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Walmart is thinking about investing up to $1B into India’s Flipkart as the firm heats up its battle against Amazon for e-commerce dominance.
Under the deal’s terms, which are still private, Walmart would take a minority stake in India’s largest online retailer and gain ground against Amazon in India’s online market, which is projected to be a $28B marketplace by 2020, Bloomberg reports. Amazon is also stepping up investments in the country, with CEO Jeff Bezos saying he plans to invest another $3B to gain customers.
“If the deal goes through, the competitive intensity between Flipkart and Amazon will shoot up,” says UBS AG’s head of India research, Gautam Chhaochharia. And it’s not hard to see why they’re fighting—after the US and China, India is retail’s next-biggest prize. [Bloomberg]
