Amazon Australia?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 14 July 2011 18:57

Your IT - Entertainment

With Australia having a comparatively strong economy amongst its peers around the world, a strong currency and a resources-backed income source, reports that Amazon is considering both an Australian data centre and a local online presence would seem to make good business sense.

 

Amazon is one of the oldest and most well known online companies, growing initially from an online bookstore to a seller of almost all things physical and digital, with Wikipedia stating it is the world's biggest online retailer. 

As it has grown, it has become an expert in many fields beyond online retail, including the expansion into cloud computing and web services, the ever-evolving Kindle e-book reader and that rumoured Amazon Android tablet, let alone digital music, movie and TV show initiatives, streaming services and a presence in several countries beyond the US.

Amazon never made it to Australia in its earlier international expansion phase, and with Australia being a strong western economy, it would seem to make sense for the company to bring its brand of online retail and services to Australia in a directly local fashion, including a local Australian data centre.

Companies like Aldi have done very well in the Australian market, with Costco also having opened a very successful first store in Melbourne, with the Canberra and Auburn (Sydney) stores the next stage in Costco's assault on the competitive retail landscape.

Amazon's entry into the local retail space could well spice up pricing of digital music, movies, books and TV shows down under, as the company would surely want to compete against iTunes in Australia as it does with iTunes in the US, let alone all of the other online digital media store and rental services.

Just as Costco and Aldi are only adding to local business pressures for Australian businesses, so too would any further expansion by Amazon, forcing even keener competition from the likes of Kogan and Gerry Harvey, both known for successful selling, clever stunts and lots of publicity, let alone the rest of the Australian retail industry from mega-giant shopping malls to corner stores, home businesses and everything else in between. 

The news of Amazon's potential moves down under comes from The Australian, which first reported on Amazon's local Web services data centre plans, and followed it up with a story that suggested Amazon might have a local online presence planned for Australia as part of renewed international expansion efforts. 

Well, come on down, Amazon, we'll throw another prawn on the barbie for you - the more competition the better.

What took you so long in the first place?