Amazon announced Friday that it will close its food delivery operation in India by the end of the year, exiting a $20 billion sector that it entered less than three years ago.
On December 29, the store will discontinue its Amazon Food food delivery service in India. It will debut Food in India in sections of Bengaluru in May 2020. The company then expanded the service around the city, partnering with additional restaurants, although the platform was never aggressively promoted or marketed.
According to Sanford C. Bernstein, the Indian meal delivery sector will be worth around $20 billion in three years. Zomato, which is publicly traded, presently holds a slight market lead over rival Swiggy, which is funded by SoftBank, Prosus Ventures, and Invesco.
Amazon’s statement is part of a larger restructuring in India. It stated this week that it will terminate its Academy edtech service in the country next year. Amazon has invested over $6.5 billion in its local operations in India, making it a crucial overseas market. According to a recent Sanford C. Bernstein analysis, the company is trailing Walmart’s Flipkart and trying to make inroads in smaller Indian cities and villages.
According to the analysts, Amazon’s 2021 gross merchandise value in the country will be between $18 billion and $20 billion, trailing Flipkart’s $23 billion. Amazon announced on Thursday that it was closing the Amazon Academy platform in India, which it established early last year amid a surge in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Layoffs
According to Reuters, an uncertain macroeconomic environment is forcing the e-commerce behemoth to rethink its global staff. The company is planning to lay off approximately 10,000 employees in corporate and technical areas.
Other tech firms have also reduced their workforce due to concerns about an economic slowdown. Further, Facebook parent Meta announced this week that it would lay off 11,000 employees, or around 13% of its staff. And this month, Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, cut the company’s employees in half.
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