Softbank and its role in e-commerce

Softbank is one of the largest investment conglomerates in the world. Some people have dubbed it the Berkshire Hathaway of the east. Its founder Masayoshi Son is a Japanese of Korean descent. The rise of Softbank to international prominence was when the company invested in the e-commerce startup Alibaba. At that time Alibaba was still a young company and it was not a major player in the e-commerce sector. This investment proved to be the rise of Softbank, as the 20 million dollar investment is now worth more than 60 billion USD! This makes Masayoshi Son one of the most successful investors of all time. This investment in e-commerce was one of Softbank’s first in many series of e-commerce investments like Flipkart and Paytm. The company’s single largest investment in India was invested in Paytm which is an online wallet and payment gateway used by many e-commerce companies. 

Softbank and e-commerce consolidation

Softbank has become a giant in the e-commerce sector and it seems the global Group wants to consolidate the e-commerce sector in a runoff against its biggest competitor’s Google and Amazon. Softbank has one advantage over these companies. It is also a telecommunication’s giant. This consolidation of telecoms and e-commerce companies will give the company an added advantage against industry titans such as Google and Amazon. Softbank plans on using its 100 billion dollars vision fund to do so.

Experts believe that just like elsewhere Softbank is trying to take on Amazon and Google in India.  The company is gearing up to consolidate the e-commerce and ridesharing sector. The company has already sold its stake of Flipkart to retail giant Walmart. A lot of experts believe that Softbank plans on investing in more than 100 companies before its vision fund dries up.