下一个阿里巴巴将来自印度？

    而Flipkart的竞争对手也同样繁忙。Snapdeal是印度第二大电商，它从淡马锡和eBay等权益合伙人那里募集了超过2亿美元的扩张资金。公司预计到2015年将实现10亿美元的年销售额。

    位于新德里卫星城古尔冈的Jabong最近也募集了1亿美元，投资的财团里包括德国的科技创业孵化公司Rocket Internet。

    印度的电子商务公司借助国外风投资本，建立了订单处理中心和销售渠道，并将它们从大城市拓展到农村地区。普恰表示：“亚马逊花了很多时间来研究市场，确实是在脚踏实地地运营。在接下来的两年中，它将成为印度电商领域的老大。”

    这家美国电子商务巨头没能在中国产生类似的影响力，因为中国的监管要求使得国外竞争者要进入中国市场十分困难，这让阿里巴巴在中国国内的发展相对畅通无阻。

    当然，尽管印度的电子商务市场有着良好的竞争环境，近来增速喜人，但在短期内仍然无法同中国相比。信息公司IHS的分析师克里斯•克里斯托弗表示：“在接下来许多年里，中国的电子商务市场都要领先于印度。中国的人均国民收入远超印度，中国的消费信贷更加发达，国民使用计算机的能力也强于印度。”

    尽管印度的电商在努力吸引投资，谋划扩张，但他们还需要跨越一个巨大的障碍：盈利。向阿里巴巴或是eBay的市场模式过渡也许能起到效果。森加表示：“印度的物流成本仍然很高，占到了总成本的15%。而货到付款的退货率也更高。”

    而国外的权益合伙人也需要更多一些耐心。森加补充道：“我不会指望印度的电商在接下来的三五年内就能盈利。”(财富中文网)

    译者：严匡正

    Its rivals have been similarly busy. Snapdeal is the second-largest domestic player and has raised more than $200 million in expansion capital from equity partners that include sovereign wealth fund Temasek and eBay. It expects to achieve $1 billion in annual sales by 2015.

    Jabong, which is based in Gurgaon outside New Delhi, recently raised $100 million from a consortium of investors including the German tech incubator Rocket Internet.

    Foreign venture capital is being used by India’s e-commerce players to establish order processing centers and distribution channels that move beyond larger cities into rural communities. “Amazon took its time to study the market and really hit the ground running,” Putcha says. “It will be No. 1 in India in the next two years.”

    The American e-commerce giant was not able to make a similar impact in China because regulatory requirements made the entry of international competitors much more difficult, leaving Alibaba a relatively unobstructed run at domestic growth.

    Still, for all the competition and recent growth, the size of India’s e-commerce market will not rival that of China anytime soon. “China will outpace India’s e-commerce market for many years to come,” says Chris Christopher, an analyst at IHS. “Per-capita income levels are significantly higher in China than in India, Chinese access to consumer credit is more developed, and computer literacy is generally higher in China.”

    For all the investment and aggressive expansion, there’s one a big hurdle that India’s e-tailers have yet to leap: turning a profit. Transitioning to an Alibaba- or eBay-style marketplace model may help. “The logistics cost is still high, in the range of 15 percent of total cost, with higher returns especially for cash on delivery goods,” Sengar says.

    So will additional patience from foreign equity partners. “I don’t expect the players to be profitable in next three to five years,” he added.