
Amazon launches as Junglee in India - rjim86
http://www.junglee.com/
======
jbarham
"Customers can discover over 1.2 crore products and 14,000 brands..."

I'm honestly curious: Is it prevalent to use units like _lakh_ and _crore_ [1]
on Indian English language websites? I would have guessed that Western units
like million or hundred thousand would be more common online.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_numbering_system> comes in
handy.

~~~
plinkplonk
"Is it prevalent to use units like lakh and crore[1] on Indian English
language websites?"

If you are exclusively targeting an Indian audience, then yes it makes sense.
Indians calculate salaries, house prices etc in lakhs and (for rich people!)
crores. If you _also_ want non Indians to use the site, then you probably need
to use "million", "hundred thousand", etc

~~~
jcampbell1
I assume the local languages use 100,000 as a unit, and it is hard to switch
units. Chinese uses 10,000 as a unit, so it also makes translation to English
difficult.

There are also weird words that Indians use that are Latin rooted words, but
uncommon, like "lacuna". I have never met an American that uses that word, nor
an Indian that doesn't know what it means.

~~~
r00fus
It's probably no worse than the "quatre-vignt-dix" ... 90 in french, literally
(4*20)+10... the conversion for those fluent in the language are automatic.

~~~
cgrand-net
Well, while peculiar, "quatre-vingt dix" is not a unit: nobody is going to say
"4 quatre-vingt dix" for 360.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Yes but the _vingt_ for 20 is used as a unit, like the archaic _score_ as in
_4-score and 7 years ago_. Nobody said 4 4-score and 10 for 360 either.

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spravin
Interesting.

1998: Amazon acquires price comparison site junglee.com from Indian cofounders
(later of kosmix/walmart labs fame).

2012: Amazon launches price comparison site for India called junglee.com

~~~
abecedarius
Incidentally Peter Norvig was the chief scientist there.

To connect to another recent HN thread: my negotiation with them broke down
after they asked for my current salary and I was naive enough to tell them.

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jarsj
This is hardly amazon. It's merely a product search engine that takes you
directly to the product site and shop there. Yikes.

~~~
noodle
Its an amazon product. See their "hiring" page for more obvious proof:
<http://www.junglee.com/f/1000604193/ref=footer_hiring>

~~~
jarsj
I know it's powered by "Amazon Inc.", but this is not "Amazon, the seamless
online shopping portal, entering India". Get it ?

~~~
noodle
It isn't "powered by" Amazon. It is Amazon's own product. Whether or not it is
"Amazon for India" is not the argument at hand.

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ck2
Basic kindle is $113 USD in India and $79 in USA ?

[http://www.junglee.com/Kindle-Wi-Fi-6-Ink-
Display/dp/B0051QV...](http://www.junglee.com/Kindle-Wi-Fi-6-Ink-
Display/dp/B0051QVF7A)

[http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wi-Fi-Ink-Display-
Screensavers/...](http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wi-Fi-Ink-Display-
Screensavers/dp/B0051QVESA)

~~~
w1ntermute
I don't see any mention on the Junglee page of the "special offers" (aka ads
pop up on your Kindle when you're not using it) deal. I'm guessing that the
potential advertising revenue in India isn't enough to make a big difference,
so they don't have that option. This would mean that the $113 Indian Kindle is
equivalent to the $109 US Kindle (no advertising).

~~~
djt
This is correct. It is the same in Australia

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sagarun
Co-founder and CEO of flipkart on amazon's junglee.com:

"Finally, Amazon has found use for the $250m domain name that they bought 14
years ago"

~~~
yeggeyeggeyegge
This will kick Flipkart's overpriced ass

(Algorithms on Flipkart)[<http://www.flipkart.com/books/8120340078>] Rs.333

(Algorithms on Junglee)[[http://www.junglee.com/Introduction-Algorithms-
Cormen/dp/812...](http://www.junglee.com/Introduction-Algorithms-
Cormen/dp/8120340078)] Rs.255

(Steve Jobs on Flipkart)[<http://www.flipkart.com/books/1408703742>] Rs.559

(Steve Jobs on Junglee)[[http://www.junglee.com/Steve-Jobs-Exclusive-
Biography/dp/140...](http://www.junglee.com/Steve-Jobs-Exclusive-
Biography/dp/1408703742)] Rs.538 (Steve Jobs on IndiaPlaza, found through
Junglee)[[http://www.indiaplaza.com/steve-jobs-walter-
isaacson/books/9...](http://www.indiaplaza.com/steve-jobs-walter-
isaacson/books/9781408703748.htm)] Rs.479

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robk
I presume this is driven by the runaway growth of Flipkart in India right now.
Surely Amazon wants to build a footprint so when they have products stocked
locally, then can move to a full Amazon.com model with additional sellers also
available.

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omarkassim
In some North Indian dialects, the word Junglee literally means "Crazy
Person". Seriously.

When we went with JadoPado (jadopado.com) (which equates to "fatty"), I
thought I was going with something funny, but this is on a whole new level :)

~~~
manish_gill
Not really. Junglee means crazy, but most of the time, it's in a good, fun
way. (At least that's what it has been for me.). And I imagine it also fits
with the whole "Amazon" thing going on. (Junglee, derived from Jungle.)

~~~
abhaga
The literal meaning of Junglee is "wild", not "crazy".

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vishaldpatel
In case anyone is windering about the name, junglee means "wild" in Hindi.

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sid6376
"Customers can discover over 1.2 crore products and 14,000 brands, and
purchase items directly from hundreds of retailers including Homeshop18,
UniverCell, Hidesign, Gitanjali, The Bombay Store, Fabindia, Bata India
Limited, Dabur Uveda, Microsoft India Store, Reebok, and Amazon.com."

Flipkart is a notable exception. Also a simple Steve Jobs biography search did
not list Flipkart as a seller. Great for other companies in the space, at
least until amazon.in makes an appearance.

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bigtones
Why did they not launch as Amazon ?

