indica News Bureau-
Jeff Bezos is eyeing a little more from the Indian market. Amazon may follow its American peer Facebook’s footsteps in securing a slice of India’s booming telecom market.
Amazon is in early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least $2 billion in mobile operator Bharti Airtel, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, underscoring the growing attraction of India’s digital economy for US tech giants.
An Airtel spokesperson said, “We routinely work with all digital and OTT players and have deep engagement with them to bring their products, content, and services for our wide customer base. Beyond that, there is no other activity to report.”
But there was no response from the Amazon side.
This move from Amazon could be due to a recent talk of Google trying to buy a stake in Vodafone Idea, the second-largest telecom operator in India.
In April, Facebook bought a 9.99% stake in the nation’s top telecom operator, Reliance Jio Platforms. And according to local media reports, Microsoft is also in talks with Reliance Jio Platforms and could invest as much as $2 billion.
Facebook’s investment shows India is a major new battleground for Big Tech, said Amit Pau, a former Vodafone Global Group MD and now COO and Partner at Accloud.
Amazon counts India as a crucial growth market where it has committed $6.5 billion in investments mainly toward expanding its e-commerce footprint.
The Seattle-based company has in recent years also expanded its digital offerings in India via its voice-activated speakers, video streaming, and cloud storage, as it seeks to tap a rising number of internet and smartphone users in the country of 1.3 billion people.
