Amazon will reportedly close its Chinese online store
Shoppers in the world's most populous nation won't be able to buy from local sellers from July, Reuters reported.
Amazon is reportedly downsizing its e-commerce operations in China.
Amazon will shut its online store in China by July 18, a report said Thursday,
It'll mean shoppers in the most populous country (with 1.4 billion people) in the world won't be able to buy from local sellers, but can still order from the US, Britain, Germany and Japan via the Amazon's global store, according to Reuters.
The e-commerce giant will also continue to operate its lucrative cloud computing business -- Amazon Web Services -- in the country, but its move away from local retail highlights the intense competition it faces from Alibaba and JD.com, the outlet reported. Those local rivals apparently held 82% of the Chinese market in 2018.
Amazon bought Chinese book, music and video retailer Joyo.com for $75 million in 2004 and rebranded the company as Amazon.cn in 2007, the BBC noted.
The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
First published at 5:31 a.m. PT.
Updated at 6:06 a.m. PT: Adds more details.
