Before the meeting, Amazon employees prepared a draft note for Carney. The note, reviewed by Reuters, advised Carney what to say - and what not to say.
He should highlight the fact that Amazon had committed more than $5.5 billion in investment in India and how it provided an online platform for 400,000-plus Indian sellers. But he was cautioned not to divulge that some 33 Amazon sellers accounted for about a third of the value of all goods sold on the company's website. That information, the note advised, was \"Sensitive\/not for disclosure.\"
Other company documents reveal equally touchy information: Two more sellers on the e-commerce giant's India platform - merchants in which Amazon had indirect equity stakes - accounted for around 35% of the platform's sales revenue in early 2019. That meant some 35 of Amazon's more than 400,000 sellers in India at the time accounted for around two-thirds of its online sales.
All this information was indeed politically sensitive. If it got out, it could give fresh ammunition to small Indian retailers who allege that Amazon harms their businesses by flouting federal regulations and favoring a few big sellers. It could have annoyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose political base includes millions of these small retailers. And it would have undercut Amazon's public messaging that it is the friend of small business in India. As the company says in one marketing slogan in India, it is \"transforming lives, one click at a time.\"
What Carney wound up telling the ambassador is unclear. A meeting did take place in April 2019, but neither side would comment on the specifics of the gathering.
The briefing note for Carney is contained in hundreds of internal Amazon documents that are reported here for the first time. News of their contents could deepen the risks facing the company as it encounters intensifying government scrutiny in one of its fastest-growing markets. The documents lay bare that for years, Amazon has been giving preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its India platform, publicly misrepresented its ties with the sellers and used them to circumvent increasingly tough regulatory restrictions here.
Indian traders, both brick-and-mortar and smaller online sellers, have long alleged that Amazon's platform largely benefits a tiny number of big sellers and that the American giant engages in predatory pricing that has crushed legions of retailers. Amazon rejects this: It says it complies with Indian law, which stipulates that an e-commerce platform can only connect sellers to buyers for a fee, unlike in the United States, where Amazon can both act as middleman and sell goods directly to consumers.
The company also says it runs a transparent online marketplace and treats all sellers equally. The internal Amazon documents contradict those claims, revealing how the e-commerce giant has helped a small number of sellers prosper, giving them discounted fees and helping one cut special deals with big tech manufacturers such as Apple Inc. The documents also show that the company has exercised significant control over the inventory of some of the biggest sellers on Amazon.in, even though it says publicly that all sellers operate independently on its platform.
The documents reviewed by Reuters are dated between 2012 and 2019. They include drafts of meeting notes, PowerPoint slides, business reports and emails. One of the notes contains a frank appraisal of Modi's \"straight forward\" style of thinking, sizing him up as \"not an intellectual.\" Together, they provide a look inside a cat-and-mouse game Amazon has played with India's government, adjusting corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions on foreign e-commerce firms, amid growing agitation from small retailers.
Amazon \"does not give preferential treatment to any seller on its marketplace\" and \"has always complied with the law,\" the company said in a written response to questions from Reuters. \"The reporting appears based on unsubstantiated, incomplete, and\/or factually incorrect information, likely supplied (maliciously) with the intention of creating sensation and discrediting Amazon.\" The company added that it \"treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner, with each seller responsible for independently determining prices and managing their inventory.\"
Modi's office and India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry didn't respond to questions from Reuters.
Amazon has become one of the two biggest e-commerce platforms in India, with close to $10 billion in sales in 2019, according to Forrester Research. The American giant knows it faces significant regulatory risks here.
In recent years, Amazon has stated in its annual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision disclosures that its business structures and activities comply with Indian law, but that there are \"substantial uncertainties\" regarding their interpretation. It is possible the Indian government \"will ultimately take a view contrary to ours,\" the disclosure states. And a violation of any existing or future regulations or a change in their interpretation could result in the business \"being subject to fines and other financial penalties\" or being forced to restructure or \"shut down entirely.\"
CHARGED POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT<\/strong>
In January 2020, India's antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India, announced it was investigating Amazon and Walmart Inc's Flipkart following a complaint by an Indian trader group. The commission cited four alleged anti-competitive practices: exclusive launch of mobile phones by the e-commerce firms, promoting preferred sellers on their websites, deep discounting, and prioritizing some seller listings over others.
The probe is currently on hold after a challenge by Amazon and Flipkart, the other major e-commerce platform in the country.
Separately, Amazon is under investigation by India's Enforcement Directorate, the federal financial crime-fighting agency, which has been investigating the company for possible violation of foreign investment rules. Such probes typically take years in India, and in most cases details aren't made public.
Asked about the investigations, Amazon said it was confident of its compliance and committed to cooperating with the antitrust watchdog and Enforcement Directorate. Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment.
The Competition Commission and Enforcement Directorate didn't respond to questions.
Amazon is operating in a charged political environment. The rise to power of Modi, who first won election in 2014 on a groundswell of Hindu nationalism, has made life complicated for multinational companies. Hindu nationalist groups, suspicious of foreign influence and often critical of large multinationals, are seeking policy changes to protect domestic businesses. Companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc and Mastercard Inc have also faced stringent regulation. In the case of e-commerce, the restrictions are aimed at protecting brick-and-mortar retailers.
Despite the regulatory and political obstacles, Amazon has enjoyed explosive growth in India. The expansion has been led by Amit Agarwal<\/a>, a senior vice president and the country manager for India. Agarwal, 47, who has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, has risen through the ranks since joining the company in 1999.
By his early 30s, he'd become a close adviser to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos<\/a>. One company document, which details his profile, includes these lines: \"Amit was chosen to be Jeff's technical Advisor at a young age of 33. 'Technical advisors' are a chosen few that work side by side with J Bezos and are then selected to take on some of the most critical roles at Amazon.\"
Agarwal enjoys playing electric guitar and was a vocalist during his Stanford days in a rock band called Algo-Rhythms, according to a recent version of his profile on the alumni page of the Indian Institute of Technology, where he got a computer science degree. He is also a \"die-hard fan\" of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, according to the profile.
Under Agarwal, Amazon has ramped up investment in India. The country is one of Amazon's most important growth markets - especially since it announced in 2019 that it would no longer operate its marketplace in the most populous nation, China, where it faced stiff local competition. On a visit here in January last year, Bezos announced Amazon would spend $1 billion to bring small businesses online in India. That would take the company's total committed India investment to $6.5 billion.
But India also poses unique challenges to the business model that made Amazon the biggest online retailer on the planet. Because foreign investment regulations in India bar e-commerce firms from holding inventories of goods and selling them directly to customers, companies like Amazon can only collect fees from vendors selling products on their marketplace.
Globally, about 58% of Amazon sales of physical goods in 2018 came from third-party merchants; the rest come from direct sales to consumers, the company has disclosed. The ability to sell straight to people in the United States and elsewhere packs big benefits. It means Amazon can deal directly with manufacturers, for one, giving it greater control over its product range.
It is this barrier - the regulatory wall around the consumer - that Amazon has been trying to overcome for much of the past decade in India.
When Amazon arrived in 2004, it created a development center aimed at servicing its global operations. Agarwal, who helped set up the operation, recalled on an Amazon blog in 2019 how his team initially rented cubicle space in another company's office and \"used to sit on the ground and write code\" because they didn't have chairs. Today, the company says it has 100,000 employees in India.
Amazon's main foray began in 2013. It started listing books and DVDs on Amazon.in, its online platform. Since then, Amazon has taken an aggressive approach to government limits on e-commerce.
\"Test the Boundaries of what is allowed by law,\" said one slide in a 2014 presentation, titled \"Risk Analysis.\" The slide advised that preparations be made in the event of a visit by an enforcement body: \"Establish a Strong Dawn raid Process.\"
Asked about the slide, Amazon said that \"dawn raid preparedness\" is \"standard worldwide practise\" and refers to the training of employees \"to handle site visits from officials pertaining to police, fire services, law enforcement and other services personnel on government duty.\"
'SPECIAL MERCHANT'<\/strong>
To deal with the restrictions on direct sales, Amazon found an indirect way of reaching consumers and boosting sales quickly. It entered a joint venture with an entity formed by one of India's most famous tech moguls, N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of software services giant Infosys Ltd. The venture was used to create a seller named Cloudtail, which began offering goods on Amazon.in after it was set up in August 2014.
Amazon has said that Cloudtail is an independent seller on its marketplace. A year after Cloudtail was created, Amazon told Indian business newspaper Mint that Cloudtail received \"the same privileges as any of the other sellers on our platform.\"
But Amazon has been deeply involved in expanding Cloudtail - often referred to as \"SM,\" or \"Special Merchant,\" in the documents.
\"The Special Merchant (SM) was launched in Aug-14 and we helped SM quickly ramp up and gain scale through Q4,\" stated an Amazon India<\/a> report, dated Feb. 23, 2015.
\"Launch, stabilize, grow Special Merchant; make it profitable,\" the report said.
Amazon had big plans for Cloudtail. The target was to ensure Cloudtail accounted for 40% of Amazon.in sales, \"and build this into a $1+B business\" in 2015, according to the report. To that end, the report reveals, Amazon helped Cloudtail \"acquire key relationships\" with major tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft and OnePlus. This included exclusive deals with these companies to sell their products, such as smartphones. The tech companies got a big new sales channel, while Cloudtail got coveted products that it listed on Amazon.in.
Amazon said in its statement that it facilitates \"the introduction of brands to sellers\" in accordance with the brands' requirements.
A spokesperson for Cloudtail and Murthy said they had no comment. Apple and OnePlus didn't respond to questions. Microsoft had no comment.
The deals Amazon facilitated with smartphone makers, coupled with deep discounts Cloudtail was offering on the Amazon website, hit India's offline mobile sellers hard, said Arvinder Khurana, president of the All India Mobile Retailers Association.
\"The entire market was disturbed,\" said Khurana, whose trade group represents 150,000 mobile retail stores. \"There's been a year-on-year decline in sales\" at brick-and-mortar shops, he added.
Currently, e-commerce accounts for 4% of India's roughly $900 billion retail market, according to Forrester Research. But it's growing fast.
While some 10% of smartphones in India were being sold online in 2013, by 2016 that figure had jumped to 30%, according to Forrester. By 2019 it was 44%. And Amazon and Flipkart dominate these sales, accounting for roughly 90% of all online smartphone sales, said Forrester analyst Satish Meena.
Brick-and-mortar retailers told Reuters they're struggling to compete with the online giants. One mobile phone seller in the city of Ahmedabad said that while he was selling an iPhone 11 for 56,000 rupees ($769), a customer told him it was going for around 47,000 rupees ($645) on Amazon.
'THERE IS NO BUSINESS'<\/strong>
For Mumbai mobile phone merchant Narendra Gada, the competition was ruinous. In 2013, he said, his business was doing well. It enabled the 44-year-old to support his family of three, selling around 20 phones a day at his store in the upmarket Colaba area. His monthly sales, he said, were around 10 million rupees (about $137,000). \"Margins were good at that time,\" Gada recalled, as high as 25% on some models.
Everything changed in 2015 with the expansion of online sales of smartphones, he said. He couldn't compete with the exclusive launch of smartphone models online or the discounts being offered, he said.
By 2016, his sales had dropped some 40%. Customers would come to his shop to try smartphones, ask for the WiFi password and then go online to buy the model they'd just sampled, he said. In 2018, Gada began selling at lower margins and on credit to keep sales alive. Late last year, he shut the shop he'd started in 1998. The final straw was the pandemic-induced lockdown. But he said it was the advent of online sales that killed his business.
\"There is no walk-in now,\" he said. \"There is no business.\"
In its statement, Amazon said, \"Facts communicate a different reality. Small businesses are increasingly embracing technology and finding success online.\"
The company said that it now had over 700,000 sellers on its platform, most of them small and medium businesses, and had \"no incentive\" to keep the number of sellers down. It also said that tens of thousands of Indian manufacturers are using Amazon to sell to consumers abroad, so far generating cumulative sales of $2 billion. And for millions of consumers, of course, the discounts offered on Amazon's platform are a boon.
About two months after Cloudtail's launch in August 2014, Bezos met Modi in New Delhi. A draft document containing talking points was prepared for the Oct. 3 meeting. It makes no mention of Cloudtail or its plans.
One key objective of the meeting, according to the document, was to discuss barriers to foreign investment in the e-commerce sector.
The document also included a brief appraisal of the Indian leader. \"PM Modi is not an intellectual or an academic but believes that strong administration and governance is the key to running a successful government,\" it said. \"He is known to like simple, logical, straight forward thinking without excessive academic jargon.\"
Asked about the description of Modi, Amazon said it was committed to the prime minister's vision for India's digital economy and believes it can help by getting 10 million medium and small businesses online, among other steps.
Both in public and in private meetings, Agarwal emphasized that Amazon was helping the little guy. Ahead of a scheduled meeting with India's ambassador to the United States in January 2016, a document was prepared for Agarwal and other executives. \"We are committed to transforming lives of SMBs,\" or small-and-medium businesses, reads a talking point contained in a draft of the document.
In March 2016, Cloudtail's share of sales on Amazon.in was around 47%, an internal document shows. Amazon does not make such numbers public.
But that month, Amazon got some bad news: The Indian government announced new foreign investment rules. It capped online marketplace sales from a single seller at 25% of total sales, which was seen as an attempt to level the playing field. To comply with the cap, Cloudtail's share of sales on the Amazon platform had to be brought to 25% or less.
The new rules also required that an e-commerce platform \"will not exercise ownership over the inventory\" sold on its site. Internal company documents show that Amazon was effectively treating Cloudtail's inventory as its own at the time. In a May 2016 document, for instance, the company explains that \"we will need to move a subset of this selection\" of smartphones from Cloudtail \"to other sellers,\" to comply with the 25% limit.
That's what it did. Amazon moved the procurement of some mobile phone brands Cloudtail was offering to Amazon Wholesale, a wholesale business-to-business operation in India which did not fall under the foreign investment restrictions. Amazon Wholesale then supplied these products to \"certain\" sellers, who in turn sold them on Amazon.in, according to a 2016 internal global regulatory update.
\"As government policies have continued to evolve, we have consistently made the necessary changes to ensure compliance at all times,\" Amazon said when asked about the documents laying out the maneuver. \"The so-called facts stated here fail to show any non-compliance\" with foreign investment rules.
