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eBay India, one of the\nearliest online marketplaces in the country, posted a three-fold jump\nin sales in 2015-16. However, its losses widened to Rs 262 crore in\nFY16 from Rs 172 crore a year ago despite various costcutting\ninitiatives.\n
\nThe company posted revenue or income of Rs 392 crore for the fiscal\n2015-16, according to its annual filing to the Registrar of Companies.\nIt’s revenue stood at Rs 132 crore in the previous fiscal.
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\nIn comparison, Amazon Seller Services’ turnover for the previous fiscal\nrose 116% to Rs 2,217 crore, while Flipkart Internet’s sales increased\n153% to Rs 1,952 crore during the same period.
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\nThese numbers are not earnings from actual goods sold on their portals,\nbut transaction and listing fees from sellers and advertising revenue,\nwhich form an e-commerce site’s actual income. E-commerce firms charge\nsellers anything between 5% and 20% of the value of goods as commission.
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\n“eBay is now\nplaying defensive rather than strategic for some time as India is not a\npriority market for them. They have reconciled themselves as a small\nplayer and are now narrowing down their losses,” said Devangshu Dutta,\nCEO of consultancy firm Third Eyesight. <\/span><\/p>\n
“Investments\nby ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart have helped in expanding the\nfootprint of the sector, especially of players with a small base like\neBay,” he added.<\/span>
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\nThe company declined to comment. “eBay India is a 100% subsidiary of\neBay Inc and as a policy we don’t comment on country-specific\nfinancials,” said the official spokesperson of eBay India.
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\nThe company is now reducing its workforce in India by laying off\nengineers and data analytics professionals. Last Month, the company\nsent across an email to its employees in Bengaluru, saying, “We are\nalso eliminating full time employee (FTE) and additional workforce (AW)\nroles supporting other domains in Bengaluru.
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\nThis is not a cost-cutting decision, rather, it is a decision to focus\nresources in locations with critical mass.” A copy of the mail seen by\nETalso said that eBay will be hiring replacement roles at other\nlocations particularly Shanghai and some in the United States. “A\nlimited number of Bangalore based individuals will be asked to stay on\nfor a transition period or offered relocation to the US.”
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\nSan Jose-based eBay bought local auction platform baazee.com for $55\nmillion (about Rs 344 crore) to enter India in 2004, at a time when\nonline retail was unheard of.
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\nThe company, however, lost its earlymover advantage in India to rivals\nFlipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon as these players took to investing\nheavily in customer acquisition by offering deep discounts. Last month\nalone, Amazon invested Rs 2,010 crore in its Indian unit, taking the\ncompany’s total investment in Amazon Seller Services to Rs 11,638 crore.
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\nAccording to a Morgan Stanley Research released early this year,\nIndia’s ecommerce market will be pegged at $119 billion by 2020 against\nthe earlier estimate of $102 billion, and the total Indian internet\nmarket size (including the online food-aggregation business) will grow\nto $159 billion from $137 billion.
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