One year after Flipkart acquired eBay's India business in June 2017, the company is closing eBay.in as a result of Flipkart's acquisition by Walmart. The parting of ways between Flipkart and eBay was a part of the acquisition by Walmart, and eBay has also said that it will be back in India soon, while Flipkart for its part is also going to launch a new marketplace for refurbished products in India.
"Based on our learnings at eBay.in, we have built a brand new value platform launching with refurbished goods — a large market which is predominantly unorganised,"Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in an email to employees.
"With Flipkart's customer base, and F1 Info Solutions and Services in our group portfolio, I believe that we can solve the key barriers to refurbished — trust and convenience — at scale."
On the other hand, eBay will focus on cross-border trade - something Amazon also does in India through its Amazon Global Products marketplace. Although eBay was one of the first global e-commerce companies in India, it has struggled to make its mark in the country.
It invested in Snapdeal in 2014, but that was before Snapdeal's own tailspin, which led to a significant portion of the staff losing their jobs and the company going through major changes. After that, Flipkart acquired eBay's India business, with the aim of bringing eBay's global inventory to India, and Indian products to a global market.
However, with the Flipkart-Walmart deal, eBay, which had become an afterthought in the Indian market, now sees a fresh infusion of around $1.1 billion, which means that it has a runway to take a second shot at the market.
When it relaunches in India, eBay will avoid direct competition with Amazon or Flipkart, and will instead focus on global trade, which was the role it was playing within Flipkart as well.
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