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Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

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Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#11
post #8

What if Walmart and Google actually teamed up? Google technology powering Walmart's supply chain? I wonder how competitive they'd end up actually being vs Amazon.

From what I understand Walmart's supply chain technology is already pretty competitive: https://www.tradegecko.com/blog/incredibly-successful-supply...

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#12

Walmart was forced to pay $15 Billion by Amazon, I think. Amazon-India is already a force to reckon with in India. They have a ton of customer love in India, and they are killing it. There is no reason for them to buy Flipkart. They did the required to hurt their competitor by feigning interest. Bezos is a master at deception. Well played, Bezos and Flipkart investors. Stingy Walmart has to cough up more money.

If Walmart pays a large amount, it is still advantageous to Amazon but does not look like that was the only ploy.

Amazon may have actually tried hard to prevent Walmart gain a foothold in online retail. Flipkart is reported as the largest or 2nd largest online retailer in India, to prevent that volume going to Walmart Amazon may have tried hard and pushed price in the process.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#13
The title says Walmart beats Amazon in a battle. Then in the article it says:

"Flipkart’s board ultimately decided a deal with Walmart is more likely to win regulatory approval because Amazon is the No. 2 e-commerce operator in India behind Flipkart and its primary competitor. Amazon is out of the running unless Walmart hits unforeseen trouble."

Doesn't sound like a battle to me.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#14
post #8

What if Walmart and Google actually teamed up? Google technology powering Walmart's supply chain? I wonder how competitive they'd end up actually being vs Amazon.

It would take Googlmart 5+ years to play catch up if not longer.

Google's too disorganized and they don't have any supply chain tech built up. Amazon has years of supply chain infrastructure (both software, physical systems and organization) including supply/demand forecasting models and warehouse operational investment (Kiva systems, etc...).

The only differentiation that Google adds to Walmart is: - Top-talent engineering resources & brand which attracts talent to work on these problems - Layers of developer tooling and services that remove the "systems at scale" development curve of startups and smaller companies.

Now if Alibaba teamed up with Walmart... (read: acquired).

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#15
post #6

Fascinating that 1 - google is going to participate in the purchase. Clearly a defensive move v amazon. 2 - us companies will now own the 1 & 2 positions for ecommerce in India. Start difference w China and somewhat surprising given Indias excellent engineering and biz culture

2 - does it have one? It seems that there is a colossal brain drain, and the quality of the engineers staying in India is tremendously diluted by those that pursued engineering purely as a safe career choice

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#16
post #8

What if Walmart and Google actually teamed up? Google technology powering Walmart's supply chain? I wonder how competitive they'd end up actually being vs Amazon.

What compelling tech does Google have that Walmart needs? Google has no sought after experience in retail or ecommerce. What would they give the largest retailer in the world? They are a half a trillion dollar company moving physical products. They already know how to do supply chain.

It looks like play to stop Amazon’s growth more than technology.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#17
post #6

Fascinating that 1 - google is going to participate in the purchase. Clearly a defensive move v amazon. 2 - us companies will now own the 1 & 2 positions for ecommerce in India. Start difference w China and somewhat surprising given Indias excellent engineering and biz culture

Regarding 2.

Good for the US based players but bad for India. But it is not limited to just this. Most of the big Indian startups are funded by VCs from outside India. So, even if these companies grow big there is a good chance that most of it won't be owned or controlled by Indians. For example, PayTM(wallet, mall, bank) is funded by Alibaba. Ola is funded by Softbank and this is true for almost all the big startups.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#18
post #16
post #8

What if Walmart and Google actually teamed up? Google technology powering Walmart's supply chain? I wonder how competitive they'd end up actually being vs Amazon.

What compelling tech does Google have that Walmart needs? Google has no sought after experience in retail or ecommerce. What would they give the largest retailer in the world? They are a half a trillion dollar company moving physical products. They already know how to do supply chain. It looks like play to stop Amazon’s growth more than technology.

> What compelling tech does Google have that Walmart needs?

Google knows that I've been researching segways( with possible intentions of buying). Could they possibly use the information for product recommendations, inventory predictions ect?

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#19
post #6

Fascinating that 1 - google is going to participate in the purchase. Clearly a defensive move v amazon. 2 - us companies will now own the 1 & 2 positions for ecommerce in India. Start difference w China and somewhat surprising given Indias excellent engineering and biz culture

2 - does it have one? It seems that there is a colossal brain drain, and the quality of the engineers staying in India is tremendously diluted by those that pursued engineering purely as a safe career choice

That seems like a gross overgeneralization. Yes, there is brain drain but it doesn't mean that the engineers working in Indian startups like Flipkart are the ones who pursued engineering as a safety net. A lot of them are as smart as their Indian counterparts who are working in US in companies like Amazon, Google etc.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#20
post #6

Fascinating that 1 - google is going to participate in the purchase. Clearly a defensive move v amazon. 2 - us companies will now own the 1 & 2 positions for ecommerce in India. Start difference w China and somewhat surprising given Indias excellent engineering and biz culture

2 - does it have one? It seems that there is a colossal brain drain, and the quality of the engineers staying in India is tremendously diluted by those that pursued engineering purely as a safe career choice

You're right. Engineering [0] and engineer quality [1] in general in China is way better than in India. It is not even a competition. For instance, Google isn't setting up shop in India for their AI labs [2]. Another instance is when large internet companies in India sought talent from overseas when faced with big-company scale problems [3].

Also, my experience having worked and interviewed candidates in India for over 8yrs doesn't seem to disagree with that sentiment at all.

[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/7-chinese-companies-that-will-...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6429793

[2] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/google-to...

[3] https://yourstory.com/2015/05/twitter-war-sachin-rohit-bansa...

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