Online retailer Amazon.com has opened a development centre in Cape Town, and is seeking software programmers to help expand the company's web services offering.

The software development centre will be used to create new web services and help software developers build innovative applications using its technology, it announced on Tuesday.

According to Business Day, the developers will design software which other retail firms can use to build their own links to the main Amazon.com websites, as well as focusing on information security features and network engineering.

The centre is the Nasdaq-listed company's third such centre in the world, after India and Scotland.

UUNET co-founder Chris Pinkham, who has worked for Amazon.com for the past five years, will head the centre. The launch of the local centre is a testament "to the calibre of the highly-skilled talent pool in South Africa", he said.

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