Amazon sees 29% jump in global losses on India business

BENGALURU: Amazon’s international losses jumped 29% to $622 million for the quarter ending March 2018, as against $481 million for the corresponding period in the previous year. The web retailer’s year-on-year losses from its global business continue to rise largely due to its India investments.

However, the e-commerce giant has been able to curtail its ballooning loss numbers compared to the previous few quarters.

It was $936 million in the red for the quarter ending September 30, 2017, and its annual loss from its global operations climbed to a whopping $3 billion for 2017.

On an overall basis, Amazon more than doubled its quarterly profit to $1.6 billion on the back of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its advertising business. The numbers boosted its shares as the company registered 43% growth in net sales at $51 billion for the three months ending March. Amazon said it will be increasing its subscription price for Prime in the US to $119 from the current $99 annually. For the first time, Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos recently disclosed the company had more than 100 million Prime subscribers.

As for India, Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky said the online shopping site will continue pumping capital here despite the high losses. “We’ll continue to invest in India where we’re seeing great progress with both sellers and also customers. And we like the momentum we’ve seen there. The Prime programme started in the first year in India grew faster than any Prime programme we’ve seen in other countries. We’re adding local and video content. We’re also adding other benefits, Prime benefits… We’re rolling out devices there, and we’re seeing Indian developers developing skills for Alexa. It is important to us that they all are still delighting customers and growing to the best of their ability.

Amazon India