The Hindu Business Line : That's how big the opportunity is

KOLKATA-BASED Navneet K. Gupta is faced with a situation common to fathers of young adults. He, and his 22-year-old son Shahsat, do not generally see eye to eye.In fact, on many issues they agree to disagree. Except when it comes to trading on eBay, the $40-billion global online market place.

eBay does not provide Gupta senior his daily bread. That comes from the advertising business. But it does provide him his "butter, and definitely some jam, once in a while".

There are many like Gupta. Such as Sweta Sukhani, who sells a variety of philately and numismatic products to buyers from across India, Germany and the US. Or take Abhishek Agarwal who has managed to sell over 5,000 items on the eBay portal so far, including home tools, leather items, apparel and accessories, and gift items. Products offered by Abhishek have found takers from the US, France and Dubai.

As the days roll by, more and more Indians are hopping on to the eBay bandwagon, which has provided a primary source of income to no less than 7,24,000 people in the US alone. In present-day India, the number of people whose primary source of income is eBay is only a few thousands, despite the fact that the online market place has 1.7 million registered users in India drawn from across 240 cities and towns. In fact, registered users of eBay India comprise India's biggest online trading community.

Given the fact that India has 25 million Internet users, eBay India sees immense scope in offering its online platform to buyers and sellers of goods and services of various hues. Besides entrepreneurship opportunities, the online market place enables users to extend an offline business to online mode, with zero upfront investment, and also unhindered by geographical boundaries.To showcase the possibilities, as also to tap the full potential of online trading in India, eBay India has floated the eBay Academy, which is part of the eBay Academy Worldwide. It seeks to explain opportunities provided by the eBay India platform and clarify myths on transacting on the Internet. Already, 18 seminars have been conducted in different cities and over 15,000 people have been provided with the training. The idea is to conduct a total of 30 such seminars across the country and train 25,000 people in the current calendar year. The initiative is expected to help augment the registered user base by 65,000 by year-end.

Says Samarjeet Singh, Head of eBay Academy: "Our platform impacts both buyers and sellers. With the widest selection of goods and services, the buyer indulges in his joy of discovery even as he derives value as a customer. On his part, the seller gets access to the lowest-cost platform where sales move at a very high velocity".

According to Singh, while big volume turnover is currently confined to mature markets such as the US, the UK, Germany and Korea, India and China are emerging markets that have the greatest potential. No doubt, the total value of all online transactions conducted in India is projected to go up from $167 million in 2004 to $491 million in 2005.

Barely 16 per cent of Internet users in India indulge in e-commerce, the value of which has been pegged at Rs 430 crore in 2004-05, according to the Internet Online Association. "With the current Internet user base of 25 million, there is a lot of ground to cover. Most of the potential lies in `B' and `C' Class cities and towns, especially in view of the fact that the number of Internet users in the country is slated to go up to over 37.5 million by 2006", he says. Already, on an average, on eBay India, a watch sells every four minutes, a piece of jewellery every five minutes, a toy every 15 minutes, a piece of men's apparel every 13 minutes, a digital camera every 31 minutes, an MP3 player every 48 minutes, a mobile handset every 16 minutes, a laptop every 150 minutes and a Bollywood costume every 1.5 days. If the trends are any indication, the day is not far when more people in India choose to leverage the eBay platform as the primary source of income.

ambar_singhroy@rediffmail.com

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Cracking secrets

One time for all

Wings to roam

That's how big the opportunity is

EDS: Cognizant of its strengths

`Push'ing complexity into e-mails

Quiz

You can't hide an elephant

Cartoon

`Balanced view'