Will world's largest online retailer Amazon ever be Apple of India's eye?

Why can't Jeff Bezos buy any love in India?

Jeff Bezos is a bonafide global celebrity. He has created companies and products that have not only disrupted and transformed their segments but also changed people’s attitudes, behaviours, and lifestyle.

He has espoused his own methods of management and business philosophy. He has an interesting backstory, and his personal life is becoming of his stature as one of the richest and most successful in the history of mankind.

But will he, the head of the world’s largest online shop, ever be able to buy much love in India?

We Indians love celebrities as much as the next guy. But there is something in the country’s attitude towards Mr Bezos that feels just a bit off.  When he came visiting about four years ago, he did the whole shebang. He donned chic Indian attire, paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi, and got himself photographed while leaning out of the driver-side door of a Tata truck that had a bright yellow bonnet.

It was not just the optics. Mr Bezos announced a mammoth investment in India. He addressed a big event dedicated to small and medium enterprises. And he made the unavoidable observation about this being India’s century.

And yet, the Indian establishment was sort of cool towards Mr Bezos during his entire India sojourn. An article in the Harvard Business Review, dated January 22, 2020, summarised it thus: “Jeff Bezos’s recent visit to India was marred by protests, an antagonistic remark by the Indian finance minister, and a refusal to meet by the Indian prime minister — all despite Bezos’s promising to spend a billion dollars and generate millions of jobs by 2025.”

This was in sharp contrast to the fanfare when Apple Inc’s CEO Tim Cook came to India in April last year to open the technology giant’s first stores in the country. Mr Cook did the usual MNC CEO things, such as eating vada pao with Madhuri Dixit in Mumbai. He met India Inc leaders including Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, his son Akash, and daughter Isha. He also met Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran and others.

Most importantly, the government establishment welcomed Mr Cook to New Delhi with open arms. You can argue that Apple Inc has emerged as the poster boy of Make in India by shifting some of the iPhone assembly from China to this country, and there is more to come on that front. But Amazon’s involvement in India is not to be scoffed at.

It is not just about the investments, job creation, and exports, sizeable as they are; Amazon has gone out on a limb to assuage fears about the ostensible threat it presents to small businesses. It has carried out campaigns to digitise small businesses and provide them with a platform to address not only markets in the country, but also overseas. This includes all kinds of sellers, artisans, weavers, and more. Its India website assiduously chronicles success stories of the small people — stories where Amazon was instrumental in their success.

The funny thing is that this time Mr Bezos did not even need to visit India to invite disapprobation. All it took was the release of a report on the impact of e-commerce to revive questions about Amazon’s predatory pricing and practices in India. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who revived the debate, clarified the next day that the government was not at all against digital businesses and was in fact keen to invite investment and technology. But he re- emphasised the need for transparency and fair play, and for a level playing field between offline and online.

This left Amazon sympathisers practically agape with astonishment, their first thoughts being, “What did we do this time?” For some time, Amazon has kept a sort of low profile in India. It has not announced a big investment in about a year or so, and not made any big public pronouncements.

They also must be wondering — though they did not say this to your columnist — why Amazon has become synonymous with the big bad multinational retail wolf at India’s door. The fact is, Flipkart is as foreign as Amazon, owned as it is by Walmart, the OG of Big Retail and the original threat to small shops.

But somehow, Flipkart is still being seen as the poster boy of India’s startup success, though to call it a startup after all this time redefines the epithet, and its founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, have nothing to do with it anymore. Still, taking down Flipkart may come to be seen as a blow to the startup ecosystem, which is a source of pride and joy in spite of a few flameouts. Secondly, nobody knows Walmart in India. Yeah yeah, there were those big cash-and-carry stores and… And what?

The American giant has been canny in not renaming Flipkart or, for that matter, PhonePe, the latter being the unexpected bonanza from its purchase of Flipkart. It is not just that Walmart has no name in India, it does not have a face either. There is no rich man or woman with fancy yachts, flashy lives, or poignant theories associated with Flipkart. It has kept a low profile and focused on the job at hand.

That is perhaps the right way to do business in a sprawling electoral democracy where there are concerns that go way beyond successes and failures in business. More so, if you are a large international company run by someone whose face is highly recognisable and triggers debates.

Mr Goyal’s remarks have raised the expectation that the government could finally come out with its much anticipated e-commerce policy with specific rules. But even if that happens, the morals of this story will not change.

Though policies matter, perception matters as much. Maybe more. You do not want to be seen as the one that is creating a nation of couch potatoes. Although to address that concern, the government must first come out with a manufacturing policy banning the TV remote.