Amazon.com Inc. will invest $1 billion in India, the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market, to help more local merchants start selling online.

The plan was unveiled by Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos (pictured) at an event the company held today in New Delhi. The CEO shared more details in a statement to the press, saying that “over the next five years, Amazon will invest an incremental $1 billion to digitize micro and small businesses in cities, towns, and villages across India, helping them reach more customers than ever before.”

About a half-million merchants currently sell goods on the Indian version of Amazon’s online marketplace. Additionally, more than 60,000 local manufacturers use the platform to export products internationally, a segment that also features prominently in the company’s plans. Bezos said that the online retail giant is looking to up the value of Indian exports sold through its marketplace to $10 billion by 2025.

The U.S. Commerce Department estimates that the e-commerce market in the world’s second most populous country will quadruple from $48.5 billion in 2018 to $200 billion by 2026. If Amazon maintains its current position, a sizable portion of that $200 billion in transactions will go through its platform. Amazon and its top rival in India, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.-owned Flipkart, currently account for more than 80% of all e-commerce sales according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. research cited by the Wall Street Journal today.

But keeping up their breakneck growth could become more difficult for the companies going forward. Indian regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of Amazon and Flipkart over concerns that some of their practices, such as the way they offer discounts on purchases, violates competition laws. The country’s antitrust watchdog launched an investigation into the companies over the matter ahead of Bezos’ visit today, while a trade group representing local merchants organized protests against Amazon as the CEO unveiled the $1 billion investment plan.

The investment will come on top of the $5.5 billion the company has spent on growing its Indian operations in recent years. This past August, Amazon inaugurated a new corporate campus in Hyderabad that’s expected to house 15,000 employees and will be the online retailer’s largest location outside of its Seattle headquarters. 

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE