Brief: Amazon plots China fightback with hiring spree

Jeff Bezos. Photo credit: Amazon.

The news (from South China Morning Post):

• Amazon is on a hiring spree in China, listing around 400 Chinese-based openings on its own careers website plus more than 900 on its LinkedIn.
• The listings, which include senior executive roles, cover the shopping business, content, hardware, Amazon Web Services, and expansion of Amazon Lending.
• The move might signal that Amazon, which first launched in China in 2004, is looking to grow its marketplace alongside possible new launches in China for its personal assistant Alexa and the Amazon Prime streaming service.

Why it matters:

• Although Amazon is no stranger to China, Chinese shoppers are not familiar with Amazon. Jeff Bezos’ company accounted for only 0.8 percent of China’s trillion-dollar online shopping industry in 2016, according to iResearch.
• The hiring suggests Amazon is seeking to revitalize its Chinese business, which has long struggled in the face of homegrown Alibaba and JD.
• The job listings come after Amazon opened a new office in Hangzhou, hometown of Jack Ma’s Alibaba. Plus Amazon has already been recruiting a Chinese content team to negotiate deals for movies and TV shows.