'DISCOUNTED FEES'<\/strong>
Amazon has repeatedly said it has no role in pricing goods sold online in India and that prices are decided by sellers. The new 2016 government rules explicitly stated that \"e-commerce entities providing [a] marketplace will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods or services and shall maintain [a] level playing field.\"
Following the rule change, however, Amazon lowered the fees it charged some big sellers on its platform to enable them to offer more competitive prices. \"We adjusted our business model by activating a fee incentive program (Platinum Seller Program or PSP) to provide discounted fees to a subset of large managed sellers (Platinum Sellers) to help them match\" prices of e-commerce rivals, said the global regulatory update document.
In addressing the 25%-of-sales cap on a single seller, Amazon also proposed having a second special merchant, in addition to Cloudtail. It estimated the two special merchants would together account for about half of the sales on its platform.
In 2017, a new special merchant named Appario - referred to as \"SM2\" in an internal document - was created. This time, Amazon entered into another joint venture, with an entity backed by the family of Ashok Patni, a pioneer in the Indian IT outsourcing sector.
One internal Amazon document from 2019 states that the two special merchants get \"subsidized fees\" and access to Amazon global retail tools. These tools are used for things like inventory and invoice management.
Amazon said its marketplace fees depend on the category of product and the season of the year, and are \"uniformly applicable to all like sellers.\"
Appario and a Patni representative did not respond to requests for comment.
Even after India implemented new investment rules in 2016, relations between Bezos and the Modi government seemed good. That June, the Amazon boss received a business leadership award from Modi at a U.S.-India Business Council event in Washington. Bezos told the audience how small sellers were benefiting from Amazon's India marketplace. He announced he planned to invest a further $3 billion in the country.
In 2016, Amazon launched its Prime Video streaming service in India and introduced its voice-recognition speakers the next year. It has also ventured into food retail and expanded its cloud-computing business.
In late 2018, Amazon's major annual online sales promotion, the Great Indian Festival, was a smash. During the big sale, India head Agarwal rejoiced in an internal email to employees.
The first 36 hours of the sale \"surpassed every event in our history,\" he wrote. \"We had our biggest day ever for Smartphones, with estimated 3 out of every 4 smartphones sold in the entire country (online or offline) purchased on Amazon.in - this is truly phenomenal.\"
NEW RESTRICTIONS<\/strong>
With a national election looming in April 2019, the Modi government struck again. In December 2018, it announced new restrictions that prohibited vendors in which marketplaces such as Amazon have an equity interest from selling products on these marketplaces. The aim, government officials told Reuters at the time, was to deter deep discounting by big online retailers.
The new limits forced Amazon to restructure its relationships with Cloudtail and Appario, the two special merchants in which it held indirect stakes. As company documents showed, the two then accounted for around 35% of Amazon's online sales.
The regulatory change was widely seen in India as a move by Modi to pacify small traders, a critical part of his party's electoral base. It was this change to the foreign investment rules that Amazon executive Jay Carney wanted to discuss with the Indian ambassador at the time, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, in Washington. Shringla is now India's foreign secretary.
Asked about the Carney meeting, Amazon said, \"we cannot comment on specifics of the meeting as those are confidential.\"
Shringla's office said in a statement: \"The meeting in question was at Amazon's request.\" It didn't provide any detail on what was discussed.
In the early hours of Feb. 1, 2019, thousands of products being sold by Cloudtail and Appario vanished from Amazon's website in compliance with the deadline for the new rules. But days later, the products were back as Amazon reduced its equity stake in the parent companies of the two sellers. This maneuver, the company believed, made it compliant with the new rules, according to the internal document from 2019.
Amazon's relationship with the Indian government was growing more contentious.
In June 2019, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal dressed down e-commerce executives, including Amazon's Agarwal, telling them in a meeting they must comply with the new rules. Goyal was blunt, said one executive who was there.
\"We will not let e-commerce impact small shopkeepers... I know there have been many issues of non-compliance,\" the executive said, summarizing Goyal's remarks. \"So think about it, set it right. If you don't, we will make things public, it will be put in the public domain and you will be embarrassed.\"
Then came the news of the antitrust probe into Amazon and Flipkart in January 2020, the same month Bezos was making another trip to India. Traders staged small street protests, holding up placards with a red \"X\" emblazoned on a picture of the Amazon CEO's face and the words, \"Jeff Bezos<\/a> Go Back!\"
Commerce Minister Goyal diminished the company's announcement of a further $1 billion of investment. \"It's not as if they are doing a great favor to India,\" he said.
There was another salvo in August: A group of more than 2,000 online sellers filed an antitrust case against Amazon and Cloudtail, alleging Amazon favors some retailers whose online discounts drive other vendors out of business. Amazon and Cloudtail have both said they comply with all laws; the Competition Commission of India has yet to decide whether to order an investigation into the matter.
And there is another threat: Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries<\/a>, one of the country's biggest conglomerates, is expanding his e-commerce business. Reliance did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the challenges, Amazon continues to grow. Last year, it began offering auto insurance and announced it was launching an online pharmacy service.
It also continues to tout itself as a platform for the little guy. For its big annual sale in October, it ran a front-page newspaper ad that read: \"Celebrating India's Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs.\"
Reuters' Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco contributed to this story.<\/em>
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新德里消息:这是2019年初,和高级亚马逊com . n:行情)执行长Jay Carney准备一个重要的会议。美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)的前新闻秘书卡尼计划与印度驻美国大使在华盛顿特区在德里,印度政府刚刚宣布外国直接投资规定,威胁要破坏亚马逊在世界第二的业务最多的国家。
在会议前,亚马逊的员工准备一份草案卡尼的注意。注意,路透审查,建议卡尼说什么,不该说什么。
他应该突出了这样一个事实:亚马逊犯了超过55亿美元的投资在印度和它如何为400000多印度提供了一个在线平台卖家。但他警告不要透露,一些33亚马逊卖家约占三分之一的所有商品的价值在该公司的网站上出售。这些信息,报告建议,“敏感/不披露。”
其他公司文件显示同样敏感的信息:两个卖家平台——电子商务巨头的印度商人在亚马逊有间接的股权——占大约35%的平台的销售收入在2019年初。这意味着一些亚马逊的35 400000多卖家在印度占约三分之二的在线销售。
所有这些信息确实是政治敏感。如果它了,它可以给新的弹药小印度零售商称,亚马逊无视联邦法规,危害他们的业务和支持一些大卖家。莫迪可能惹恼了首相的政治基础包括数以百万计的这些小零售商。和它会削弱亚马逊的公共消息是小企业在印度的朋友。作为该公司表示,在一个市场营销口号在印度,它是“改变生活,一个点击一次”。
卡尼最终告诉大使还不清楚。会议发生在2019年4月,但双方都没有透露具体的聚会。
卡尼的简报报告是包含在数以百计的亚马逊内部文件首次报告在这里。乐动扑克新闻的内容可能加深公司面临的风险,因为它遇到加剧政府审查其增长最快的市场之一。文件暴露,多年来,亚马逊已经给予优惠待遇一小群在其印度卖家平台,公开歪曲其与卖方的关系,用它们来规避越来越严厉的监管限制。
印度商人,实体和较小的在线卖家,一直称亚马逊的平台主要好处极少数的大卖家和美国零售巨头从事掠夺性定价,摧毁了大量的零售商。亚马逊拒绝:它说它符合印度法律,规定一个电子商务平台只能联系卖家和买家的一个费用,不像在美国,亚马逊既可以作为中间商,直接向消费者销售产品。
该公司还说,它经营着一个透明的在线市场和对所有卖家一视同仁。亚马逊内部文件反驳这一说法,揭示电子商务巨头如何帮助少数卖家繁荣,给他们折扣费用,帮助一个特殊处理苹果(aapl . o:行情)等大型科技制造商。这些文件还显示,该公司行使重大控制库存的一些最大的卖家在亚马逊。,即使它公开说,所有卖家独立运作平台。
路透文件审核的日期为2012年和2019年之间。他们包含会议的草案指出,幻灯片、业务报告和邮件。的笔记包含一个弗兰克·莫迪鉴定的“直接”的思维方式,估计他当“不是一个知识分子。”Together, they provide a look inside a cat-and-mouse game Amazon has played with India's government, adjusting corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions on foreign e-commerce firms, amid growing agitation from small retailers.
