Internet Multinational Companies are growing fast in India. Last month, Google announced the setting up of its largest campus outside the U.S., in Hyderabad, India. The 2 million square feet facility — the first company owned premises in Asia — is expected to house 13,000 employees when it’s ready in 2019. Google started its India office with five people and now has more than 2,000 staff across Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.
“India is very important now from twin perspectives: talent and market. We did our Android One global launch in India (in 2014) besides launching other products,” says Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India.
The growing internet user base is the most important reason for internet companies to expand in India’s market. Television reaches 600 million people. The internet has 300 million users. By 2020, Google expects 600 million online users with online videos being accessed by 500 million people. “It will be a different story then, not only for Google but for all companies,” says Anandan. “Growth is a function of how fast GDP grows. If GDP is 6% the market for internet companies could grow by 12%,” he adds.
Amazon which has been in India since 2004, announced setting up its 11th and largest fulfillment center in India on the outskirts of Hyderabad. “We are planting seeds for the future. India has been mentioned in the shareholder letter by Jeff ( Bezos CEO of Amazon) and that’s big,” says Amit Agarwal, vice president & country manager, Amazon India. Last year, when Bezos was there, he also announced a $2 billion investment push in India.
The Economic Times reports that in 2013 Amazon entered India as a marketplace, and now boasts of a catalog of 22 million products with India being its fastest market to do $1 billion in sales. Amazon operates all its businesses in India: the marketplace Amazon.in, B2B business, Kindle devices and e-book store, and Amazon Web Services, the cloud offering.
