As we enter 2007 I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the year gone by as also share some news while wishing you a fabulous 2007.

Effective Jan 1 2007 I will be taking on the role of Senior Director, International Marketing with eBay and relocating to the US. In this role I will be responsible for coordinating the marketing efforts across eBay's 32 markets outside the US. While I am sad to leave the opportunity to guide the business in India to the next level, I am excited at the chance of making a difference across eBay globally. In this new role, I am confident that I can continue to champion the cause of the India business and help make positive business changes that will help all of us.

I believe that in large part, I have received this opportunity to take on a global role because of the strong progress of eBay in India and that was because of all of you. 2006 was the first full year on the eBay platform and all of us in eBay India owe a huge thanks to our community for all your hard work, efforts, feedback, dedication and perseverance to help change things for the better. I know that we have at times taken a firm stand on areas where we did not think change was justified and that we haven’t always been able to fulfil your expectations on timing – especially on some of the changes that have global impact. We are committed to improving on that score and will do better in 2007.

This change in 2007 will be spearheaded by Rajan Mehra who will be the new single country manager for all of our India operations. Some of you may know Rajan who was the Country Manager for New Ventures & Payments till date and he has been a long time veteran of ecommerce. Rajan is very passionate about localizing and truly making eBay India customer focused by integrating all aspects of the business that impact you – from Trust and Safety, Customer Support & Account Management to PaisaPay. Towards that end and to dramatically improve the user experience we have reorganized the team structure and he will share more details about that and his vision for the Indian business shortly.

The team under Rajan’s leadership is committed to helping you grow your business and I am sure that you all will support Rajan and help him with your usual innovative ideas just as you helped me through the last many years. India can and will become one of the biggest eBay businesses over time and I know that with all your support we can make that happen much faster than imagined.

While I relocate to the US after close to 7 years with Baazee and eBay, my heart remains very much with the Indian community and I hope to remain connected with all of you. I will miss a lot of the insights from discussions in the community about the product and other ideas. Hence I have requested Sapana to keep me informed about the top community issues and interactions. I also hope to come on the discussion boards and host open houses like in the past. For those of you who sell internationally (and I hope all of you do), you may just find orders from my id and I look forward to receiving products from you in the power seller packages :-).

Most importantly I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a wonderful prosperous and joyous new year. May all your dreams come true in 2007 and I look forward to watching your business grow manifold over the next year.

Warm Regards
Gautam