” says #amazon.in Wow! How will #flipkart respond?
— ashenai (@ashenai) June 5, 2013
Now that Amazon is here, hope their affiliate program comes soon as well.
— Kunal Dua (@duak) June 5, 2013
Now what everyone has been debating for a long time will be seen now – Flipkart.com vs Amazon.in #amzonindia
— Kulin Shah (@NowEntrepreneur) June 5, 2013
Best part of Amazon.IN – reviews from Amazon.COM – I don’t have to read reviews like “Flipkart delivered on time”
— Naren Balaji (@narenbalaji) June 5, 2013
No Kindle books and I can’t export my wish list from Amazon.com to Amazon.in. Shall be waiting for that.
— Phaijal (@TheHumerus) June 5, 2013
Friends in Silicon Valley curious to know if Amazon India will kill or acquire Flipkart!
— Amith P (@amithpr) June 5, 2013
Isn’t it a shame that @jungleecom is still not showing Amazon India as a book seller in search results. #ecommerce twitter.com/Man_ish_/statu…
— Manish(@Man_ish_) June 5, 2013
Amazon.IN has the usual Mastercard Secure Code/Visa 3D Secure extra authentication step ( unlike Amazon.COM )
— Naren Balaji (@narenbalaji) June 5, 2013
Amazon.in sent the “order shipped” notification 5 hours after placing the order.
— Preshit (@preshit) June 5, 2013