亚马逊“不给优惠待遇任何卖方市场”和“一直遵守律法,”该公司表示在一份书面答复。“基于未经证实的报告显示,不完整,和/或与事实不符的信息,可能提供(恶意)创建感觉和怀疑亚马逊的意图。”The company added that it "treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner, with each seller responsible for independently determining prices and managing their inventory."
莫迪的办公室和印度的工商部门没有回应记者的提问。
亚马逊已经成为两个最大的电子商务平台在印度,2019年销售额接近100亿美元,据Forrester研究。美国零售巨头知道这里面临重大的监管风险。
近年来,亚马逊在其年度美国证券交易佣金披露,其业务结构和活动符合印度法律,但关于他们的解释有“重大不确定性”。可能是印度政府”最终将视图与我们的相反,“披露。和违反任何现有或未来的法规或改变他们的解释可能导致业务“受罚款和其他金融处罚”被迫重组或“完全关闭。”
带电的政治环境
2020年1月,印度的反垄断监管机构,印度的竞争委员会,Flipkart公司宣布,它正在调查亚马逊和沃尔玛公司的印度商人团体的投诉。委员会提到四个所谓的反竞争行为:独家推出的手机电子商务公司,促进首选卖家在他们的网站上,深折扣,一些卖家上市优先于他人。
调查目前搁置Flipkart公司在亚马逊和挑战之后,其他主要国家的电子商务平台。
另外,亚马逊由印度执法局正在调查中,联邦金融打击犯罪机构一直在调查该公司可能违反外国投资规则。这些探测器通常需要数年在印度,而且在大多数情况下不公开细节。
询问调查,亚马逊表示,有信心的合规和致力于与反垄断监管机构和执法部门的合作。Flipkart公司没有回应记者的置评请求。
竞争委员会和执行委员会没有回复的问题。
亚马逊是在政治环境中运行。莫迪的崛起,2014年第一次赢得选举的印度教民族主义的高涨,使得生活复杂的跨国公司。印度教民族主义团体,对外国影响和经常批评大型跨国公司,正在寻求保护国内企业的政策变化。字母(aapl . o:行情)等公司的谷歌、Facebook Inc .和万事达卡(ma . n:行情)也面临严格的监管。在电子商务的情况下,限制旨在保护实体零售商。
尽管监管和政治障碍,亚马逊在印度一直享受着爆炸性的增长。扩张是由阿米特·阿加瓦尔高级副总裁和经理印度。Agarwal, 47岁,有一个从斯坦福大学计算机科学硕士学位,通过排名上升自从1999年加入该公司。
30年代初,他成为亚马逊的创始人的亲密顾问杰夫·贝佐斯。一个公司文档,他的形象细节,包括这些线:“阿米特被选为杰夫的技术顾问在年轻的33岁。“技术顾问”是选择几个与J贝佐斯并肩工作,然后选择在亚马逊的一些最关键的角色。”
Agarwal喜欢玩电吉他和他在斯坦福大学时代是一个歌手在一个摇滚乐队叫Algo-Rhythms,根据最近版本的概要文件在印度理工学院的校友页面,在那里他有一个计算机科学学位。他也是一个喜剧演员Jerry Seinfeld的“铁杆粉丝”,根据配置文件。
在阿加瓦尔,亚马逊已经在印度加大投资。这个国家是亚马逊最重要的增长市场之一——特别是因为它在2019年宣布它将不再运行市场最多的国家,中国,面临激烈的当地竞争。去年1月在访问这里,贝佐斯宣布亚马逊将花10亿美元把小企业在印度。将公司的总提交印度投资65亿美元。
但是印度也带来了独特的挑战的商业模式,使地球上最大的在线零售商亚马逊。因为在印度的外国投资规定禁止电子商务公司持有库存的货物并直接出售给客户,像亚马逊这样的公司只能收取费用从供应商在市场上销售产品。
在全球范围内,约有58%的亚马逊实体产品的销售在2018年来自第三方商家;其余来自直接销售给消费者,该公司已披露。可以直接卖给人们在美国和其他地方包大的好处。这意味着亚马逊可以直接处理制造商,使它更好地控制其产品范围。
正是这种障碍——消费者周围的监管墙,亚马逊一直在努力克服过去十年的大部分时间里在印度。
亚马逊2004年来到时,它创建了一个旨在维护其全球业务发展中心。Agarwal,帮助设置操作,回忆在亚马逊的博客最初在2019年他的团队如何在另一个公司租了办公室的办公室,“坐在地上,写代码”因为他们没有椅子。今天,该公司表示,在印度有100000名员工。
亚马逊的主要变革始于2013年。它开始在亚马逊清单书籍和dvd。,它的在线平台。自那时以来,亚马逊采取了积极的政府限制电子商务的方法。
“测试的边界是什么法律所允许的,“一个幻灯片说在2014年的一次演讲,题为“风险分析”。The slide advised that preparations be made in the event of a visit by an enforcement body: "Establish a Strong Dawn raid Process."
