Mumbai, March 8, 2010: On the occasion of International Women’s DayIndia’s leading eCommerce marketplace, eBay India (www.eBay.in), celebrated Women Entrepreneurship with a special celebration of five successful women entrepreneurs from across the country. Representing a testament to eBay India’s entrepreneurship advantage of an easy, secure, time flexible and cost effective way to conduct business and reach out to new customers, the five women were acknowledged for their enterprising spirit and zeal for self-empowerment.

Buoyed by an encouraging trend of increased interest from women sellers toward building eCommerce businesses in recent years, eBay India announced that it will dedicate the year 2010 to Women Entrepreneurship and harness the growing potential among this segment with specific initiatives aimed at evangelizing, educating and mentoring Indian women on the entrepreneurial opportunities available.

Endorsing the fact that eCommerce today enjoys an increasingly mainstream status, the five women entrepreneurs represented successful businesses from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Jaipur in popular eBay categories like jewellery, apparel, beauty and photography equipment. Beginning as a lucrative business idea or expansion model at first; for all women, the balance between professional and family time, flexibility of time, freedom and independence of self-employment and access to customer bases within domestic and international borders proved to be the main motivation driver.

Mr. Muralikrishnan B, Director - Marketing & Product Management, eBay India said, “eBay is strongly committed to encouraging entrepreneurship amongst Indian sellers to start or expand to an online business trading across India & worldwide. In fact, 12,800 Indians actually make a full or part time living from their eBay sales. We have been receiving a heartening response from women sellers across tier 1 and 2 cities. The women felicitated today are a proud reflection of this economic progression, financial independence, personal freedom and empowerment which we hope will inspire others to benefit from eBay India’s entrepreneurial opportunities. We are pleased to announce six months of free eBay stores to all new women entrepreneurs who register in March 2010.”

Assisting her mother’s export business, 24 year old Aastha Jain of Jaipur says, “I am making money on eBay and loving every minute of it. I am my own boss. While everybody is rushing into an office being bossed around by other people, I'm enjoying my life!” 52 year old Hyderabad resident, Suniti Mathur echoes similar sentiments in saying, “My eBay selling is a hobby which makes me financially independent. I love the flexibility eBay selling gives me, I can list when I have time and when I need to take a break, my business is not affected. This allows me to participate in social occasions and family functions.” Others have turned their hobbies into flourishing business like Delhi based housewife, Preethi Arora. “I’ve always been totally in love with jewellery. But it was not until I started looking at jewellery on the internet that I first hit upon the idea I could use my computer skills and my passion to start a small business.”

Through an excellent internet trading infrastructure, eBay India has created the largest online bazaar that is free of middlemen and unconstrained by geographical boundaries thereby enabling frictionless interaction between buyers and sellers. Today, the eBay India community includes more than 3.3 million active registered users from 2,471 Indian cities. eBay provides an international platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything.

Log onto www.eBay.in/globaltrade to learn how to sell internationally and become a global entrepreneur! Interested entrepreneurs can also call 1800 209 3229 to register & avail of the special Women’s Day discount offer. All women entrepreneurs signing up in March 2010 will get six months of eBay store free.

About eBay India

eBay India ( www.eBay.in ), India's leading online marketplace, is India's biggest online trading community where anyone can sell or buy almost anything. eBay India is a trading platform offering auctions, fixed price and classifieds modes of person-to-person trading. There is a wide range of products listed on eBay India in an array of categories including Technology, Lifestyle, Collectibles and Media. eBay India is a 100% subsidiary of eBay Inc.

For further information, please contact:
Perfect Relations
Aditi Palav l apalav@perfectrelations.com l 99308 80 096

Niharika Wandrekar l nwandrekar@perfectrelations.com l 98200 66 662
Joanna Huang | jhuang@perfectrelations.com | 9820451540
For further information, please contact:
Deepa Thomas
eBay India
Tel: + 91-22-6669000
Email:dthomas@ebay.com
eBay.in/mediacentre