After Microsoft, Amazon May Now Set Up Data Centre in India

New Delhi: Amazon, the world's largest e-tailer, is evaluating setting up a data centre in India to tap into the multi-billion cloud opportunity in the county.

Amazon, which offers cloud services under Amazon Web Services (AWS), is looking to aggressively expand its foothold in the Indian market, which has players like Google and IBM offering similar services.

Speaking at a FICCI event, Amazon founder and chief Jeff Bezos said the AWS business has grown incredibly fast.

"We are always evaluating new locations. We have AWS. We started it long time ago and it has grown into a very large business, separate from our consumer business... we are building new data centres and are looking where we should put them and evaluating these in India as well," he said.

On Tuesday, software giant Microsoft had said it will set up three data centres offering commercial cloud services in India to tap what it estimates is a $2-trillion opportunity. These data centres are expected to be set up by the end of 2015.

Mr Bezos said the pace at which internet penetration is increasing in India is stunning and that is one of the tailwinds for the growth of e-commerce.

"India is unbelievably energising; the people are focused on learning and extremely inventive."

For Amazon, which launched its marketplace in India last year, India is one of its fastest growing markets and is on track to touch $1 billion in gross sales.

On small and medium businesses (SMBs), Mr Bezos said Amazon is working extensively with the Indian players, promoting several indigenous e-tailing initiatives.

He added an outreach programme is currently being run in India to train SMEs on how to use tools, techniques and processes that are available through Internet for promoting and expanding their businesses.

"Indian SMEs can reach out to the global audience and consumers across the globe with the application of right technology and right logistics planning," he said.

He further said that the company will upgrade logistics services and develop mobile platform and new tools and techniques to help small and medium businesses grow further.

In July this year, Amazon had announced an additional investment of $2 billion into its Indian operations to beef up its operations in India, where e-commerce is still in its nascent stages.

While the market currently is pegged at about $2.3 billion, a report by consulting firm Technopak expects the figure to touch $32 billion by 2020.