????而Flipkart的競爭對手也同樣繁忙。Snapdeal是印度第二大電商，它從淡馬錫和eBay等權益合伙人那里募集了超過2億美元的擴張資金。公司預計到2015年將實現10億美元的年銷售額。

????位于新德里衛星城古爾岡的Jabong最近也募集了1億美元，投資的財團里包括德國的科技創業孵化公司Rocket Internet。

????印度的電子商務公司借助國外風投資本，建立了訂單處理中心和銷售渠道，并將它們從大城市拓展到農村地區。普恰表示：“亞馬遜花了很多時間來研究市場，確實是在腳踏實地地運營。在接下來的兩年中，它將成為印度電商領域的老大。”

????這家美國電子商務巨頭沒能在中國產生類似的影響力，因為中國的監管要求使得國外競爭者要進入中國市場十分困難，這讓阿里巴巴在中國國內的發展相對暢通無阻。

????當然，盡管印度的電子商務市場有著良好的競爭環境，近來增速喜人，但在短期內仍然無法同中國相比。信息公司IHS的分析師克里斯?克里斯托弗表示：“在接下來許多年里，中國的電子商務市場都要領先于印度。中國的人均國民收入遠超印度，中國的消費信貸更加發達，國民使用計算機的能力也強于印度。”

????盡管印度的電商在努力吸引投資，謀劃擴張，但他們還需要跨越一個巨大的障礙：盈利。向阿里巴巴或是eBay的市場模式過渡也許能起到效果。森加表示：“印度的物流成本仍然很高，占到了總成本的15%。而貨到付款的退貨率也更高。”

????而國外的權益合伙人也需要更多一些耐心。森加補充道：“我不會指望印度的電商在接下來的三五年內就能盈利。”(財富中文網)

????譯者：嚴匡正

????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.