September the 3rd, 2021 - Croatian Amazon offices are being opened and employment is promised to those with experience in the field as the company expands its cloud services in Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, although this company is best known in Croatia as an Internet retailer, and the largest in the world, in the IT industry it is much better known for its cloud services.

More or less all digital services today, from Netflix, Spotify, Gmail and Outlook to the e-Citizens (e-Gradjani) platform, are located in the cloud, ie on particularly strong computers, so-called servers, located in special buildings - data centres, which are accessed via the Internet. Amazon is the first company in the world to offer cloud services, not directly to end users, but to companies like Netflix, whose entire service runs thanks to Amazon’s cloud.

Two years ago, Amazon, through its subsidiary A100 Row Inc. opened the company Amazon Data Services Zagreb d.o.o. in Croatia. Last year, the company generated its very first 1.75 million kuna in turnover, mostly internally.

It ended the year with 117,708 kuna net profit, Jutarnji list writes, but the company didn't have a single employee. At the same time, in October, Amazon expanded its business in Croatia through online shopping. It assigned the work of local and regional distribution of its packages to Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) and thus covered that part of the business. Now the technology giant, which is right up there with the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, has decided to strengthen its cloud business in Croatia with Croatian Amazon offices being opened.

First, in February, it leased servers for ''caching'', ie connected Zagreb directly to its cloud infrastructure, it then stated that it could offer its clients and customers, like Netflix, 14 percent faster data transfer to users. In the second step, they're now developing a team that would deal with the design and implementation of large cloud projects on a global level in Zagreb.

That's why, among the 15 advertised positions in Zagreb, Amazon isn't looking for developers or e-commerce specialists, but a whole range of experts who would deal with the design and maintenance of their cloud infrastructure. The list includes technicians, electricians and other experts for the design and maintenance of the infrastructure on which today's Internet rests. The conditions set by Amazon are a university degree and seven years of experience in the industry.

Amazon was unavailable for comment on its Croatian Amazon plans according to a report from Jutarnji list. The owners and directors of data centres across Croatia have also distanced themselves from making any comments, but it is known that Microsoft and Google have their own ''caching'' servers located here in Croatia.

For more, make sure to follow our dedicated business section.

November the 24th, 2020 - The words ''Amazon in Croatia'' are about as foreign to anyone living here who has tried to order something from the global giant as someone speaking to them in Klingon, but could it finally be happening? Although there has been no official confirmation as yet, it seems things could be moving forward on the until now almost unthinkable ''Amazon in Croatia'' front.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, and as Poslovni Dnevnik initially reported last year, in the middle of this month Amazon started an exclusive cooperation with Croatian on the delivery of packages for the Croatian market with the perspective of covering the markets of Croatia's neighbouring countries, primarily Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. However, for the time being, neither Croatian Post (HP) nor Amazon wants to comment officially on this business partnership.

"We can't reveal the names of our business partners, but yes, HP has become a partner to large web retailers recently and a significant increase in the number of processed shipments is expected," the Croatian company stated. However, it has also been found out that HP has recently started cooperating with the multinational online store About You, which has had a major marketing campaign on the Croatian market in recent weeks.

Amazon's technical experts visited Croatia last summer, taking the time to go and view the newly built HP sorting centre worth 350 million kuna in Velika Gorica near Zagreb. The initial deadline for opening up the sorting plant was postponed for several months to meet all of the deadlines and conditions of technical inspection from Amazon.

Just what would this cooperation mean for the HP itself and, of course, Croatian customers with the chance of an ''Amazon in Croatia'' carrot being dangled in front of them? In any case, HP will strengthen its market position and brand, and Croats will certainly be able to buy more products from Amazon's offer and get them delivered in a shorter time.

Despite the fact that Croatia been part of the single market of the European Union and all EU directives governing free trade for more than seven years now, our customers are mostly deprived of cheaper purchases through Amazon, which doesn't deliver a good part of its goods to Croatia. The main reason for this is in the fact that only about 50% of its own goods are sold through Amazon, and the other half falls on original brands and stores and where Amazon merely acts as an intermediary.

In such cases, the seller, not the intermediary, decides where they want to send the goods and where they don't - mostly for market and logistical reasons. Those who really wanted to buy something through Amazon had to, at an additional cost, rent mailbox services in Germany to which Amazon sent them the original shipment, which would then be repackaged and shipped onward to Croatia. A rather ridiculous action to have to take indeed.

Amazon is one of the most famous global brands that doesn't need to be presented or promoted in any way, but it's worth repeating that it is an online store that is twice as large as all other online stores in the world, according to specialised portals. Their revenue stood at an incredible 280 billion US dollars last year and they employ more than a million people. To compare, Alibaba had revenues of 72 billion dollars at the same time, and Wish had 1.9 billion dollars in revenue.

That sort of mind boggling data, perhaps even now outdated, speaks volumes about what kind of giant Amazon truly is, that five million companies offer their goods through this service. Last year, the founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, became the richest man in the world, whose wealth in mid-2019 was estimated at more than 160 billion US dollars, and today reaches 83.6 billion US dollars, according to Forbes.

Although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought major problems to the entire global economy, courier companies and online stores have seen significant growth. In particular, Amazon had about 650,000 employees in the middle of last year, and a year later that climbed to more than a million.

Although these are much smaller numbers, HP also profited from the pandemic. "In the postal world, we've seen changes in recent years and all the trends have indicated that the circumstances are changing. The pandemic has accelerated the trends we expected - the decline in revenue we experienced in core business, especially the decline in the number of letters hasn't yet been replaced by package revenue, but these volumes are growing strongly. This is where our investment in Paket24 pays off. HP will end this year with a positive result and an extremely stable financial picture. Almost 100 million euros of losses from previous periods have been closed and the same amount has been invested,'' HP explained.

They added that before the virus struck, their online orders, and thus courier deliveries, grew by 15-20% every year. With the introduction of lockdown, their turnover increased by 30% when compared to the same period last year. They especially emphasise that HP connected small family farms with customers through Yellow Click/Zuti Klik.

Although HP has expressed no desire to talk about concrete partners, they emphasised that their current position on the market is a confirmation of a multi-year investment cycle under the auspices of the Pošta2022 Development Strategy.

"Over recent years, HP has strongly turned to its core business and the development of its logistics capacity. The construction of the new sorting centre, as one of the most modern logistics centres in this part of Europe, has positioned the post office as an important logistics partner in this part of the European Union and the region. Modern infrastructure is crucial,'' they emphasised from HP, which will soon start installing the first parcel machines, an infrastructure that will enable users to easily pick up their packages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first 150 will be placed in accessible locations in the coming months, and users who choose to receive a package through this channel will be able to pick up their shipment when it suits them.

As for the prospect of Amazon in Croatia and many tight lips, the result of Amazon adn HP's ''flirting'' is yet to be seen.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

Somebody is making good money, but writers get nothing.

Amazon sells a doormat printed with Croatia’s flag.

This Croatian company is already working with some of the largest IT companies in the world, and soon they are hoping to bring giants such as Amazon and Google.