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Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

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Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#61

Post by actuator »

mars4rp wrote: post #54
actuator wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not colonization but this is what happens when most Indian businesses won't be willing to burn huge amount of money to get growth initially. That lack of funding environment is a good opportunity for cash rich foreign investors who have an appetite for that kind of growth. I can only think of one recent IPO in India from tech space which did well, Infibeam[0]. But then again they had a good business model which didn'…

Of course an Indian startup can't compete with Amazon and Walmart! But they can easily ban foreign companies and let it grow organically in the country, they might get it 5 years later but they are not bankrupting all of their local business with no upside for the economy!

If they had to go down this path, they should have done it years ago. I don't know enough about economics to comment whether that have been good or bad though. Before opening up in 90s, Indian economy was closed as well but that didn't necessarily led to Indian enterprises in those spaces being very competitive once they lost all those protections.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#62

Post by enitihas »

actuator wrote: post #48
mars4rp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is crazy! As we all know, online retailers are killing local businesses, in US it might make sense because the profit goes to another sector of economy, Amazon is going to hire more developers and invest in other products that in long run might not be total lose for the whole economy! what a country like India is going to gain by letting American and Chinese companies destroy her local businesses and take the pr…

Not colonization but this is what happens when most Indian businesses won't be willing to burn huge amount of money to get growth initially. That lack of funding environment is a good opportunity for cash rich foreign investors who have an appetite for that kind of growth. I can only think of one recent IPO in India from tech space which did well, Infibeam[0]. But then again they had a good business model which didn'…

It will be very difficult for an Indian startup to burn money to compete with a US competitor. Considering that the US is a much larger market, the reveneues of the US based competitor are simply going to be much higher. For example, Facebook makes $100 per North American user per year. Even if there was an Indian startup starting from India, how would they make similar kind of money? The US is a really large homogeneous market with good enough infrastructure support, that businesses starting from US will always have the revenue advantage over other nations. The only counter point we have seen is the China model, where the Government takes stepes for protecting local companies. Yes, there are some B2B companies outside the US that are doing well, but I can't think of many B2C ones.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#63

Post by arrivance »

jeron wrote: post #53
nkristoffersen wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind, Alexa.com is an Amazon company so not exactly unbiased.

I feel like Amazon bought Alexa.com so they could use Alexa for Echo devices

That would have been remarkably forward looking.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#64

Post by actuator »

piyush_soni wrote: post #55
dominotw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with amazon killing it. I used to shop both on flipkart and amazon. Now I just shop on Amazon. At some point I just stopped checking flipkart.

Same here. I think the reason was the amazing customer service at Amazon, and mostly the effective price on Amazon was always lower.

I think Prime also killed it. Fast deliveries and no minimum amount ended up making Amazon the first choice in my head.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#65

Post by linsomniac »

bradhe wrote: 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.

Haven't they already? A few weeks ago I tried Google Express, and I really liked it, in general. I could get an order from CostCo, WalMart, Target, and others, over night for free if I ordered $35 or more. I ordered at noon on Friday and got the shipment by 10am Saturday.

This last week, Amazon announced they are increasing Prime to $120/year, and I started thinking about whether I needed Prime. For video, Amazon is barely usable these days IMHO. I'm mostly watching entertainment on Youtube, mostly how-to or edu-tainment stuff which Amazon doesn't have much of. Pretty much anything I reach out to watch, I have to buy from Amazon. Their music service has been useless to me too, I started with Google Play by uploading all my music, and could never get started with Amazon because it was too limited.

The most compelling thing about Amazon is it is one place i can go that has pretty much anything I'm looking for. Drawer slides, Sugru, specific DIY tools.

I gladly pay $15/mo for Google Play Family (music, no commercials on Youtube, for me and my family). But, $10/mo for Amazon is starting to feel questionable, when Google Express gives me a similar experience, without the pain of Amazon Pantry (filling a Pantry box), and Walmart will let me buy groceries online and then will bring them out to my wife's car on her way home (she works a block from the store that provides that service).

I think it's getting harder and harder for Amazon to justify the $120/year. Curious what other people are thinking.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#66

Post by actuator »

enitihas wrote: post #62
actuator wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not colonization but this is what happens when most Indian businesses won't be willing to burn huge amount of money to get growth initially. That lack of funding environment is a good opportunity for cash rich foreign investors who have an appetite for that kind of growth. I can only think of one recent IPO in India from tech space which did well, Infibeam[0]. But then again they had a good business model which didn'…

It will be very difficult for an Indian startup to burn money to compete with a US competitor. Considering that the US is a much larger market, the reveneues of the US based competitor are simply going to be much higher. For example, Facebook makes $100 per North American user per year. Even if there was an Indian startup starting from India, how would they make similar kind of money? The US is a really large homogen…

Agree with your statement but here I was talking about foreign VCs funding Indian startups because Indian investors don't have the appetite for it.

You won't be able to compete with an already established player from US if you do a 1:1 same product. You should try to exploit something that works in the local market like what Line did for messaging in Japan or South Korea.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#68

Post by piyushpr134 »

bhouston wrote: post #10

Flipkart is losing to Amazon.in right now. I think that Softbank is smartly offloading a possible loser to Walmart/Google here at close to peak valuation. Maybe Google/Walmart can turn it around though. https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/flipkart.com https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/amazon.in

Well, this does not give the correct picture on the ground. Flipkart is bigger than amazon here. They have fashion portal called https://myntra.com and new fintech play called PhonePe. They are biggest player in fashion and white goods including smartphones. And smartphones are huge in India. A big percentage (I don't know the split) of smartphones sold in India gets sold online and majority (50+%) on Flipkart.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/batt...

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#69

Post by devit »

mars4rp wrote: post #41
sandGorgon wrote: post #37

India is now poised to be the only country in the world with a two way fight between Amazon and Alibaba. Three way if you consider Walmart.

This is crazy! As we all know, online retailers are killing local businesses, in US it might make sense because the profit goes to another sector of economy, Amazon is going to hire more developers and invest in other products that in long run might not be total lose for the whole economy! what a country like India is going to gain by letting American and Chinese companies destroy her local businesses and take the pr…

They gain lower prices or better service for consumers, obviously.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#70

Post by meko »

piyush_soni wrote: post #55
dominotw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with amazon killing it. I used to shop both on flipkart and amazon. Now I just shop on Amazon. At some point I just stopped checking flipkart.

Same here. I think the reason was the amazing customer service at Amazon, and mostly the effective price on Amazon was always lower.

Until they become a monopoly and all that good customer service dissolves down the drain. It's already happening in the US.
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