Saritha Rai | The Seattle Times

September 18, 2019 at 1:12 am

Amazon’s Alexa masters Hindi — and Hinglish — in time for Diwali

Amazon's Alexa has mastered Hindi in just a few years. The voice assistant introduced to India in 2017 gets a major local makeover for one...

FILE — Employees at an Amazon order and collection point in Tumakuru, India, Dec. 4, 2018. The Indian government dealt a surprise blow on Dec. 26 to the e-commerce ambitions of Amazon and Walmart, effectively barring the American companies from selling products supplied by affiliated companies on their Indian shopping sites and from offering their customers special discounts or exclusive products. (Rebecca Conway/The New York Times) XNYT187 XNYT187

August 21, 2019 at 12:30 am

Amazon opens its largest campus building anywhere, in India

The largely untapped country is critical to the global domination plans of both Amazon and Walmart. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has so far pledged $5.5...

Employees at an Amazon order and collection point in Tumakuru, India. (Rebecca Conway / The New York Times, file)

January 4, 2019 at 5:21 pm

Rivals Amazon and Walmart team up to fight India’s new e-commerce rules

The giant retailers, which both have invested billions in the India market, reportedly are asking for an extension on a Feb. 1 deadline for implementing...

Business

Abdul Gafur Khatri, left, displays his Rogan art piece “Tree of Life” for a photograph at the Amazon.com Inc. seller workshop in Bhuj, India, on Saturday, April 28, 2018. In the town of Bhuj, tucked into a remote region that abounds with handmade crafts, Amazon.com Inc. is venturing here. Amazon is offering workshops to initiate some of the most talented – and least tech savvy – artisans in the mysteries of online selling. Photographer: Saritha Rai/Bloomberg

May 17, 2018 at 4:56 pm

Amazon helps most talented, but least tech savvy, artisans sell their wares from remote cities in India

As it fights with Walmart over the India market, Amazon aims to increase the appeal of its retail site by adding hundreds of exquisite handmade arts and...

Business

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Flipkart Online Services Pvt, reacts during an interview in Bengaluru, India, on Friday, Feb. 3, 2017. Last summer, with Flipkart losing ground to Amazon.com Inc., New York’s Tiger Global Management. sent in former EBay executive Krishnamurthy to help turn around India’s most valuable internet startup. The two co-founders stood aside as Krishnamurthy took control of its biggest sale season, fired senior managers and set tough traffic and sales targets. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

May 13, 2018 at 5:00 am

Flipkart CEO steered around Amazon to deliver Indian consumers to Walmart | In Person

The 46-year-old former hedge-fund manager took some risks to turn around the Indian e-commerce startup. That’s now paid off in a big way.

Business

An “Echo” device, center, stands on display in a set of shelves during the U.K. launch event for the Amazon.com Inc. Echo voice-controlled home assistant speaker in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. The Seattle-based company today announced that its Echo product line will be available in the U.K. and Germany starting in the fall, the first time the gadget will be available outside the U.S. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

October 31, 2017 at 6:41 pm

Amazon teaches Alexa to speak Hinglish and tell cricket jokes

Teams of linguists, speech scientists, developers and engineers have given a decidedly local makeover to the Alexa virtual assistant that powers Amazon’s Echo speakers in...

Business

An employee prepares a package for shipment at the Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Hyderabad, India on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. Amazon opened its largest Indian fulfillment center in Hyderabad. The center spans 400,000 square feet with 2.1m cubic feet of storage capacity the company said in a statement. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

September 20, 2017 at 6:09 pm

Amazon preps for a heated race in India as Diwali holiday sales kick off

Amazon has ramped up in India to compete with local rival Flipkart as the two e-commerce companies launch four-day sales as part of the Diwali...

Business

A view of the traffic during morning rush hour in Bangalore, India on Tuesday, 02 January 2007.

July 11, 2017 at 5:40 pm

Tech rivals put their heads together to try to solve Indian city’s infamous traffic congestion

Bangalore’s traffic inspired Gridlock Hackathon, a contest for tech workers to find solutions to the snarled roads that cost the economy billions of dollars. It...

Business

January 30, 2017 at 9:25 am

Trump immigration agenda’s next target: Tech firms and their H1-B visas

President Trump is considering overhauling the work-visa programs that tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon use to hire thousands of employees each year.

Business

Binny Bansal, chief executive officer of Flipkart Ltd., speaks during an interview in Bengaluru, India, on Monday, June 20, 2016. Since its founding eight years ago, Flipkart has become India’s most valuable startup and introduced online shopping to the Indian masses. Photographer: Namas Bhojani/Bloomberg

July 24, 2016 at 8:00 pm

Flipkart CEO prepares for Amazon’s India push

If 33-year-old Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal is worried by Amazon’s plan to pour an additional $3 billion into the India e-commerce market his company has...