Amazon will never get greater market share because China's govt won't let them.

Microsoft did not leave Japan, they are in fact expanding Xbox Asia and have added an Asian team to the Global Gaming Partnership and Development (GDDP) division: https://www.google.com/search?q=xbox+asia+expanding

It seems to me that in these kinds of topics, someone always tries to pin the majority of the blame on Chinese protectionism. While that's certainly a factor, it seems Amazon has not been able to capture anywhere near the market share foreign companies operating in China are regularly allowed to capture, (before feeling the pressure).

So sometimes, (like in this case, it looks like), it may just really be the case of a business not being able to adopt to the different expectations of Chinese consumers.

I was just reading the other day about why U.S. car makers struggle in Japan and that for example domestic car makers there offer the ability to customize the car to an extent U.S. companies can't compete with.

It's likely that Amazon faced enough competition naturally, given its low market share.

I think part of the problem a lot of the time, is Asia gets bundled together... I mean Indian culture by itself is varied, let alone Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, China and other Asian countries. Much more so than even intra-US variances between D and R. You need businesses that understand this, or need to stay in more localized regions and expand as one's understanding expands.

Culture is varied and in many ways everything. Competition is also biased and fierce. At least that's my understanding of things (as a white guy born and remaining in the SW USA).

I do find it funny that Amazon is pivoting to "high quality cross-border sales" considering that into the U.S. seems to be low quality, high markup sales (including high levels of counterfeits) with no end in sight.