Hyderabad To House Amazon’s Largest Campus In The World

On Aug. 21, retail giant Amazon inaugurated its biggest campus building to date, located in the financial district of Hyderabad, India. The 9.5-acre campus took a record time of over three years to build and has the capability to house more than 15,000 employees. The largest buildings ever in Amazon’s motherland Seattle accommodates merely about 5,000 workers. 

About the Hyderabad campus

According to the press release of the retailer, the campus was constructed on a 3-million-square-feet area in which the office space adds up to 1.8 million square feet. With an extensive ecosystem, Amazon expected to provide the accommodation for one-fourth of Amazon employee base in India, equivalent to more than 15,000 work points. 

As one of its purposes is to facilitate inclusion of employees with special needs, the campus features various modes of workspace including casual, collaborative, and private areas which help to boost concentration, as well as confidentiality. 

The system of rooms inside the building consists of interfaith prayer rooms, mothers’ room, quiet rooms, and more, which promise to be Amazon’s attraction to retain talents. 

Why Amazon chooses India to build the campus

India has been considered as an unfavorable regulatory environment up until now as the Modi government implemented a system of laws last year that made it very difficult for e-commerce businesses to run their conventional retail websites. Instead, Amazon or Flipkart had to behave more like a marketplace where different vendors promote products on sites. Accordingly, putting a big stake in the ground as in the case of Amazon shows signs of a political move which incentivizes Modi’s economic development project.

On top of that, such a developing country with 1.3 billion residents promises a very potential market for Amazon, which is currently the company’s key market. According to statistics, more than 97% retail sales of the country still happen in brick-and-mortar stores. That means e-commerce is contributing less than 3% of the total consumption. Undoubtedly, the dominance over this largely untapped market will probably decide the dominant position between Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in a larger area. 

Previously, Amazon has started developing Bollywood originals to attract more attenttion to its Prime Video loyalty program. The move arises from the fact that India is well-known for the admiration for Bollywood movies. Seattle-based Amazon has gone through a 15-year journey of running businesses in India. In the upcoming period, the company looks to add several segments into its current ecosystem including traditional retails, and also food delivery. Specifically, Amazon is negotiating to acquire 10% share in Future Retail, one of the largest brick-and-mortar retailers in the country.