India’s Top E-Commerce Execs Squabble Over Alibaba Entry

As tensions between e-commerce companies reach a feverish pitch in India, two of the county’s biggest executives took to Twitter on Friday evening in a public spat over a possible Alibaba entry.

Sachin Bansal, the executive chairman of India’s biggest e-commerce platform Flipkart, tweeted: “Alibaba deciding to start operations directly shows how badly their Indian investments have done so far.”

The comment was aimed at companies including Flipkart rival Snapdeal, which was backed by Alibaba in a $500 million USD funding round last year. The two Indian companies are engaged in a fierce battle fueled by subsidies, much like China’s on-demand market, though on a smaller scale.

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