Wishing you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

With the New Year, I will be taking on the additional responsibility for the eBay India Marketplace. I recognise that while this is an exciting opportunity it has many challenges that come with it. My team and I look forward to meeting your high expectations from eBay and I have no doubt that with the support of our community eBay India will continue to be India’s premier online shopping destination.

I’d like to take this opportunity to look back on some of our achievements in 2006 and outline some key 2007 priorities for eBay India.

2006 was an excellent year for eBay India. Our successes include:

• eBay being unanimously chosen India’s No.1 online shopping destination by all surveys
• The eBay brand becoming pre-eminent in the mind of Internet Users
• Strong growth in Global Trade, opening a new business opportunity for Indian sellers
• Greater safety for buyers through an enhanced Buyer Protection Program
• Localisation of site policies (with significant help and feedback from our community)
• Successfully partnering with the government and law enforcement community to enhance safety on site

While we’ve tasted success in 2006, we still face a few challenges that we need to address in 2007 and beyond.

A key priority for me is to continue to make our site simpler and more convenient. Given the explosion of organized retail, the Indian consumer has many choices and we recognize that. It will be our endeavour to ensure that eBay is the first choice for any consumer looking for a wide variety of goods, at a range of prices and wishing to have a convenient shopping experience. We believe the marketplace format is the most suitable to deliver to this consumer value proposition; however we also recognize that we cannot achieve our goals without the support of our seller community. It is important for eBay and our seller community to work towards ensuring that our consumers have a safe transaction experience that delights them; in our consumers delight is our success. As a first step in this regard, I have recently reorganized our team structure to reflect the importance we place on this priority. I know that some of our best sellers already delight their customers and I’d encourage them to share their best practises with the community to ensure increased vibrancy of our platform.

Global trade on the eBay platform has been growing rapidly and India is poised to gain disproportionately from this phenomenon. At eBay India, we will continue to evangelize the benefits of global trade to the Indian seller community and work hard to ensure that sellers understand the benefits of global trade, as also the expectations of our global consumers. Access to a global selling platform is the ultimate form of empowerment and allows eBay to create impact like no other company; it is one of the reasons I feel proud to work for eBay.

The Indian internet industry has tremendous potential and Indian e-commerce will undoubtedly grow exponentially. That said, it is important to ensure that the consumer has a safe trading environment. In 2006, we have worked closely with various government and law-enforcement agencies to ensure a safe trading platform and will actively continue our work in this area.

None of what we hope to achieve can be accomplished without the support of our community. Our community has always been our most vocal supporter and our strongest critic. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for support in the last few years and look forward to your continued support in 2007. I’d also love to have your feedback on our plans and will be available for an Open House Discussion on 10th Jan from 5 -6 PM.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Gautam on behalf of eBay India for his exemplary leadership and the fantastic work he has done in the past few years. His passion for eBay and its Community is unmatched and I am sure that he will not be an easy act to follow :-).

See you on 10th!

Best Regards,
Rajan Mehra
Country Manager – eBay India