New Amazon India CEO Pulled Plug on IPL Cricket, Not the Country

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Manish Tiwary had only been in his new job as head of Amazon.com Inc.’s India business a couple of months when he faced a weighty decision: How aggressively should the US e-commerce giant bid for media rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL)?

Securing digital streaming rights to the cricket tournament would be a huge coup, potentially luring hundreds of millions of viewers to Amazon. But Tiwary and his colleagues would have to bid against deep-pocketed giants like Reliance Industries Ltd. In a stunning move, Amazon pulled the plug before the auction started. Tiwary and senior management in Seattle decided those billions would be better spent on Amazon’s e-commerce business.

“The final call was based on cost numbers,” said Tiwary, in one of his first interviews since taking over as country head, on the 27th floor of Amazon’s India headquarters in the northwestern neighborhood of Yeshwanthpur in Bangalore.

It’s a sign of the tough calls ahead for the 52-year-old former Unilever Plc executive, who took on his current role in February. The country of nearly 1.4 billion people may be Amazon’s most promising long-term opportunity, but it’s also extremely challenging, with tough local rivals, a cantankerous government and unusually price-sensitive consumers.

Amazon first began to target India under founder Jeff Bezos, who visited the country regularly and hob-nobbed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The company has invested more than $6.5 billion in India, hired 110,000 employees and built 60 warehouses to expand its reach in the country.

Tiwary anticipates the next stage of growth will come from pushing beyond India’s big cities to what’s known as Bharat, the less affluent, non-English speaking people in rural areas.