Despite posting nearly five-fold widening of losses in the June quarter, mainly due to its investments in India, Amazon.com Inc has reiterated that it would aggressively pursue its expansion plans in the country.
The world’s biggest e-commerce retailer is locked in a battle with home grown Flipkart and has committed to pump in US$ 5 billion for its India operations.
Amazon’s international loss widened to $724 million in the three months ended June, from $135 million in the corresponding year-ago period.
In a post-earnings conference call with investors and analysts, Amazon’s chief financial officer Brian T. Olsavsky said, “We continue to invest in India. We’re very hopeful with the progress we’ve made with sellers and customers alike in India and we see great momentum and success there,” reports Mint newspaper.
He said the year-over-year loss in international operation was primarily due to investments in India. The company has invested heavily in building up its logistics services, web services infrastructure and introduced new voice assistant Alexa, along with Echo speakers to execute the commands and queries of consumers.
Over the past four years, Amazon has expanded at a breakneck pace in India and has almost caught up with Flipkart in terms of stand-alone monthly sales. In terms of other key metrics such as app downloads, desktop visits and mobile website visits, Amazon India has already overtaken Flipkart.