The meal delivery service that the e-commerce behemoth was testing in India will be shutting down, according to Amazon India. This choice was made just one day after Amazon revealed that its online learning platform for Indian high school students will be shutting down. The Bengaluru test market for Amazon Food will now be abandoned.
“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Food,” said the brand’s spokesperson to Reuters.
The organisation went on to say that it doesn’t take these decisions carelessly and that these operations would be shut down gradually in order to look after present clients and business partners. It’s unclear why Amazon Food was shut down, however it may have been because of the popularity of current competitors like Zomato and Swiggy.
The Economic Times previously reported that Amazon Food would be discontinued after December 29. This assertion was supported by a letter the corporation sent to its restaurant partners.
Remember that the COVID lockdown in India coincided with the launch of Amazon Food in May 2020, which also experienced an increase in online food delivery around that time. Initially, only a few parts of Bangalore, including Bellandur, Haralur, Marathalli, and Whitefield, had access to the service. The main Amazon app, which displayed a directory of nearby restaurants and cloud kitchens, allowed users to access the food delivery services. Back then, Amazon said that products had passed the strictest safety and hygiene requirements. Due to competition from Swiggy and Zomato, Amazon was unable to launch its food delivery services in all of India’s planned cities.
Amazon also announced that it would be closing down the Amazon Academy platform in India in addition to food delivery. Again, the rise in virtual learning during the epidemic led to the development of this at the beginning of last year. Due to the hazy financial situation, the corporation is reportedly planning to fire 10,000 people in corporate and technical areas. Not just Amazon, but also Facebook (Meta), Twitter, and many more significant internet behemoths engaged in a massive round of layoffs recently.
