Jason Del Rey says, “The hottest e-commerce market in the world isn’t in the U.S. or China. It’s in India, and that poses a big challenge to Amazon and Alibaba as their global ambitions grow.

On Saturday, Flipkart — perhaps the most popular online shopping site in India — announced a massive $700 million investment. This would be a crazy enough sum on its own, except the company had just unveiled a $1 billion investment in the summer and, earlier, a $210 investment in the spring.

Not to be outdone, Flipkart’s big rival Snapdeal landed a $600 million-plus investmentexclusively from Japanese giant Softbank in October. The investment was said to value Snapdeal at $2 billion. Eight months earlier, eBay had led a $133 million investment in Snapdeal, as it attempted to align itself with one of nation’s two future shopping powerhouses”.

Indian E-Commerce is On Fire. What Will Amazon and Alibaba Do About It?

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