Bentonville, AR-based Walmart has acquired a 77% stake in Bangalore-based e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion. Walmart and Flipkart will remain separate brands with the goal of transitioning Flipkart to a publicly-listed, majority-owned subsidiary in the future. "India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given...
Global, Indian Companies to Boost Smartphone Adoption in India
Google and India's telecom company Bharti Airtel have partnered to launch low-cost 4G smartphones powered by Android Go, a trimmed down version of Android 8.1 Oreo, in India. Noida-based Lava International Limited and New Delhi-based Micromax, will make the first set of 4G handsets powered by Android Go. Vani Venkatesh, chief...
Amazon India May Launch In-House Beauty Products
Amazon India has increased focus on the high margin cosmetics category and might be in talks with local manufacturers to launch Amazon branded personal care products in India, according to a report in the Economic Times, which has been widely re-circulated by others. India's online beauty and personal care market...
Amazon India to Launch Online Grocery Marketplace
With the Government of India's approval to invest $500 million in its food retail business, Amazon India will soon commence its online grocery and food retail division. Amazon has almost doubled its authorized capital to $4.74 billion matching its earlier capital commitment of $5 billion made in June, 2016. The...
WhatsApp Partners with eTailers in India
With a 200 million plus user base that communicates in 10 Indian languages to generate 50 billion messages a day, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is turning toward businesses in India to monetize the platform. It has already partnered with travel portals MakeMyTrip and Goibibo, and is now planning to add Flipkart, utility...
India Sees Record Private Investment in Q3 2017
A report by Ernst & Young says that private equity/venture capital investments in India touched a record high of $8.7 billion in the July-September quarter, a sharp increase over last year's $3.1 billion for the same period. E-commerce recorded $2.6 billion across 18 deals primarily driven by Softbank's $2.5 billion...