Flipkart just got a $2.5 billion short in the arm from SoftBank Vision Fund and now the online retailer's capital chest has swollen to $4 billion. With such funding and capital boom the company is surely among the top etailers in the world. What stands out is the funding comes in the wake of Snapdeal's refusal to merge with Flipkart. SoftBank is no stranger to Flipkart, in fact it was mediating a deal with Snapdeal, but the minnow decided otherwise and went ahead independently. A few years ago, Snapdeal was a top contender of Flipkart and it looked that the red logo etailer would overtake it at some point. Today it is otherwise; Amazon remains number two in India.
The fund boost surely places Flipkart in the big league but is India ready for a monopoly when it comes to etailers. Logically would you like to shop from one seller only? Whatever happened to options? This surely doesn't mean Flipkart is short on options, its massive but there is hardly any free space for a buyer to venture and checkout other etailers. This could be the future scenario. As an Indian we would like to have Flipkart as a global brand but at what cost. Annihilating competition?
