Amazon.com enters the Indian market

       The only surprise is that it took this long, but Amazon.com now also has an Indian presence -- Junglee.com -- which they describe as:

an online shopping service by Amazon which enables customers to find and discover products from online and offline retailers in India and from Amazon.com. Junglee organizes massive selection and multiple buying options from hundreds of sellers, and leverages Amazon's proven technologies and millions of customer reviews to help customers make smart purchase decisions.

       It's unlike the usual Amazon-model, however -- in fact, it's practically the inverse of how Amazon.com works in the US and elsewhere:

You cannot buy directly from Junglee. Junglee puts you in touch with sellers by directing you to their websites, displaying their customer service phone numbers and providing their physical store locations to help you buy the products directly from sellers.

       That, presumably, is not the long-term plan .....

       (The Indian market is obviously a promising one; the complete review links to Flipkart (which Junglee pointedly does not link to in offering users purchasing options ...) for Indian readers who wish to purchase books locally -- and there are days when there are a similar number of click-throughs as there are to Amazon.co.uk (and far more than to all the other Amazon variations, aside from Amazon.com proper).)