Online retail giant Amazon Inc. has, for years, been trying to become the biggest retail platform in India, and has incessantly been working to alter its services to suit the needs of the Indian population. The latest in its series of efforts is quite interesting, and involves allowing users in the country to read featured magazine articles on its app.
The move is directed towards coaxing people to spend a greater proportion of their time browsing through the app (and, in the process, end up buying something). The Featured Articles feature has already been made available on both the Amazon website, as well as the app.
Articles covering a variety of topics, from politics to entertainment, along with the adequate amount of sports, finance, governance, business, fitness, health, food, and even books. Also available are commentaries, reviews, and even analysis.
The best part? All the articles are sourced from authentic, and well-known publishing houses. In fact, some of the articles are not even available anywhere else (yes, not even on the websites of the original publishing houses) and can exclusively be found only on Amazon.
A spokesperson for Amazon India expressed the company’s stance on the issue, saying, “We remain focused on creating new and engaging experiences for our customers and as part of this endeavour, we have been testing a new service that brings articles on different topics like current affairs, books, business, entertainment, sports and lifestyle amongst others for readers.”
Only a few days back, the service had even opened up its doors to allow users in India to stream video while browsing through the products available on the platform. The feature is known as MiniTV, and allows users to stream videos free of costs, through an ad-supported interface. The player currently comes equipped with videos pertaining to food, fashion, beauty, news, as well as web series and comedy shows. Most of the content available as of now is old, but new material will be added to the service periodically
Back then, a statement by the company had explained the service, saying, “Viewers will be informed on latest products and trends by tech expert Trakin Tech, fashion and beauty experts such as Sejal Kumar, Malvika Sitlani, Jovita George, Prerna Chhabra and ShivShakti. Food lovers can enjoy content from Kabita’s Kitchen, Cook with Nisha and Gobble. In the coming months, MiniTV will add many more new and exclusive videos.”