~~~
Andrenid
I'm curious about this too. Does Amazon have a bad reputation there? They also
seem to mention themselves as little as possible on the site... the Kindle is
"made by Kindle" rather than Amazon, etc.

Yeah they've got prominent links in the footer, but it just feels like they've
tried to mention themselves as little as they can as you peruse the site.

~~~
anand_nalya
No. Infact, amazon.com get more traffic from India then any other Indian
e-commerce site.

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Zakuzaa
Disappointed that they won't be selling things themselves. They are probably
waiting for Government of India to approve 100% FDI in multibrand retail.

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sharjeel
I'm not sure about India but here in Pakistan, the word "Junglee" has quite
negative connotation attached with it. Unless used for an animal, "junglee"
usually refers to an illiterate person with no manners.

~~~
colanderman
"Yahoo" has (had?) a similar connotation in the US.

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vineetdhanawat
Its still in beta. and more like a Product Search Engine as of now.

You can see none of Flipkart.com / Letsbuy.com / Infibeam.com (major
e-commerce players in India) products/prices being listed there.

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paraschopra
Very disappointed that they launched as price comparison website! But probably
this is just a beta-test they are doing. I know they are huge practitioners of
testing and experiments.

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siculars
Note the use of the word "crore" as in "We help you discover over 1.2 crore
products."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore>

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j45
Wow, what a great name.

I am so jealous that I didn't register it.

~~~
jarsj
[http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1998/08/03/daily1...](http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1998/08/03/daily10.html)

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playhard
RIP flipkart

~~~
plinkplonk
"RIP Flipkart"

it isn't that simple. Flipkart is aggressive, funded (150 million $ a few days
ago), has superlative customer service and (generally) satisfied customers.
Meanwhile the law of the land does not allow 100% Foreign Direct Investment in
retail, and while that will inevitably change, it will take some time, thus
giving Flipkart more competition free runway.

Junglee.com is just a 'dip toe in water' move, trying various things "for
free" in a new market (and hence non use of the Amazon trademark).

"Amazon launches Junglee in India" (the original Junglee.com was a comparison
site) is a more accurate title than "Amazon launches _as_ Junglee in India".
The site is close to useless for anyone actually trying to shop,but it will
enable debugging of parts of the logistics chain Amazon is trying to set up.

The 'real' war begins when Amazon.in launches. Junglee is just a sideshow (and
everyone knows it)

Eventually,assuming they don't enter into some kind of partnership, there will
be a huge fight between Flipkart and Amazon, but it is going to be long and
bloody and last at least a couple of years, and will not be a quick knockout.

Amazon's advantages (when it finally starts full operations) - existing client
base (I was told that Indian customers spend more on the Amazon website than
Flipkart's turnover), the Kindle devices and ecosystem adapted to the local
publishing landscape (this will, imo, be huge), better recommendation systems,
better payment systems, efficiencies of scale, (better tie ups with foreign
publishers and so) better deals for foreign books and products, way deeper
pockets.

Flipkart's advantages - (relatively) nimble, speed of decision making (Amazon
will likely replicate its middle management heavy organizational structure,
and bureaucracy), a satisfied customer base and good will, and a time
advantage in working out the kinks in logistics and delivery.

Most importantly, Flipkart is running for their life, where Amazon is running
for an extra spoon of dessert. I wouldn't underestimate this factor.

So if I had to bet, I'd bet on Amazon to "win" in the long run, but I would
bet only money I am prepared to lose, and it is a very long way from "RIP
Flipkart"

~~~
gnufied
"Indian customers spend more on the Amazon website than Flipkart's turnover."

Got anything to support that? My experience suggests otherwise.

~~~
plinkplonk
No source I can point to, just something that a friend who works at Amazon
told me when we discussed the coming Flipkart vs Amazon war. I don't think
Amazon publishes revenue broken down by country. (and even if they do I am not
aware of it - I am a hacker, not an Industry/finance analyst :p).

There are some 'figures' here. [http://www.quora.com/What-is-an-estimate-for-
revenues-gross-...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-an-estimate-for-revenues-
gross-or-net-and-the-number-of-transactions-per-day-on-popular-e-commerce-
sites-in-India-Flipkart-Naaptol-etc) According to Mahesh Murthy Flipkart (or
did, at some random point in time) Rs 55,00,000 worth of revenue (not profit)
a day . That is about 100,000 US $ worth, which equates to about 36 million US
$ a year

Again these are all estimates, by hearsay.I don't think anyone except people
working at or investing in the companies have solid information.

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notatoad
i wish the amazon i used had such a clean interface.

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drivebyacct2
I'm jealous of their clean interface. Amazon is honestly a bit annoying to use
due to the density of stuff that feels jumbled. That and their over use of
really-super (sorry typograph enthusiasts, I don't know better) over-hinted
font text images.

