Amazon.com plans to start making its TV streaming device in India this year through a subsidiary of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, the US tech giant said on Tuesday.
The Fire TV Stick will be made by Foxconn’s arm Cloud Network Technology in Chennai. Amazon said hundreds of thousands of Fire TV Sticks would be produced per year to meet the demands of Indian customers.
Amazon’s move to make the device in India comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving a big push to make the country a hub for electronics manufacturing and creating jobs.
“Amazon will continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional cities depending on the domestic demand,” the company said in a blog post.
There has been a surge in the growth of video and audio streaming services such as Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix in India on the back of cheap data tariffs resulting from the price war triggered by Reliance Jio. This has created a market for streaming devices such as the Fire stick.
The Modi government’s Aatamnirbhar Bharat drive has already attracted iPhone makers Foxconn and Wistron to expand in India. Another major contract manufacturer Pegatron has also set up base in the country.
India has already emerged as the world’s second-biggest mobile manufacturer. The size of the huge country’s huge domestic market is a major attraction for manufacturing companies.