Amazon is bigger than Flipkart: Bezos
BENGALURU: In a scathing attack on competitors, founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos said on Monday that more customers visit his online platform than India’s popular e-commerce marketplaces such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Jabong.
Citing data sourced from digital analytics service provider Comscore, Bezos sent an email to Amazon customers in India stating Amazon has over 30 million unique visitors a month against 27 million of Flipkart, and 21 and 17 million of Jabong and Snapdeal respectively.
“Just two-and-half years from our launch, Amazon.in has become the most-visited e-commerce site in India. This customer response continues to amaze and energise us,” Bezos wrote in his email. He also offered ₹200 gift card to its customers on Monday.
Amazon India also said the combined traffic to Amazon. in (from both desktop and mobile web) at the end of October was around 200 million visits in the month, while it was 164 million for Flipkart and 110 million for Snapdeal.
Industry sources said that over 70% of the transactions on Indian e-commerce space happens through mobile apps, hence leadership claims can be determined only by taking the combined weight of web and app-based visits.
Flipkart refused to comment on Bezos’ claims. However, a company spokesperson said nearly 75% of its visits come via mobile app and only 25% through website. According to online analytics service provider similarweb.com, Flipkart is the market leader with over 35% marketshare in the appbased usage, while Amazon and Snapdeal have a near equal share of 18-19% each.
Mumbai-based venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy said Amazon’s claims does not necessarily mean higher sales, it perhaps maybe a way for dampening Flipkart’s reported plans to raise money from the capital market.