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Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

bloomberg.com

21–30 of 171 posts

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#21
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.

This is actually happening [0]

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/19/google-introduces-shopping...

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#22

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.

The more I read from Bloomberg the less I respect them.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#23

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.

That may be so, but now that it can afford it, Amazon has every intention of becoming a monopoly in the markets it enters. It's why they bought the #1 retailer in the Middle East, too:

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-s...

People love Amazon now, but I think it's time to fear it. They're already in bed with governments for multi-billion contracts, and are aiming for monopoly power. They won't behave well for much longer, and I'd argue they've already started behaving badly (raising prices on consumers, lowering commissions on affiliates, and so on).

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#24
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

What a bizarre thing to say.

Over the last 18 years I have regularly had the opportunity to work with engineers located in India (while I was based in the UK and the US). Some projects were huge, some were small -- ranging from 2-3 engineers to hundreds. The vast majority of individuals I worked with were excellent at their job, and a delight to work with. Same as the ones I've worked with who have emigrated to Europe or America.

Emigration is not proof of an individual's superior powers, nor is non-emigration evidence of lack thereof.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#25
This will make sure the india e-commerce landscape remains competitive. Otherwise Flipkart would have run out of cash to bleed soon. As far as I know, both Flipkart and Amazon had been spending huge amount of money. I think this is very clever of Walmart, as they can make sure Amazon India keeps fighting for some time.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#26
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.

There are actually a few possible synergizes, but less likely with their acquisition of JET.

Google's AI tech is superior than others in image and speech recognition as well as search. This mostly has to do with them literally buying all the AI talent.

Maybe a possible partnership with Waymo for level 4 driving tractor trailers.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ov…

[0]. I would agree that Indian startups haven't done something remarkably good technically till now. One reason can be that a lot of them didn't get to grow in isolation using government protection from foreign enterprises and resources. So they were competing against established players with a lot of experience compared to them. Initially, most of the people who used Internet in India had some knowledge of English, so it became very easy for US based companies to penetrate the market as they could mostly launch the same products without much customization.

[1] and [3] Highly debatable and depends on which company you are hiring for. Good candidates are going to apply in companies they consider to be good. Snapdeal wasn't known for its good engineering, work culture or hiring bar. I don't know which startup the YC commenter interviewed for.

[2] might just be because of lack of active CS research going on in the country. Most people interested in research leave the country for better pastures. Btw MSR does have office in India

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#28
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.

wow, a Google and Walmart merger is an interesting thought experiment (if extremely unlikely). It would be like a second scary Amazon

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#29
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes, AdWords and related advertising products are quite sophisticated in terms of targeting. Walmart (and Amazon!) already use this.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#30
post #23

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.

That may be so, but now that it can afford it, Amazon has every intention of becoming a monopoly in the markets it enters. It's why they bought the #1 retailer in the Middle East, too: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-s... People love Amazon now, but I think it's time to fear it. They're already in bed with governments for multi-billion contracts, and are aiming for monopoly power. They won'…

The acquisition of Souq was mainly a response to the announcement of Noon, a $1 billion Souq competitor out of KSA.
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