Jeff Bezos may have toppled Microsoft’s Bill Gates to become the world’s richest person, albeit briefly, but his e-commerce giant, Amazon Inc, may have disappointed investors.

The US-based company saw second-quarter losses widening by almost five times to $724 million due to massive expansion and investments in other countries, especially India, where the company has committed $5 billion since 2014.

Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, while admitting that markets such as India have been high investment areas, said the company is positive on growth and would continue to invest further in India. “We continue to invest in India. We’re very hopeful with the progress we’ve made with sellers and customers alike and we see great momentum and success there, so we continue to invest and we have some of our best people in that business,” Olsavsky said.

Amazon also hinted at bringing its marquee products, Alexa and Echo, to India, where e-commerce is growing faster than all other countries including China. According to a Forrester report from earlier this year, the Indian e-commerce market is set to quadruple to touch $64 billion by 2021.

Amazon.com reported a 25 per cent jump in sales to $38 billion but its profits plunged on the back of heavy losses from its international business.

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