India’s New Bill Aims to Weaken Big Tech Companies

India won’t make it easy for Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and other tech giants to enter its eCommerce market, which is estimated to be worth $32 billion by the end of 2018.

That’s the proposition contained in the country’s new bill which aims to create a level playing field for local startups.

One of the proposals contained in the draft of the bill is to store Indian users’ data in servers located in India to safeguard their personal information.

The draft also states that Indian-owned or controlled online marketplaces can hold inventory that consists of locally produced goods.

Aside from that, it recommends removing ambiguities in the rules on foreign ownership to prevent big companies from bypassing them.

The Implications Of The Bill On Big Firms

If the bill were to be signed into law, it will hinder data mining which big tech companies utilize to advance their businesses.

And since they will be required to store their data in India, they will be forced to spend a large amount of money in building their own data centers and likely encourage employment and benefits to the local infrastructure and commerce.

However, that’s not enough to dishearten Amazon, for it doesn’t mind having lower profits so long as it stays ahead of the game; its operating expenses in 2017 have, in fact, reached tens of billions.

Back in 2016, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that his company is allotting $5 billion to its eCommerce operations in India, though the figures of its revenue from the Indian market were never disclosed in its financial statements.

What are your thoughts on India’s new eCommerce bill and how will it affect you as an online seller?  Do you think we will see more protectionism from countries growing in eCommerce? Let us know in the comments below or over in our Facebook Group.

Dave Furness

Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.

Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.