Ebay: How India's oldest e-commerce player lost out in the race

The $1.4 billion funding of Flipkart, announced today, includes an investment from eBay as well as a merger of eBay India’s business with Flipkart in exchange for equity. This marks an exit of sorts for eBay from India, although eBay.in will continue to function as a part of Flipkart. It also brings the curtain down on a journey that began 13 years ago.

Long before the arrival of Amazon and Alibaba, or even the launch of Flipkart and Snapdeal, it was eBay that made a foray into Indian ecommerce with the acquisition of Bazee for US$50 million in 2004.

Flipkart launched in 2007 and Snapdeal in 2010. Backing from large hedge funds Tiger Global and SoftBank sucked them into a race to grab market share with discounts.

The eBay model, which originally connected buyers and sellers in auctions, got pushed to the periphery with the broader range of categories on Amazon and Flipkart as well as the discounts.

In an effort to remain a significant player in Indian ecommerce, after the entry of Amazon, eBay chose to invest substantially in Snapdeal. But a US$5 billion infusion by Amazon into its Indian arm put paid to that bet.

Too little, too late

Late last year, eBay fired its product and tech team at its development center in Bangalore, in a sign it was winding down its India operations.

eBay has been trying to rethink its ecommerce model to serve small retailers and millennial shoppers, but the Indian market already has three huge players in Flipkart-Snapdeal, Amazon, and Alibaba-Paytm. Opinion: It's curtains for India's oldest ecommerce player, eBay

It’s too late in the day for eBay to adapt its model to India even if it wished to emulate Amazon.

Parking eBay.in in Flipkart was the only face-saver left for the first global ecommerce player to set foot in India. (READ MORE)

Flipkart rejig: 3 top-level exits as Kalyan Krishnamurthy takes over as CEO

 A day after Flipkart appointed Kalyan Krishnamurthy as its new chief executive officer, three top-level executives have left the country's largest e-commerce marketplace.

Saikiran Krishnamurthy, the head of Ekart; Surojit Chatterjee, SVP of Product Management; and Samardeep Subandh, chief marketing officer, have all left the company according to persons in the know of the situation.

The exits are part of Kalyan Krishnamurthy cleanup operation at Flipkart which began under the reign of co-founder and former CEO Binny Bansal last year. He has been mandated to cut losses while still growing the overall business in order to fend off an attack from global rival Amazon.

Flipkart spokesperson declined to comment on the developments. 

All three executives had joined Flipkart in 2015, a time when the company was focused on hiring top talent offering them hefty compensation packages. Since the start of last year, several of these executives have left the company as investors began putting pressure on rationalising costs and the company missed goals.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy's elevation to the position of CEO is itself seen as a move forced by investors, particularly Tiger Global, where he was employed before returning to Flipkart in June last year. It is expected that there could be more senior level exits in the months to come as Krishnamurthy puts together a leadership team of his choice.(Read More)

Tiger takes driver's seat at Flipkart, Kalyan Krishnamurthy is new CEO

Latest Business News - Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have handed over the operational control of the company they built over the past decade to Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the nominee of marquee American investor Tiger Global. 

Krishnamurthy was on Monday named the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Bengaluru-based company. He replaced co-founder Binny Bansal, who was made the group CEO. 

The change in top leadership takes place a year after then CEO Sachin Bansal was elevated as the chairman. Tiger Global is the largest investor in Flipkart by value.  

The Bansals losing out operational control of Flipkart comes at a time when global rival Amazon, in which Tiger Global holds a minority stake, is stepping up investment in India in an attempt to overtake the Bengaluru-based e-commerce firm. In the current backdrop of consolidation, the latest development may free up options for investors to explore a deal to sell Flipkart or merge it with global e-commerce players, eyeing to expand footprint in India, sources said.      

Binny Bansal has been elevated as the group CEO with mandates to look at strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and exploring new business areas. Sachin Bansal will continue to be the chairman.(Read More)