PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Global Reach
2007, more than 150,000 vehicles had been sold on the site, with much of the business coming
from large corporate fleet owners, trucking and logistics firms, leasing companies, financial institutions,
and large dealers selling to smaller dealers in outlying cities and rural areas, as well as
to individual business owners.
More than 10,000 dealers across 250 Indian cities participate. Dealers typically access the service
via cybercafes; most buy vehicles outside of their local communities and a growing number buy
from neighboring states. In July 2008, the concept was expanded to include an online truck B2C
classified advertising option that has some 700 vehicle listings. Ads are posted for 30 days and
the site enables buyers and sellers to evaluate one another and negotiate price and terms.
“How-to” events hosted in smaller cities around the country in 2007—in the holy city of
Varanasi, famous for its silks, ivory, perfumes, and sculptures, and in Jaipur, a center of gemstone
production—have increased awareness of opportunities to sell globally. At the same time,
eBay rolled out improvements to PaisaPay, including installment payments, online remittances to
sellers and refunds to buyers, 7-day phone support, and online transaction tracking. Personalized
blogs and web pages were introduced to reinforce community and encourage seller creativity in
promoting products and attracting buyers.
eBay began test marketing display advertising from Nokia, Motorola, Dell, Reliance Communications,
Canon, L’Oreal, and others in July 2008, and it opened its site to advertising the following November.
It had a global partnership with Yahoo! to sell display ads, but in April 2008 added a local Indian
partner, Komli Media. It has partnered with media and sports franchises to hold themed auctions
of celebrity and team memorabilia, and in early 2008. it attracted 50,000 unique visitors and 500 bids
with a series of 10 auctions entitled “Ten Things to Do Before You Die,” ranging from a helicopter
ride to a Monaco Formula One Grand Prix travel package.
The economic slowdown beginning in mid-2008 has taken a toll: eBay announced in October
2008 the layoff of 1,000 of its 16,000 employees worldwide. In India, that meant outsourcing of
customer service and payment operations to BPO VCustomer. Prospects for longer-term
growth, however, remain strong.
Santa Clara network hardware, software, and systems provider Sun Microsystems Inc.
set up a captive enterprise technical support center in Bangalore in 1998. With the tech
bubble underway, demand from venture-funded Internet startups soared for Sun’s
Unix-based servers and workstations. Pressed for 24/7 support, Sun had difficulty finding
qualified engineers in the U.S. to work night and weekend shifts.
By late 1999, the Bangalore facility was expanded to include an engineering development center
and a new division, Sun Federal, to market enterprise solutions to government. It had also set up
a center of competence at IIT-Bangalore. By 2001, Sun had invested $25 million in India and had
committed to double that investment to $50 million within one year—to give its Bangalore facility
R&D responsibility for a complete stock of high-end servers for global markets, to open new
offices in Chennai and Hyderabad, and to support educational programs.
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