SAN FRANCISCO/SHANGHAI: Amazon.com Inc plans to close its domestic marketplace in China by mid-July, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, focusing efforts on more lucrative businesses selling overseas goods and cloud services in the world's most populous nation.
"They're pulling out because it's not profitable and not growing," said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities. Unless someone is searching for a very specific imported good that can't be found elsewhere,"there's no reason for a consumer to pick Amazon because they're not going to be able to ship things as fast as Tmall or JD," he said.Amazon's customers in China will still be able to purchase the firm's Kindle e-readers and online content, and the company's local website, amazon.cn, will continue to exist, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It also follows the Chinese e-commerce retreat of other big-name Western retailers. Walmart Inc sold its Chinese online shopping platform to JD.com in 2016 in return for a stake in JD.com to focus on its bricks-and-mortar stores.