Amazon.com Inc is planning to launch a food delivery service in India before the end of this year. The food service is expected to launch in September before the long festive season in India. It will be a part of the “Prime” service which offers faster delivery, free on-demand music and videos, early access to various promotional deals and more.
According to a report by Reuters, the Seattle-based tech giant is working with Catamaran, a company founded by Infosys founder Narayana Murthy to launch its online food delivery service in the country. The company already started the hiring process for the service.
Another report indicates that Amazon is also talking with Uber to buy UberEats, a food delivery app by Uber Technologies that was launched in India back in 2017. But in all these years Uber Eat has found it almost impossible to get a foothold in the country. On the valuation of Uber Eats, it is estimated that it could be in the region of $300 million.
Food delivery service in India is dominated by the startups Swiggy and Zomato. Although Swiggy is backed by Naspers and Tencent and Zomato is backed by Sequoia. In India Swiggy services 800,000 orders a day and Zomato serves 650,000 orders a day. Uber rival Ola also launched a food delivery service and bought Foodpanda in 2017. That company is now moving away from marketplace deliveries and focusing on its own brand of kitchens.
It will be interesting to see if Amazon’s food service can grab market share in India. Given that a global giant like Uber has failed to keep up with its Indian competitors. It should also be noted that the Amazon last month closed its food delivery business in the United States owing to stiff competition.