问及幻灯片,亚马逊表示,“黎明突袭准备”是“全球标准练习”,指的是员工培训”从官员有关警察处理网站访问,消防部门,执法和其他服务人员对政府的责任。”
“特殊商人”
处理限制直接销售,亚马逊发现快速达到消费者和促进销售的一种间接方式。它进入一个合资企业,一个实体由印度最著名的科技巨头之一,天然橡胶Narayana没吃,软件服务巨头印孚瑟斯公司的创始人。该合资企业被用来创建一个名为Cloudtail的卖方,也开始提供商品在亚马逊。在2014年8月成立。
亚马逊表示,Cloudtail是一个独立的卖方市场。Cloudtail成立一年后,亚马逊对印度商业报纸Mint Cloudtail收到”一样的特权的任何其他卖家在我们的平台上。”乐动扑克
但是亚马逊已经深入参与扩大Cloudtail——通常被称为“SM”或“特殊的商人,”文件。
“特殊商人(SM)在8月14我们帮助SM快速扩展,通过第四季度获得规模,”一个亚马逊印度报告,日期为2015年2月23日。
“发射,稳定增长,特殊的商人;使其盈利,”报告说。
亚马逊Cloudtail有宏伟的计划。目标是确保Cloudtail占40%的亚马逊。销售”,构建成1美元+ B业务”在2015年,据报告。为此,报告显示,亚马逊帮助Cloudtail“获取键关系”主要的科技公司,包括苹果、微软和OnePlus。这包括独家处理这些公司出售他们的产品,如智能手机。科技公司有一个大的新销售渠道,而Cloudtail梦寐以求的产品,它Amazon.in上市。
亚马逊在其声明中表示,它促进了“引进品牌卖家”按照品牌的需求。
发言人Cloudtail和没吃说他们没有发表评论。苹果和OnePlus没有回复的问题。微软没有发表评论。
亚马逊方便处理的智能手机制造商,加上折扣Cloudtail在亚马逊网站上提供,严重打击了印度的离线移动卖家,说arvind Khurana认为,印度手机零售商协会的主席。
说:“整个市场干扰Khurana认为,贸易集团的代表150000手机零售商店。“有销售同比下降”在实体商店,他补充说。
目前,电子商务占4%的印度的零售市场约9000亿美元,据Forrester研究。但它的快速增长。
大约有10%的智能手机在印度被在线销售,2013年到2016年这一数字已经飙升至30%,根据Forrester。到2019年这个数据是44%。Flipkart公司和亚马逊和支配这些销售,占大约90%的在线智能手机销量,Forrester分析师Satish之一Meena说。
实体零售商告诉路透社他们努力与网络巨头竞争。卖一部手机在艾哈迈达巴德表示,尽管他出售iPhone 11 56000卢比(769美元),客户告诉他这是去约47000卢比(645美元)在亚马逊。
没有业务的
孟买手机商人伦德拉的先后,竞争是毁灭性的。2013年,他说,他的生意做的很好。它使这位44岁的支持他的家庭的三个销售大约20手机一天在他的店里高档Colaba地区。月度销售,他说,大约1000万卢比(约137000美元)。“利润是好的,”先后回忆说,高达25%在一些模型。
一切都变了在2015年的扩张在线销售的智能手机,他说。他不能与独家推出智能手机竞争模型在线或折扣提供,他说。
到2016年,他的销售额已经下降了约40%。客户会到他的店里来试着智能手机,要求无线网络密码,然后上网去买他们刚刚采样的模式,他说。2018年,先后开始销售在利润率下降和信贷继续销售。去年年底,他关闭了商店在1998年开始。最后一根稻草是pandemic-induced锁定。但他表示,网上销售的出现,杀死了他的生意。
“现在没有步行,”他说。“没有。”
亚马逊在其声明中说,“事实传达不同的现实。小型企业正越来越多地接受技术和在网上寻找成功。”
该公司表示,现在有超过700000个卖家在其平台上,其中大部分是中小企业,“无动机”来降低卖家的数量。它还说,成千上万的印度制造商正在使用亚马逊卖给国外的消费者,到目前为止产生累积销售额达20亿美元。对于数以百万计的消费者,当然,亚马逊的平台上提供的折扣是一个福音。
大约两个月后Cloudtail推出2014年8月,贝佐斯莫迪在新德里会晤。一个草案文档,其中包含谈话要点是10月3日会议准备的。它没有提到Cloudtail或其计划。
会议的一个主要目标,根据文档,是讨论外资电子商务行业的壁垒。
文档还包括印度领导人的一个简短的评价。“莫迪下午不是一个知识或学术但相信强大的管理和治理的关键是运行一个成功的政府,”它说。“大家都知道他喜欢简单,逻辑,直接思维没有过度的学术术语。”
被问及莫迪的描述,亚马逊表示,它正致力于印度总理的愿景的数字经济,相信它可以帮助通过1000万中小企业在线,其他步骤。
在公共和私人会议,Agarwal强调,亚马逊是帮助这个小家伙。提前预定会见印度驻美国大使在2016年1月,一个文档是为阿格沃尔和其他管理人员准备的。“我们致力于将中小企业的生命,“企业或中小企业,读取文档的草案中包含的话题。
2016年3月,Cloudtail在亚马逊上销售的份额。在47%左右,是一个内部文件所示。亚马逊不公开这些数字。
但这个月,亚马逊有一些坏消息:印度政府宣布了新的外国投资规则。乐动扑克它限制在线市场销售从一个卖方在总销售额的25%,这被视为一个公平竞争的企图。遵守帽,Cloudtail销售中所占的份额在亚马逊平台上必须25%或更少。
新规定还要求电子商务平台“不会行使库存所有权”在其网站上出售。公司内部文件显示,亚马逊是有效治疗Cloudtail库存的。在2016年5月的文档,例如,该公司解释说,“我们将需要一个子集的选择”的智能手机Cloudtail”到其他卖家,“遵守25%的限制。
这就是它了。亚马逊将采购一些手机品牌Cloudtail提供亚马逊批发,批发企业操作在印度不属于外商投资限制。亚马逊批发供应这些产品“肯定”卖家,反过来在亚马逊上卖给谁。,根据一份2016年的内部全球监管更新。
“作为政府政策继续发展,我们一直做必要的修改,以确保合规,“亚马逊说,当被问及文档布局策略。“所谓的事实说这里不能显示任何不符合“外商投资规则。
“贴现费用”
亚马逊一再表示它没有参与定价商品在线销售在印度,价格由卖方决定。新的2016年政府规定明确表示,“电子商务实体提供一个市场将不会直接或间接地影响产品或服务的销售价格,维持一个公平竞争的环境。”
规则变化后,然而,亚马逊降低费用收取一些大卖家的平台,使他们能够提供更有竞争力的价格。“我们调整我们的商业模式通过激活费用激励计划(白金卖家程序或PSP)提供贴现费用的一个子集大卖家(白金卖家)来帮助他们管理匹配”电子商务的竞争对手的价格,表示,全球监管更新文档。
在解决25%的销售限制一个卖家,亚马逊也提出第二个特殊的商人,除了Cloudtail。估计这两个特殊的商人将占大约一半的销售平台。
2017年,一个新的特殊商人名叫Appario——称为“SM2”——创建一个内部文档。这个时候,亚马逊进入另一个合资企业,与一个实体Ashok Patni家族的支持下,印度IT外包行业的先驱。
一个亚马逊内部文档来自2019个国家的两个特殊商人让“补贴费用”和访问亚马逊全球零售工具。这些工具用于库存和发票管理。
亚马逊表示,其市场费用取决于产品的类别和今年的季节,和“统一适用于所有像卖家。”
Appario和Patni代表没有回应记者的置评请求。
即使在2016年印度新投资规则实现之后,贝佐斯和莫迪政府之间的关系似乎很好。那年6月,亚马逊的老板接到莫迪的商业领袖奖在美国印度商业委员会在华盛顿的事件。贝佐斯告诉听众小型卖家是如何受益于亚马逊的印度市场。他宣布计划投资30亿美元。
2016年,亚马逊推出了'视频流服务在印度和明年推出了语音识别的演讲者。它还涉足食品零售和扩大其云计算业务。
在2018年末,亚马逊的主要的年度网络促销,伟大的印度节日,是一个粉碎。大拍卖期间,印度阿加沃头内部员工的电子邮件中欢喜。
前36小时销售“超越每一个事件在我们的历史上,”他写道。“我们对智能手机最大的一天,估计3每4在全国销售的智能手机(在线或离线)在亚马逊上购买。在——这确实是惊人的。”
新的限制
随着大选的临近2019年4月,莫迪政府再次降临。2018年12月,该公司宣布的新限制,禁止供应商市场如亚马逊股票销售产品在这些市场的兴趣。目的,政府官员告诉路透,是为了阻止大幅打折大型在线零售商。
新的限制迫使亚马逊重组关系Cloudtail Appario,的两个特殊的商人举行间接股权。公司文件显示,这两个占了大约35%的亚马逊的网上销售。
监管变化被广泛认为在印度作为一个举动莫迪安抚小商人,他的政党的选举的关键部分。正是这种改变外国投资规定,亚马逊高管Jay Carney想与印度大使,讨论严厉Vardhan Shringla,在华盛顿。Shringla现在印度的外交大臣。
问及卡尼会议,亚马逊表示,“我们不能评论会议的细节是机密。”
Shringla办公室在一份声明中说:“问题是会议在亚马逊的要求。”It didn't provide any detail on what was discussed.
