India features among the fastest expanding global markets for Amazon’s Prime Video business, and the world’s most expensive web retailer will seek to invest more in building bespoke content in the country.
Jeff Bezos, the founder, CEO and president of Amazon, who was on his maiden Mumbai visit, said that Prime Video has seen a 6X jump in watch time in India over the past two years.
“Prime Video is doing well all over the world… Japan, Germany, South America, everywhere… but there is nowhere that the streaming service is doing better than India,” Bezos said, during his fireside chat with Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar.
Last month, Netflix chief Reed Hastings announced that the company would invest Rs 3,000 crore in 2019 and 2020 in India to build relevant content.
Answering Khan on what changes he has seen in India in his various visits over the years, Bezos said that he has been visiting India for 11 years, and “there are no perceptible changes of any great magnitude. I noticed there are certain things that seem to me to be the same. And I love those things, one of the things I notice every time I come here is that there’s so much energy here and dynamism.”
Amazon also unveiled the upcoming shows on Prime Video, which include new seasons of ‘Mirzapur’, ‘Four More Shots Please’, ‘Breathe’, ‘The Family Man’ and ‘Inside Edge’, and new originals like ‘The Forgotten Army’, ‘The Last Hour’, ‘Dilli’, ‘Pataal Lok’, and Bandish Bandits.
Commenting on storytelling and creating engaging content, Bezos said that there are so many bad movies, and bad TV shows, because creating content is one of the hardest things.
“Telling riveting, engaging, inspiring stories is very difficult. But, when you get it right, it’s a lever that can change the world,” he said.
Bezos also said that he wants Amazon Studios to be the most talent friendly studio in the world.
When Khan asked Bezos when was the last time he visited a grocery store, he was quick to reply, “I visited a small ‘kirana’ store today. It was an incredible experience.”
Bezos added that the small little stores are also point for Amazon packages in India. “We have a whole program and we have thousands of these points of presence now, where they do their regular business with customers and they also provide a place where people come to get their packages. I spoke to this young man who helps his parents run the store, and about how it has really improved their lives to have that extra source of income. It was very moving experience,” Bezos said.
Ahead of Bezos’ visit, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had launched a investigation into Amazon and its competitor Flipkart to look at allegations of deep discounting and discrimination against small sellers.
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