Amazon has high expectations from India business:Bezos

Amazon has very high expectations from its Indian operations, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said here Wednesday.

"People feel that we are in India for the last one year; we started a software development office in Bangalore 10 years ago. In the last one year the local team is doing shockingly, stunningly well. We are open for a year and we have very high expectations," he said.

Bezos was in conversation with former Nasscom President Kiran Karnik at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The US-based Amazon recently said it was investing $2 billion in India's e-commerce space. With 243 million Internet users, India's e-commerce industry is growing at 38 percent year-on-year.

Speaking about Amazon's India operations, Bezos said in India, Amazon will set up performance centres, upgrade logistics services, and develop mobile platform and new tools and techniques to help small and medium businesses grow.

He added that India is an amazing country, which is full of opportunities and boasts of people who are hard-working, vibrant and have a zest to succeed.

While talking on small and medium entreprises (SMEs) in India, he said: "Don't be intimidated by the Internet, lean into the future and get hooked to the digital platform."

"After our first year in business, the response from customers and SMEs in India has far surpassed our expectation. We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India.

"With his additional investment of $2 billion, Amazon team can continue to think big, innovate and raise the bar for customers in India. At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales," he said.

"What is stunning about India is the speed at which it is growing and that is one of the tailwinds for the growth of e-commerce," Bezos said, adding that "India is unbelievably energising; the people are focused on learning and extremely inventive."

Amazon started globally by selling books. When asked whether e-books and kindles are threats to paper books, Bezos said the carrier of the content is not as important as the content.