As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos arrives in India, he is greeted by Flipkart’s aggressive “welcome ad campaign”: Report
The war between Flipkart and Amazon has escalated to an all-new level. As Amazon founder Jeff Bezos arrived in India today, he was greeted by Flipkart’s aggressive ad campaign internally known as “Welcome Me Bezos,” Times of India reports.
According to the publication, the Indian e-commerce site has put up as many as 40 hoardings in Bangalore at the airport, highway and near Amazon India’s office. All the hoardings are advertising Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ sale ahead of the festive season. While none of the hoardings refer to Bezos personally, these hoardings are seen as Flipkart’s way to send a message to its arch rival.
The publication also quotes Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal as saying that Bezos’ response to Flipkart is a “panic reaction to the fact that Amazon is not able to make any inroads in India. Our market share has increased in the last six months.”
It is not just Bangalore either, and according to the publication, these hoardings have also been put up in Delhi, where Bezos is scheduled to visit next. That is not all; ToI also cites a source as saying that a bullish Flipkart is running a campaign internally called ‘Project Victory’, which is regarded as a celebration for its “win in the first round of war with Amazon.”
Flipkart and Amazon have repeatedly tried to outdo each other in order to gain supremacy in the budding Indian e-commerce industry. Earlier this year, Flipkart raised $1 billion in investments to expand its business in the country, and a day later Amazon announced that it would pool in $2 billion in its Indian operation. Experts claim that India’s e-commerce market could be worth somewhere close to $70 billion in the next 4-5 years. The number of online shoppers too is on a rise, and is expected to touch 40 million in the next two years, from the current 25 million.
