The Middle East is a potentially lucrative market for Amazon. Parts of the region are rife with millionaires, and most business transactions are done in English, making it easy for U.S.-based sellers to expand.
But it also brings unique risks, namely a reliance on oil. Saudi Arabia’s economy shrank for the first time in nearly a decade last year as concerns about a global slowdown weighed on oil prices.
Then there’s politics. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, which employed Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the time of his slaying in October by agents of the kingdom. The Post described the events following Khashoggi’s killing as a cover-up, leading to a campaign in Saudi Arabia to boycott Amazon and Souq.
Still, Amazon is aggressively recruiting sellers into the market. The acquisition of Souq was designed to help Amazon quickly gain a foothold in the Middle East, as Souq was already one of the largest online retailers in the region. But the company hasn’t made any significant moves since the acquisition.
It’s unclear whether Amazon plans to shutter Souq altogether or is just de-emphasizing it to focus on its main site. There’s some precedent for Amazon: In 2017, it closed Quidsi, the parent company of diapers.com and soap.com, which it acquired for $545 million seven years earlier. Though it cited profitability challenges for the closure, Amazon had little need for Quidsi because it was selling the same products on Amazon.com.
For now, Amazon still lists dozens of job openings for Souq, with most of the positions in Cairo, Riyadh and Amman, Jordan. The company is looking to hire software developers and vendor managers.
from Update News Zone http://bit.ly/2Wp9BmB
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