‘Reliance Retail to be biggest threat to Amazon, Flipkart’

Reliance Retail will pose the biggest challenge to top e-commerce players Amazon and Flipkart next year due to its wider reach and tremendous penetration of telecom arm Jio, said an IT industry veteran. Consolidation would be the name of the game in e-commerce space next year, with small firms shutting shop, leaving fewer players in an environment of intense competition, former CFO of Infosys T V Mohandas Pai said. "In e-commerce, the biggest threat to Amazon and Flipkart will be Reliance Retail because Reliance Jio (Reliance Industries Ltd's telecom arm) is there all over India; they can easily connect to all the small, small retail stores and supply to them and improve their business dramatically," he said.

"Reliance Retail will be the biggest challenger to Flipkart, Amazon next year," Pai told PTI. "In retail, India will have three

players -- Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance. Reliance has a wider reach, more physical stores, better distribution and more money to invest in India than the other two." V Balakrishnan, another former CFO of the Bengaluru- headquartered IT major, said

telecom companies are in a sweet- spot because they are becoming like utility play but added that "they have to own the data".

"Data and content become very important because telcos per se will become utilities. I think Reliance is making the right moves to own the data and own the content. That will give them strategic advantage in the market," Balakrishnan said.

Meanwhile, speaking on the Indian start-up scene in general, Pai said funding has become discerning, except for large companies to which big firms are pouring in money. "There is keener competition for funding; investors are more cautious. But the investment is going on and start- ups are coming up," he added.