eBay India officials Gautam Thakar (left) and Deepa Thomas in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 5: eBay India spends twice as much on a percentage basis on marketing initiatives as its parent, eBay Worldwide.

?Marketing expenses constituted 10 per cent of our gross merchandise volume,? director (category management and marketing) Gautam Thakar said.

The company needs to set aside a larger percentage from its sales for marketing in India to popularise the concept of e-marketing. On the other hand, shopping on the web is more popular globally, which generates a much larger volume. As a result, the percentage spent on marketing initiatives by the parent company is much lower than that of its Indian arm.

eBay India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of eBay Worldwide and acquired Baazee.com in July 2004. It is the country?s largest online marketplace, which provides a trading platform to anyone for buying and selling almost anything.

?We have taken almost a year to change over from the brand name of Baazee to eBay in India,? Thakar said.

The company is keen on establishing the eBay brand in the country through various initiatives, including creating awareness among sellers, putting advertisements on the Internet and finally attracting and educating more buyers.

eBay India has over 1 million registered users across 240 cities in India. On any day, 70,000 live listings are available on the site across 2,500 categories of products and services. It offers auctions, fixed price and classified modes of person-to-person trading.

eBay Worldwide has 135 million registered users and in 2004.