2019年2月1日凌晨,成千上万的产品被Cloudtail出售和Appario消失了从亚马逊网站符合新规定的最后期限。但几天后,产品在亚马逊将其股权的母公司两个卖家。这个策略,该公司相信,使它符合新规则,根据2019年的内部文件。
亚马逊与印度政府的关系是越来越有争议。
2019年6月,商务部部长总裁Goyal穿着电子商务管理人员,包括亚马逊的阿加瓦尔,告诉他们在一次会议上他们必须遵守新的规则。Goyal钝,一位高管表示。
“我们不会让电子商务影响小店主……我知道有很多不符合的问题,”这位高管说,总结Goyal的言论。“想想它,把它正确。如果没有,我们将把事情公开,它将在公共领域,你会尴尬。”
随后的消息反垄断调查Flip乐动扑克kart公司亚马逊(Amazon)和2020年1月,同月贝佐斯是另一个印度之旅。交易员举行了小型的街头抗议,高举标语牌,上面写着一个红色的“X”印有亚马逊CEO的脸的图片和单词,”杰夫·贝佐斯回去!”
商务部长Goyal减少公司的进一步宣布10亿美元的投资。“这不是好像他们正在做一个很重要的支持印度,”他说。
还有一个齐射8月:一群超过2000在线卖家对亚马逊和Cloudtail提起反垄断诉讼,指控亚马逊支持一些零售商的网上折扣让其他供应商的生意一落千丈。亚马逊和Cloudtail都表示,他们遵守法律;印度的竞争委员会尚未决定是否需要调查此事。
还有另一个威胁:印度首富穆凯什•安巴尼和主席信实工业公司中国最大的企业集团之一,扩大自己的电子商务业务。依赖没有回应记者的置评请求。
尽管挑战,亚马逊还在继续增长。去年,它开始提供汽车保险和宣布将推出一个在线药房服务。
它还继续兜售小家伙本身作为一个平台。10月大年度销售,头版上刊登了一张报纸广告,上面写着:“庆祝印度的小型企业和企业家”。乐动扑克
路透的Jeffrey Dastin在旧金山促成了这个故事。
在会议前,亚马逊的员工准备一份草案卡尼的注意。注意,路透审查,建议卡尼说什么,不该说什么。
他应该突出了这样一个事实:亚马逊犯了超过55亿美元的投资在印度和它如何为400000多印度提供了一个在线平台卖家。但他警告不要透露,一些33亚马逊卖家约占三分之一的所有商品的价值在该公司的网站上出售。这些信息,报告建议,“敏感/不披露。”
其他公司文件显示同样敏感的信息:两个卖家平台——电子商务巨头的印度商人在亚马逊有间接的股权——占大约35%的平台的销售收入在2019年初。这意味着一些亚马逊的35 400000多卖家在印度占约三分之二的在线销售。
所有这些信息确实是政治敏感。如果它了,它可以给新的弹药小印度零售商称,亚马逊无视联邦法规,危害他们的业务和支持一些大卖家。莫迪可能惹恼了首相的政治基础包括数以百万计的这些小零售商。和它会削弱亚马逊的公共消息是小企业在印度的朋友。作为该公司表示,在一个市场营销口号在印度,它是“改变生活,一个点击一次”。
卡尼最终告诉大使还不清楚。会议发生在2019年4月,但双方都没有透露具体的聚会。
卡尼的简报报告是包含在数以百计的亚马逊内部文件首次报告在这里。乐动扑克新闻的内容可能加深公司面临的风险,因为它遇到加剧政府审查其增长最快的市场之一。文件暴露,多年来,亚马逊已经给予优惠待遇一小群在其印度卖家平台,公开歪曲其与卖方的关系,用它们来规避越来越严厉的监管限制。
印度商人,实体和较小的在线卖家,一直称亚马逊的平台主要好处极少数的大卖家和美国零售巨头从事掠夺性定价,摧毁了大量的零售商。亚马逊拒绝:它说它符合印度法律,规定一个电子商务平台只能联系卖家和买家的一个费用,不像在美国,亚马逊既可以作为中间商,直接向消费者销售产品。
该公司还说,它经营着一个透明的在线市场和对所有卖家一视同仁。亚马逊内部文件反驳这一说法,揭示电子商务巨头如何帮助少数卖家繁荣,给他们折扣费用,帮助一个特殊处理苹果(aapl . o:行情)等大型科技制造商。这些文件还显示,该公司行使重大控制库存的一些最大的卖家在亚马逊。,即使它公开说,所有卖家独立运作平台。
路透文件审核的日期为2012年和2019年之间。他们包含会议的草案指出,幻灯片、业务报告和邮件。的笔记包含一个弗兰克·莫迪鉴定的“直接”的思维方式,估计他当“不是一个知识分子。”Together, they provide a look inside a cat-and-mouse game Amazon has played with India's government, adjusting corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions on foreign e-commerce firms, amid growing agitation from small retailers.
亚马逊“不给优惠待遇任何卖方市场”和“一直遵守律法,”该公司表示在一份书面答复。“基于未经证实的报告显示,不完整,和/或与事实不符的信息,可能提供(恶意)创建感觉和怀疑亚马逊的意图。”The company added that it "treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner, with each seller responsible for independently determining prices and managing their inventory."
