Amazon pumps in Rs 2,000 crore into Indian unit

Jeff Bezos led American e-tailer Amazon has infused Rs 2,010 crore into Indian unit Amazon.in in a bid to pip Flipkart from its leadership position. The latest tranche of investment made in November takes the total investments in Amazon Seller Services to Rs 7,000 crore in the past 12 months, according to regulatory filings.

The latest investment comes at a time when Flipkart Founder Sachin Bansal and cab aggregator Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal have been vociferous in seeking government intervention and asking the country to protect Indian-origin startups to counter capital dumping by foreign rivals.

Amazon which is on an aggressive expansion spree in India recently launched its Prime service which offers its users a host of features like quicker deliveries and early-access deals. Last week, it rolled out Prime Video service for which it is in discussions with content players.

The online marketplace, however, has lost over Rs 1,000 crore in discounts and related offers, aimed to garner more customers, during the festive season in October, according to a report in The Economic Times.

"We will invest what it takes to become the customers' preferred choice in India, and are encouraged that we are India's largest and fastest-growing ecommerce marketplace," an Amazon India spokesperson in a statement to the newspaper’s queries about the investment and losses.