The So called Desi Company who themselves are Infamous Copycats.. Allege.. Hahaha.
Q: But Amazon India has spent more than $1 billion in the last 12 months and says it will ramp up investment further in 2017. In this environment, how hard is it to build a sustainable business and keep market leadership?
Krishnamurthy: That is not how we think about the business. We think about consumers, innovations and capabilities.
Take a look at the last 10 years and then the last three years since competition entered the market, and make a list of innovations in e-commerce and who has led them.
If you have to operate in a country you have to give consumers something. People have done two things - they had a global playbook somewhere and started pasting that here. It was not something that Indian consumers desired.
Number two, copying us. We took a forward-looking view that the country will do commerce on mobile devices. They do that even today.
We came up with the construct of BBDs, they copied that. We went with product exchange and affordability programmes; when they talk about it they will not give you an affordability story. I am not even talking about fundamentals like cash-on-delivery or having a last-mile delivery fleet like ours, which are big things.
When we have a bank offer, they have it as well. On Flipkart, you get instant cashback, but on their platform you get it after four-and-half months. They copy everything, or they wait for someone from somewhere to tell them what to do. Just by pouring money into the market you cannot get anywhere.
Bansal: Cash is like a drug, and when you start solving problems with cash you get addicted to it. It’s hard to get out of that addiction and you are running on a cliff.
Then you will say is it working for you or not? The moment you have that doubt you fall off the cliff. I think that’s the way we look at it. You can do it for some time but doing it continuously is not possible. Innovation is the only answer, and as long as we keep innovating we are fairly confident.
Krishnamurthy: BBD or the festive season was a good example. We saw them being helpless. They did things which even their other counterparts in the world don’t do - severely compromised on customer service because they wanted to give an answer to us. If you innovate and do something local, that’s where their game ends.
Source: http://tech.economictimes.indiatime...ndia-strategy-is-flawed-binny-bansal/56194170
Q: But Amazon India has spent more than $1 billion in the last 12 months and says it will ramp up investment further in 2017. In this environment, how hard is it to build a sustainable business and keep market leadership?
Krishnamurthy: That is not how we think about the business. We think about consumers, innovations and capabilities.
Take a look at the last 10 years and then the last three years since competition entered the market, and make a list of innovations in e-commerce and who has led them.
If you have to operate in a country you have to give consumers something. People have done two things - they had a global playbook somewhere and started pasting that here. It was not something that Indian consumers desired.
Number two, copying us. We took a forward-looking view that the country will do commerce on mobile devices. They do that even today.
We came up with the construct of BBDs, they copied that. We went with product exchange and affordability programmes; when they talk about it they will not give you an affordability story. I am not even talking about fundamentals like cash-on-delivery or having a last-mile delivery fleet like ours, which are big things.
When we have a bank offer, they have it as well. On Flipkart, you get instant cashback, but on their platform you get it after four-and-half months. They copy everything, or they wait for someone from somewhere to tell them what to do. Just by pouring money into the market you cannot get anywhere.
Bansal: Cash is like a drug, and when you start solving problems with cash you get addicted to it. It’s hard to get out of that addiction and you are running on a cliff.
Then you will say is it working for you or not? The moment you have that doubt you fall off the cliff. I think that’s the way we look at it. You can do it for some time but doing it continuously is not possible. Innovation is the only answer, and as long as we keep innovating we are fairly confident.
Krishnamurthy: BBD or the festive season was a good example. We saw them being helpless. They did things which even their other counterparts in the world don’t do - severely compromised on customer service because they wanted to give an answer to us. If you innovate and do something local, that’s where their game ends.
Source: http://tech.economictimes.indiatime...ndia-strategy-is-flawed-binny-bansal/56194170
