Jeff Bezos and crew might spend up to $1 billion on the site to gain a foothold across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Amazon is one of the world’s most famous ecommerce sites and has millions of users, but it doesn’t have much traction in the Middle East. According to a new report, the company is planning to buy Souq.com.
Until now, Amazon hasn’t mentioned anything about the deal, but if it’s reported in financial publications like Bloomberg, it must be serious.
The company is expecting Souq to solve challenges that aren’t so prominent in the US and other countries where Amazon is dominant. A few months ago, retailers had to develop a new payment platform for a region where credit cards aren’t ubiquitous. So, users can buy products by topping up a prepaid card available at various brick-and-mortar retail outlets. Another issue is related to the delivery of products. Some regions don’t have as sophisticated delivery services as others, but perhaps that’s something that Amazon can help with.
