It is a well-known fact that India’s e-commerce market is dominated by two companies right now, and while one of them is the US-based Amazon, the other one is India’s very own Flipkart. However, it is worth noting that Flipkart will not be called Indian anymore as there was already a majority stake from US’ Walmart in Flipkart along with stake from China’s Tiger Global. However, the latest reports suggest that Walmart has bought the stake from Tiger Global in Flipkart which means now Flipkart is almost owned by Walmart and can’t be called as an Indian company anymore as its founders have also left the company.
Now, it can be said that Walmart owns Flipkart with more than 90% of stake in the company after the latest purchase and the company is now valued at $35 Billion as well. Walmart confirmed the reports saying that “the company bought additional Flipkart shares from some investors, including Tiger Global, but declined to share any financial details.” The company added that “We remain confident in the future of Flipkart and are even more positive about the opportunity in India today than when we first invested,” It is also known that “Flipkart generated double-digit sales growth, boosted by new shoppers in some cities and a 50% jump in ad sales” in the last quarter that ended April 30.
Talking about Flipkart, soon to be called a Walmart company, it does not have a great reputation in the Indian market thanks to its lackluster customer service situation as well as the problems with delivery handling and returns as well as refunds. The company has even stopped accepting returns for some items which has been replicated by Amazon as well. The reason why Flipkart became big in India despite the presence of Amazon is because of its presence in the smaller cities and villages of India where the US-based Amazon could not penetrate. Flipkart also started as a book-selling e-commerce platform just like Amazon but it saw the opportunity in consumer electronics and other products and quickly pivoted to selling them and the rest is history as they say.
