Flipkart crosses 100 mn customers milestone

Homegrown e-tailer Flipkart has crossed the 100-million registered users mark, becoming the first e-commerce company in the country to hit the milestone.

The Bengaluru-based company has doubled its user base over the last year and added 25 million users in the past six months alone.

"This is a small step in our efforts to build a platform that provides quality products, affordable and accessible to millions of Indians shopping online. This milestone has further energized us to ramp-up our efforts and build a world-class shopping destination," Flipkart co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal said.

One of the most valued start-ups in the country, Flipkart has Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley and T Rowe among its investors. The company has raised over USD 3 billion in funding so far and has acquired companies like Myntra, PhonePe and letsBuy. It has also invested in start-ups like Cube26, NestAway and BlackBuck.

A recent Bank of America Merrill lynch Report pegged Flipkart as the leader with over 43 per cent market share. It forecast that by 2019, Flipkart would increase its share to 44 per cent.

E-commerce companies in India have witnessed tremendous growth on the back of strong demand for smartphones and increasing data usage. India, which is among the fastest growing e-commerce markets globally, is expected to continue on the growth momentum over the three to five years.

US online retailer Amazon and Chinese heavyweight Alibaba are making significant investments in India to capture the nascent market here.

India is being seen as an opportunity globally with a significant chunk of foreign investments flowing into the sector in companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm