Next e-commerce war won’t have one winner

For over a decade, India’s e-commerce story revolved around one question: who would ultimately win — Amazon or Flipkart? The answer, however, turned out to be neither. Instead of eliminating each other, both became significantly larger because the market itself expanded. Between FY16 and FY25, Amazon India’s marketplace revenues grew from roughly Rs 2,300 crore to over Rs 30,000 crore, while Flipkart’s marketplace revenues increased from about Rs 2,000 crore to over Rs 20,000 crore. Amazon has also invested close to $40 billion in India over the past 15 years across its businesses. Despite years of investments, aggressive discounting, and sustained losses to acquire customers, neither platform displaced the other.