莫迪的办公室和印度的工商部门没有回应记者的提问。
亚马逊已经成为两个最大的电子商务平台在印度,2019年销售额接近100亿美元,据Forrester研究。美国零售巨头知道这里面临重大的监管风险。
近年来,亚马逊在其年度美国证券交易佣金披露,其业务结构和活动符合印度法律,但关于他们的解释有“重大不确定性”。可能是印度政府”最终将视图与我们的相反,“披露。和违反任何现有或未来的法规或改变他们的解释可能导致业务“受罚款和其他金融处罚”被迫重组或“完全关闭。”
带电的政治环境
2020年1月,印度的反垄断监管机构,印度的竞争委员会,Flipkart公司宣布,它正在调查亚马逊和沃尔玛公司的印度商人团体的投诉。委员会提到四个所谓的反竞争行为:独家推出的手机电子商务公司,促进首选卖家在他们的网站上,深折扣,一些卖家上市优先于他人。
调查目前搁置Flipkart公司在亚马逊和挑战之后,其他主要国家的电子商务平台。
另外,亚马逊由印度执法局正在调查中,联邦金融打击犯罪机构一直在调查该公司可能违反外国投资规则。这些探测器通常需要数年在印度,而且在大多数情况下不公开细节。
询问调查,亚马逊表示,有信心的合规和致力于与反垄断监管机构和执法部门的合作。Flipkart公司没有回应记者的置评请求。
竞争委员会和执行委员会没有回复的问题。
亚马逊是在政治环境中运行。莫迪的崛起,2014年第一次赢得选举的印度教民族主义的高涨,使得生活复杂的跨国公司。印度教民族主义团体,对外国影响和经常批评大型跨国公司,正在寻求保护国内企业的政策变化。字母(aapl . o:行情)等公司的谷歌、Facebook Inc .和万事达卡(ma . n:行情)也面临严格的监管。在电子商务的情况下,限制旨在保护实体零售商。
尽管监管和政治障碍,亚马逊在印度一直享受着爆炸性的增长。扩张是由阿米特·阿加瓦尔高级副总裁和经理印度。Agarwal, 47岁,有一个从斯坦福大学计算机科学硕士学位,通过排名上升自从1999年加入该公司。
30年代初,他成为亚马逊的创始人的亲密顾问杰夫·贝佐斯。一个公司文档,他的形象细节,包括这些线:“阿米特被选为杰夫的技术顾问在年轻的33岁。“技术顾问”是选择几个与J贝佐斯并肩工作,然后选择在亚马逊的一些最关键的角色。”
Agarwal喜欢玩电吉他和他在斯坦福大学时代是一个歌手在一个摇滚乐队叫Algo-Rhythms,根据最近版本的概要文件在印度理工学院的校友页面,在那里他有一个计算机科学学位。他也是一个喜剧演员Jerry Seinfeld的“铁杆粉丝”,根据配置文件。
在阿加瓦尔,亚马逊已经在印度加大投资。这个国家是亚马逊最重要的增长市场之一——特别是因为它在2019年宣布它将不再运行市场最多的国家,中国,面临激烈的当地竞争。去年1月在访问这里,贝佐斯宣布亚马逊将花10亿美元把小企业在印度。将公司的总提交印度投资65亿美元。
但是印度也带来了独特的挑战的商业模式,使地球上最大的在线零售商亚马逊。因为在印度的外国投资规定禁止电子商务公司持有库存的货物并直接出售给客户,像亚马逊这样的公司只能收取费用从供应商在市场上销售产品。
在全球范围内,约有58%的亚马逊实体产品的销售在2018年来自第三方商家;其余来自直接销售给消费者,该公司已披露。可以直接卖给人们在美国和其他地方包大的好处。这意味着亚马逊可以直接处理制造商,使它更好地控制其产品范围。
正是这种障碍——消费者周围的监管墙,亚马逊一直在努力克服过去十年的大部分时间里在印度。
亚马逊2004年来到时,它创建了一个旨在维护其全球业务发展中心。Agarwal,帮助设置操作,回忆在亚马逊的博客最初在2019年他的团队如何在另一个公司租了办公室的办公室,“坐在地上,写代码”因为他们没有椅子。今天,该公司表示,在印度有100000名员工。
亚马逊的主要变革始于2013年。它开始在亚马逊清单书籍和dvd。,它的在线平台。自那时以来,亚马逊采取了积极的政府限制电子商务的方法。
“测试的边界是什么法律所允许的,“一个幻灯片说在2014年的一次演讲,题为“风险分析”。The slide advised that preparations be made in the event of a visit by an enforcement body: "Establish a Strong Dawn raid Process."
问及幻灯片,亚马逊表示,“黎明突袭准备”是“全球标准练习”,指的是员工培训”从官员有关警察处理网站访问,消防部门,执法和其他服务人员对政府的责任。”
“特殊商人”
处理限制直接销售,亚马逊发现快速达到消费者和促进销售的一种间接方式。它进入一个合资企业,一个实体由印度最著名的科技巨头之一,天然橡胶Narayana没吃,软件服务巨头印孚瑟斯公司的创始人。该合资企业被用来创建一个名为Cloudtail的卖方,也开始提供商品在亚马逊。在2014年8月成立。
亚马逊表示,Cloudtail是一个独立的卖方市场。Cloudtail成立一年后,亚马逊对印度商业报纸Mint Cloudtail收到”一样的特权的任何其他卖家在我们的平台上。”乐动扑克
但是亚马逊已经深入参与扩大Cloudtail——通常被称为“SM”或“特殊的商人,”文件。
“特殊商人(SM)在8月14我们帮助SM快速扩展,通过第四季度获得规模,”一个亚马逊印度报告,日期为2015年2月23日。
“发射,稳定增长,特殊的商人;使其盈利,”报告说。
亚马逊Cloudtail有宏伟的计划。目标是确保Cloudtail占40%的亚马逊。销售”,构建成1美元+ B业务”在2015年,据报告。为此,报告显示,亚马逊帮助Cloudtail“获取键关系”主要的科技公司,包括苹果、微软和OnePlus。这包括独家处理这些公司出售他们的产品,如智能手机。科技公司有一个大的新销售渠道,而Cloudtail梦寐以求的产品,它Amazon.in上市。
亚马逊在其声明中表示,它促进了“引进品牌卖家”按照品牌的需求。
发言人Cloudtail和没吃说他们没有发表评论。苹果和OnePlus没有回复的问题。微软没有发表评论。
亚马逊方便处理的智能手机制造商,加上折扣Cloudtail在亚马逊网站上提供,严重打击了印度的离线移动卖家,说arvind Khurana认为,印度手机零售商协会的主席。
说:“整个市场干扰Khurana认为,贸易集团的代表150000手机零售商店。“有销售同比下降”在实体商店,他补充说。
目前,电子商务占4%的印度的零售市场约9000亿美元,据Forrester研究。但它的快速增长。
大约有10%的智能手机在印度被在线销售,2013年到2016年这一数字已经飙升至30%,根据Forrester。到2019年这个数据是44%。Flipkart公司和亚马逊和支配这些销售,占大约90%的在线智能手机销量,Forrester分析师Satish之一Meena说。
实体零售商告诉路透社他们努力与网络巨头竞争。卖一部手机在艾哈迈达巴德表示,尽管他出售iPhone 11 56000卢比(769美元),客户告诉他这是去约47000卢比(645美元)在亚马逊。
没有业务的
孟买手机商人伦德拉的先后,竞争是毁灭性的。2013年,他说,他的生意做的很好。它使这位44岁的支持他的家庭的三个销售大约20手机一天在他的店里高档Colaba地区。月度销售,他说,大约1000万卢比(约137000美元)。“利润是好的,”先后回忆说,高达25%在一些模型。
一切都变了在2015年的扩张在线销售的智能手机,他说。他不能与独家推出智能手机竞争模型在线或折扣提供,他说。
