The online marketplace giant eBay has been one of the biggest companies in the e-commerce space long before Amazon came into existence. It grew its business significantly over the course of the past decade and a half and eventually entered India like most other American corporate giants. However, in this regard, the company did not have much of a success with its online marketplace. That being said, the company did not give up, and now they have decided to make a return to the Indian market by picking up a stake in PayTM Mall, the online shopping platform operated by Indian Fintech firm PayTM.
In its first attempt, eBay had failed to make a dent in the Indian e-commerce market, but over the past few years, the sector has exploded. Amazon India and Walmart owned Flipkart has spent billions of dollars in order to become the dominant player in the market. In such a situation, it is not a surprise to see eBay taking another stab at trying to get a foothold in the Indian e-commerce market. Although the financial details of the transaction have not been revealed yet, sources close to the developments believe that eBay has picked up the 5.5% stake for $150 million in all. In this regard, it is important to note that the company’s global inventory of products will now be made available to PayTM Mall and PayTM customers. Considering the fact that PayTM Mall and PayTM has a combined user base of 130 million, it is quite clear that this is a huge opportunity for the San Jose based company. It is also necessary to point out that this investment from eBay is also a significant vote of confidence for PayTM. Vijay Krishna Sharma, the founder of the Indian company, stated, “This investment is a clear testament of our turnaround, and the shopkeeper commerce model (O2O) being validated by a new set of investors.” He went on to add that shopkeepers who are part of the PayTM Mall platform will also be able to source items from eBay.