India becomes front in global e-commerce proxy war

[P@nThEr]

(Reuters Breakingviews) - Global tech giants are heading for a proxy war in India. Alibaba is leading a $200 million investment into Paytm’s marketplace, creating a new Indian unicorn. It confirms the intention of the Chinese behemoth to take on Amazon, which is aggressively ramping up, investing $5 billion into its local operation as other homegrown rivals flail. Only one of the tech big boys will emerge victorious.

The $255 billion Chinese group and Paytm have already invested together to build a dominant mobile-wallet payment business, now worth around $5 billion. Their smaller e-commerce unit is now being separated out to meet Indian regulations. After the latest fundraising, Jack Ma's Alibaba and its own payments affiliate Ant Financial will effectively control the e-commerce company and continue to own a large stake in the payments arm, which must be majority Indian-owned.

Local rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal, backed by New York investment firm Tiger Global and Japan’s SoftBank, respectively, helped to establish the domestic e-commerce industry. But their future roles look uncertain as these global tech giants, with deeper pockets, get stuck into the market.

Privately owned Flipkart is fighting hard to maintain a narrow lead; investors now reckon it is worth as little as one third of its $15 billion peak in 2015. Meanwhile, the founders of Snapdeal are cutting costs and headcount; an email to employees admits errors in executing its strategy. Talk of a possible merger between Snapdeal and Paytm keeps surfacing in local media. That makes sense, given SoftBank already owns a near 30 percent stake in Alibaba and could lose a fortune fighting head-to-head to build market share.

For now, Indian e-commerce has become a free-for-all, and a stark contrast to China where foreign companies have struggled. But there isn’t room for everyone to financially succeed. Alibaba’s new commitment to Paytm E-commerce, following its success in building out a local mobile wallet business, puts it in a strong position. Fold in Snapdeal, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos would face a significant obstacle in the road to global domination.

http://in.reuters.com/article/uk-paytm-alibaba-breakingviews-idINKBN16D0IX

 

[Margarita]

More offers and discounts for consumers

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I can sort of see why people are starting to hate globalization so much, when domestic markets are being dominated by Chinese and American companies. Or if we are talking about India's smartphone market, then Chinese and Korean companies.

As a nationalist I think that countries should be able to maintain dominance of their own domestic markets, if they have to use protectionism to achieve it then so be it.

Stuff like E-commerce, infrastructure, electricity supply, banking and telecommunications/networks especially, you know these are sensitive sectors.

 

[P@nThEr]

In India Amazon & Flipkart are king of e commerce & PayTm is the king of mobile wallet at present..Hope to see Jio wallet stands up to PayTm as a good competitor as Jio has already gained up 75 million subscriber within almost 6 months..

 

[Margarita]

I can sort of see why people are starting to hate globalization so much, when domestic markets are being dominated by Chinese and American companies. Or if we are talking about India's smartphone market, then Chinese and Korean companies.

E Commerce is not dominated by Chinese companies at all in India.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

E Commerce is not dominated by Chinese companies at all in India.

Do you know what country Alibaba comes from?

 

[Margarita]

Do you know what country Alibaba comes from?

Indian E Commerce is dominated by Indian companies and Amazon

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Indian E Commerce is dominated by Indian companies and Amazon

Did you even read the OP?

All those companies at the top of the list are either backed by Alibaba or Amazon.

 

[P@nThEr]

Do you know what country Alibaba comes from?

No..PayTm buying Sanpdeal stake rumor was cleared out last month..Alibaba has no chance in E commerce business in India.
Only they are doing funding in PayTm to get into E commerce business but PayTm is pretty low end performer in this field..

Did you even read the OP?

All those companies at the top of the list are either backed by Alibaba or Amazon.

 

[NKVD]

Did you even read the OP?

All those companies at the top of the list are either backed by Alibaba or Amazon.

BS Flip kart and Snapdeal no relation with Chinese companies

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

No..PayTm buying Sanpdeal stake rumor was cleared out last month..Alibaba has no chance in E commerce business in India.
Only they are doing funding in PayTm to get into E commerce business but PayTm is pretty low end performer in this field..

BS Flip kart and Snapdeal no relation with Chinese companies

Alright so Chinese-backed PayTM is third, the American-backed companies are first. Well done.

I guess it's OK to have your markets dominated by foreign companies as long as they are American, like Google.

 

[P@nThEr]

Alright so Chinese-backed PayTM is third, the American-backed companies are first. Well done.

I guess it's OK to have your markets dominated by foreign companies as long as they are American, like Google.

Nothing like that..You are being hyper...
I have no problem even if Alibaba enter itself but on ground Amazon,Flipkart & Sanapdeal rule Indian E commerce..PayTm even stands behind EBay..
Aibaba has to adopt different strategy to enter India....
In case of buying online I would prefer best price from whether foreign or domestic company but would always tend to use Indian wallet.Even Indian govt recently has launched own wallet.There are too many options right now...

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Nothing like that..You are being hyper...
I have no problem even if Alibaba enter itself but on ground Amazon,Flipkart & Sanapdeal rule Indian E commerce..PayTm even stands behind EBay..
Aibaba has to adopt different strategy to enter India....

Hey man if you like your markets being dominated by foreign companies then go for it.

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Actually I agree with Mr. Bansal, CEO of Flipkart on this issue. We need global funds, but not their companies in e-commerce. I mean, Amazon, Alibaba and others developed in their own countries first and later used that money to invest in other countries. China made tight regulatory measures to ensure foreign companies were unable to start e-commerce in their country.

Now if we want to have an Indian dominating company among the world, we should have let Flipkart and Snapdeal emerge first in India using foreign funds, and they could have taken on Amazon or Ali baba anywhere around the world. Now Flipkart and Snapdeal are suffering, and I dont think for now they can become a global player.

 

[rott]

Do you know what country Alibaba comes from?

I know - Iran

Nothing like that..You are being hyper...
I have no problem even if Alibaba enter itself but on ground Amazon,Flipkart & Sanapdeal rule Indian E commerce..PayTm even stands behind EBay..
Aibaba has to adopt different strategy to enter India....
In case of buying online I would prefer best price from whether foreign or domestic company but would always tend to use Indian wallet.Even Indian govt recently has launched own wallet.There are too many options right now...

You have no clue how aggressive Alibaba is.

@Chinese-Dragon, I am off, bro. Gonna play WOT. just came in to check for anything fresh.