Amazon Prime service could be coming to India this year

Here comes some good news for Amazon India users. Amazon India may start offering music, movie and video streaming services besides launching its Prime subscription service in India this year. According to report, company is currently evaluating the feasibility of such services while building up a content library for Amazon Prime.

According to the ET report, Amazon India has tasked Nitesh Kripalani, former executive vice president at Multi Screen Media — which runs Sony Entertainment Channels — to get access to ‘digital content’ and the company is expected to start negotiations with Indian media houses including Yash Raj Films and Eros International.

An executive reportedly said that it was difficult to confirm by when the service would come to India but added that “slow Internet speeds”, remains one of the biggest problems in India and that Amazon is likely to adopt the “streaming” option for users.

The company is yet to appoint an executive who will roll out Prime in India, but it has started strengthening its logistics and shipping team and is expected to more than double this to 14,000 people by July from the current 6,000.

What is Amazon Prime? Amazon Prime service in the US offers customers a free two-day shipping on orders with no minimum order size. It even gives access to unlimited instant streaming of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Video (available in US) and also offers free books every month via Kindle First and the Kindle owners' lending library. Amazon Prime annual subscription service is available at $99 (Rs. 6,000 approximately) for one year.

Last year Flipkart has launched Flipkart First- an annual subscription service for frequent shoppers at a nominal cost. Notably, the Flipkart First service is similar to the Amazon Prime premium subscription service. So it will not be a surprise if Amazon India launches Prime in 2015.