Japanese telecom company SoftBank is planning to invest $10bn in Indian ecommerce sector over a period of 10 years, in an attempted to expand its business into other countries.
The company has laid the foundation of the plan by buying $627m worth of stake in Indian ecommerce company Snapdeal.
India has third-largest Internet user base in the world, and most of the ecommerce giants are venturing into the country to get a piece of the booming ecommerce sector.
Softbank has not disclosed the amount of stake it is buying in Snapdeal, but insiders familiar with the matter reported that SoftBank might own around 30% of Snapdeal.
The funds pumped by Softbank are expected to be used to expand Snapdeal’s operations, which competes with present market leaders like Flipkart.com and Amazon.
Companies like Amazon eBay and Walmart are already taking aggressive measures to get larger share in the growing ecommerce market.
Reports suggest that SoftBank’s latest move has been triggered by slow growth in its home ground.
The investment was made through SoftBank Internet and Media (SIMI), a newly created unit headed by former Google executive Nikesh Arora.
The Japanese telecom company is also expected to lead a $210m investment round in India with investment in ANI Technologies, which has a taxi booking mobile application similar to Uber.
