- In order to expand further, Amazon wanted to grab Future Retail of Kishore Biyani, but could not succeed because Biyani preferred an Indian company over Amazon to sell its business.
- Mukesh Ambani gave a jolt to Jeff Bezos owned Amazon by seizing all Future Retail stores because the company was not able to pay back the money.
- The upcoming years will give us a good show on the competition in the Indian e-commerce market, especially between the richest man in Asia and the richest man in the world- Jeff Bezos
In less than a decade, Amazon made great strides in India. Although the company is still pumping money in the Indian market and far from being profitable, it has become a numero uno destination for online shoppers. In order to expand further, it wanted to grab Future Retail of Kishore Biyani, but could not succeed because Biyani preferred an Indian company over Jeff Bezos led Amazon to sell its business.
Biyani sold Future Retail to Reliance Industries Limited, which is expanding the retail arm at an exponential rate. Amazon is well aware that once Reliance establishes itself as a major player in the Indian market, very little will be left for the American MNC. In fact, it may be forced to exit the Indian market just like many telecom players did after the entry of Jio in the telecom space.
Also Read: Future group refuses to bend in front of Amazon
Amazon decided to take Future retail in the complex web of the Indian judiciary to stop its acquisition by Reliance Retail. However, Mukesh Ambani gave a jolt to Jeff Bezos owned Amazon by seizing all Future Retail stores because the company was not able to pay back the money. Now Future Retail is not paying even 200 million dollars that Amazon invested in the company in the name of its inability to pay.
Also Read: Amazon has a huge meltdown in CCI proceeding against Future group
Amazon thought it can win the war for domination in retail with Mukesh Ambani given its deep pocket, but the astuteness of the Reliance chairman is unparalleled, and he proved this once again by defeating Jeff Bezos owned company.
Previously Amazon played many dirty tricks in order to defame Reliance by making Bloomberg – a mouthpiece and advocacy arm of American big businesses – do hit jobs.
Bloomberg reported that Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), the retailing arm of oil to telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited, wants to sell a 40 per cent stake to Amazon, the big daddy of the retail industry, quoting anonymous sources.
The American media house that is known for “speculative” stories reported that Mukesh Ambani made Anil “beg” for money to save him from being jailed in the Ericsson case. “Although the Ambani clan publicly characterized them as amicable, two people familiar with the talks, who wished to remain anonymous discussing a family matter, used a different descriptor. Mukesh, both said, made Anil “beg”, said a Bloomberg report.
There is not an iota of doubt among analysts that Ambani-led Reliance will give tough competition to the existing e-commerce players as the history of its operations in other sectors suggests. The upcoming years will give us a good show on the competition in the Indian e-commerce market, especially between the richest man in Asia and the richest man in the world- Jeff Bezos.
Similar to his father, Mukesh Ambani is known for establishing domination in the markets. In the early days of the business, his father monopolized the thread-making business, and Mukesh Ambani has himself done the same in the refining and petrochemical business. Now, his company is trying to dominate the retailing business.
Amazon is known for its unethical business practices in inhumane working conditions for workers. We live in a world where capitalistic giants with their billions of dollars in bank accounts spar with each other for fun to dominate a country to churn massive profits.
On any given day, it is better to have domestic players dominating positions in the markets rather than the foreign ones. And the government should actively support the Indian enterprises in cornering the foreign ones rather than being neutral and taking the moral high ground. It is good to see Mukesh Ambani winning the race against Amazon without much government help, but where the govt help is needed to promote Indian businesses against foreign ones (like in defence), it must be provided with the same.
