E-commerce giant Amazon has opened its largest campus yet, but it is not its American HQ2, it is located in Hyderabad, India, as the firm prepares for aggressive expansion in the country.
Bloomberg reports that Amazon has opened its largest campus building ever in the south Indian city of Hyderabad in preparation for aggressive expansion in an attempt to compete with retail giant Walmart in India. Amazon is making a huge push in India where the majority of commerce is still done through small brick and mortar family-owned shops.
Amazon’s country manager for India, Amit Agarwal, commented on the Indian retail market stating: “E-commerce is so small in India relative to the total consumption, less than 3%.” Last year, Walmart spent $16 billion to purchase India’s biggest startup, Flipkart Online Services Pvt. in an effort to expand within the country. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has stated that the firm will invest $5.5 billion as part of its India expansion.
Amazon’s new campus is the first building the company has owned outside of the United States and spans 1.8 million square feet of office space and will accommodate approximately 15,000 workers. John Schoettler, vice president of Amazon’s Global Real Estate and Facilities, commented: “The largest buildings in Seattle house about 5,000 employees.”
Agarwal added: “This facility will build services globally,” citing Amazon Web Servers, Kindle, Alexa, Amazon.in and Amazon Home Services as services that could be expanded from the Hyderabad offices. Agarwal noted that Amazon Home Services is “innovating on things like doorstep pick-up and electronics repair.”
Amazon is also reportedly in negotiations to purchase a 10 percent stake in one of the largest brick and mortar retailers in India, Future Retail. Local media reported that Amazon is aiming to add food delivery to its list of Indian services and is in negotiations with multiple food companies to launch the service.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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