到2016年,他的销售额已经下降了约40%。客户会到他的店里来试着智能手机,要求无线网络密码,然后上网去买他们刚刚采样的模式,他说。2018年,先后开始销售在利润率下降和信贷继续销售。去年年底,他关闭了商店在1998年开始。最后一根稻草是pandemic-induced锁定。但他表示,网上销售的出现,杀死了他的生意。
“现在没有步行,”他说。“没有。”
亚马逊在其声明中说,“事实传达不同的现实。小型企业正越来越多地接受技术和在网上寻找成功。”
该公司表示,现在有超过700000个卖家在其平台上,其中大部分是中小企业,“无动机”来降低卖家的数量。它还说,成千上万的印度制造商正在使用亚马逊卖给国外的消费者,到目前为止产生累积销售额达20亿美元。对于数以百万计的消费者,当然,亚马逊的平台上提供的折扣是一个福音。
大约两个月后Cloudtail推出2014年8月,贝佐斯莫迪在新德里会晤。一个草案文档,其中包含谈话要点是10月3日会议准备的。它没有提到Cloudtail或其计划。
会议的一个主要目标,根据文档,是讨论外资电子商务行业的壁垒。
文档还包括印度领导人的一个简短的评价。“莫迪下午不是一个知识或学术但相信强大的管理和治理的关键是运行一个成功的政府,”它说。“大家都知道他喜欢简单,逻辑,直接思维没有过度的学术术语。”
被问及莫迪的描述,亚马逊表示,它正致力于印度总理的愿景的数字经济,相信它可以帮助通过1000万中小企业在线,其他步骤。
在公共和私人会议,Agarwal强调,亚马逊是帮助这个小家伙。提前预定会见印度驻美国大使在2016年1月,一个文档是为阿格沃尔和其他管理人员准备的。“我们致力于将中小企业的生命,“企业或中小企业,读取文档的草案中包含的话题。
2016年3月,Cloudtail在亚马逊上销售的份额。在47%左右,是一个内部文件所示。亚马逊不公开这些数字。
但这个月,亚马逊有一些坏消息:印度政府宣布了新的外国投资规则。乐动扑克它限制在线市场销售从一个卖方在总销售额的25%,这被视为一个公平竞争的企图。遵守帽,Cloudtail销售中所占的份额在亚马逊平台上必须25%或更少。
新规定还要求电子商务平台“不会行使库存所有权”在其网站上出售。公司内部文件显示,亚马逊是有效治疗Cloudtail库存的。在2016年5月的文档,例如,该公司解释说,“我们将需要一个子集的选择”的智能手机Cloudtail”到其他卖家,“遵守25%的限制。
这就是它了。亚马逊将采购一些手机品牌Cloudtail提供亚马逊批发,批发企业操作在印度不属于外商投资限制。亚马逊批发供应这些产品“肯定”卖家,反过来在亚马逊上卖给谁。,根据一份2016年的内部全球监管更新。
“作为政府政策继续发展,我们一直做必要的修改,以确保合规,“亚马逊说,当被问及文档布局策略。“所谓的事实说这里不能显示任何不符合“外商投资规则。
“贴现费用”
亚马逊一再表示它没有参与定价商品在线销售在印度,价格由卖方决定。新的2016年政府规定明确表示,“电子商务实体提供一个市场将不会直接或间接地影响产品或服务的销售价格,维持一个公平竞争的环境。”
规则变化后,然而,亚马逊降低费用收取一些大卖家的平台,使他们能够提供更有竞争力的价格。“我们调整我们的商业模式通过激活费用激励计划(白金卖家程序或PSP)提供贴现费用的一个子集大卖家(白金卖家)来帮助他们管理匹配”电子商务的竞争对手的价格,表示,全球监管更新文档。
在解决25%的销售限制一个卖家,亚马逊也提出第二个特殊的商人,除了Cloudtail。估计这两个特殊的商人将占大约一半的销售平台。
2017年,一个新的特殊商人名叫Appario——称为“SM2”——创建一个内部文档。这个时候,亚马逊进入另一个合资企业,与一个实体Ashok Patni家族的支持下,印度IT外包行业的先驱。
一个亚马逊内部文档来自2019个国家的两个特殊商人让“补贴费用”和访问亚马逊全球零售工具。这些工具用于库存和发票管理。
亚马逊表示,其市场费用取决于产品的类别和今年的季节,和“统一适用于所有像卖家。”
Appario和Patni代表没有回应记者的置评请求。
即使在2016年印度新投资规则实现之后,贝佐斯和莫迪政府之间的关系似乎很好。那年6月,亚马逊的老板接到莫迪的商业领袖奖在美国印度商业委员会在华盛顿的事件。贝佐斯告诉听众小型卖家是如何受益于亚马逊的印度市场。他宣布计划投资30亿美元。
2016年,亚马逊推出了'视频流服务在印度和明年推出了语音识别的演讲者。它还涉足食品零售和扩大其云计算业务。
在2018年末,亚马逊的主要的年度网络促销,伟大的印度节日,是一个粉碎。大拍卖期间,印度阿加沃头内部员工的电子邮件中欢喜。
前36小时销售“超越每一个事件在我们的历史上,”他写道。“我们对智能手机最大的一天,估计3每4在全国销售的智能手机(在线或离线)在亚马逊上购买。在——这确实是惊人的。”
新的限制
随着大选的临近2019年4月,莫迪政府再次降临。2018年12月,该公司宣布的新限制,禁止供应商市场如亚马逊股票销售产品在这些市场的兴趣。目的,政府官员告诉路透,是为了阻止大幅打折大型在线零售商。
新的限制迫使亚马逊重组关系Cloudtail Appario,的两个特殊的商人举行间接股权。公司文件显示,这两个占了大约35%的亚马逊的网上销售。
监管变化被广泛认为在印度作为一个举动莫迪安抚小商人,他的政党的选举的关键部分。正是这种改变外国投资规定,亚马逊高管Jay Carney想与印度大使,讨论严厉Vardhan Shringla,在华盛顿。Shringla现在印度的外交大臣。
问及卡尼会议,亚马逊表示,“我们不能评论会议的细节是机密。”
Shringla办公室在一份声明中说:“问题是会议在亚马逊的要求。”It didn't provide any detail on what was discussed.
2019年2月1日凌晨,成千上万的产品被Cloudtail出售和Appario消失了从亚马逊网站符合新规定的最后期限。但几天后,产品在亚马逊将其股权的母公司两个卖家。这个策略,该公司相信,使它符合新规则,根据2019年的内部文件。
亚马逊与印度政府的关系是越来越有争议。
2019年6月,商务部部长总裁Goyal穿着电子商务管理人员,包括亚马逊的阿加瓦尔,告诉他们在一次会议上他们必须遵守新的规则。Goyal钝,一位高管表示。
“我们不会让电子商务影响小店主……我知道有很多不符合的问题,”这位高管说,总结Goyal的言论。“想想它,把它正确。如果没有,我们将把事情公开,它将在公共领域,你会尴尬。”
随后的消息反垄断调查Flip乐动扑克kart公司亚马逊(Amazon)和2020年1月,同月贝佐斯是另一个印度之旅。交易员举行了小型的街头抗议,高举标语牌,上面写着一个红色的“X”印有亚马逊CEO的脸的图片和单词,”杰夫·贝佐斯回去!”
商务部长Goyal减少公司的进一步宣布10亿美元的投资。“这不是好像他们正在做一个很重要的支持印度,”他说。
还有一个齐射8月:一群超过2000在线卖家对亚马逊和Cloudtail提起反垄断诉讼,指控亚马逊支持一些零售商的网上折扣让其他供应商的生意一落千丈。亚马逊和Cloudtail都表示,他们遵守法律;印度的竞争委员会尚未决定是否需要调查此事。
还有另一个威胁:印度首富穆凯什•安巴尼和主席信实工业公司中国最大的企业集团之一,扩大自己的电子商务业务。依赖没有回应记者的置评请求。
尽管挑战,亚马逊还在继续增长。去年,它开始提供汽车保险和宣布将推出一个在线药房服务。
它还继续兜售小家伙本身作为一个平台。10月大年度销售,头版上刊登了一张报纸广告,上面写着:“庆祝印度的小型企业和企业家”。乐动扑克
路透的Jeffrey Dastin在旧金山促成了这个故事。
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