INDIA’S RICHEST MAN IS OUT TO CHALLENGE AMAZON AND WALMART-OWNED FLIPKART
The latest reports from India prove that India’s richest man is currently out to take on Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart despite these companies spending. It’s understood, Amazon and Flipkart in a bid to stamp their fit in the world’s and Asia’s second-most populous country’s retail market have already spent billions, while the subject e-commerce venture – JioMart – which is structured to work closely with local stores will practically impact in these two foreign companies.
JioMart has been soft-launched by two subsidiaries of Ambani’s Reliance Industries which emerged from Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, their e-commerce venture that will practically work with these local stores, in some areas of the state of Thane, Kalyan, and Maharashtra – Navi Mumbai.
Meanwhile, in a bid to set a track record and as well alter Amazon’s and Flipkart’s impact, Indian ‘Mukesh Ambani’s’ e-commerce venture (JioMart) – marketed as ‘Desh Ki NayiDukaan’ (Hindi for new store of the country), at the moment offers a catalog of 50,000 grocery items, and as if that wasn’t enough, promises ‘free and express delivery’.
According to a Reliance spokesperson, Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio already have plans to expand the service to many parts of India in the next couple of months. A measure that will help deepen their impact, also, the joint venture has urged Jio subscribers to sign up to JioMart in order to access introductory offers.
To ascertain the strength and as such predict the future of Ambani, Reliance Retail founded in 2006 is currently the largest retailer in India based on revenue. And also at the moment, Reliance Retail currently serves over 3.5 million customers every week through its nearly 10,000 physical stores located in more than 6,500 towns and cities of India. This will strategically position India’s richest man ‘JioMart’ at the forefront as it competes with Amazon and Walmart.
Ambani, who operates ‘Reliance Industries’ had earlier in its claim, made it clear that he’s poised to serve tens of millions of retailers and stores across India.
On the other hand, Reliance Jio is currently India’s second-largest telecom operator, with more than 360 million subscribers. The only 4G carrier that launched commercial operations in 2016, in the process disrupted the country’s incumbent telecom operation with its voice calls and bulk data offer at little or no charge for a certain duration. However, the two entities coming together to form an e-commerce venture should be viewed as a way to actualize Ambani’s speech of invoking Mahatma Gandhi in January.
His speech, modeled as that of the movement against political colonization in India says: “We have to collectively launch a new movement against data colonization. For India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, we will have to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India – meaning, Indian wealth back to every Indian”.
This is no other but a clear indication of India’s richest man intent, while on the other hand, among the attendees of the summit was ‘Modi’ whose government had announced regulatory challenges that will potentially impact Flipkart and Amazon, also a huge challenge for both companies.
- What is your take as India’s richest man invests in this sector and at this time?
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