bengaluru american online marketplace ebay one of the first to offer consumers a platform to buy sell and also pay for purchases digitally was also the first global ecommerce major to set up shop in india over a decade ago but the nasdaqlisted company did not capitalise on its firstmover advantage in one of the worlds fastest growing markets for digital commerce now dominated by indias flipkart and americas amazon on monday in its most significant move in india ebay said it would invest about rs 3200 crore 500 million to buy a stake in flipkart joining technology giant microsoft in a 15billion funding round led by chinas tencent the company will also fold its indian arm set up when it bought local ecommerce startup baazeecom for rs 230 crore in 2004 into indias largest ecommerce company ebay india head vidmay naini the head of its domestic business naveen mistry and director of category management and seller services pankaj ukey will join the flipkart leadership team experts are of the view that the company which has delivered a fortune to its philanthropist founder pierre omidyar did not do enough in terms of marketing and strategy to keep users hooked to its marketplace model in india it also lagged behind in promoting fashion as a category which commands 2535 margins for ecommerce marketplaces in the country when the online retail market turned in india during 2011 and 2012 they did not invest said a former executive who worked at ebay india and estimates the company currently has gross sales of below 300 million mostly in the electronics category meanwhile amazon has committed 5 billion to its indian operations while flipkart has now raised a total of 46 billion in funding ebays most highprofile bet in india until the latest flipkart deal was the investment in delhibased snapdeal where it first led a 34million round in 2013 at a valuation of 210 million the online marketplace is estimated to have sold most of its stake for a profit to players like chinas foxconn and canada ontario teachers pension in the last two years when snapdeals value ballooned to 65 billion post the merger with flipkart the ebay india marketplace will continue to operate as a separate brand until the backend operations of both companies are integrated according to people aware of the specifics of the deal ebays sellers in india will have access to more buyers in the market and flipkart sellers will for the first time be able to sell to global consumers said an ebay spokesperson in response to an email query sent by et the india analytics team in bengaluru will continue to work independently the local product engineering team and the business offices in mumbai delhi and jaipur will see some of the employees transitioning to flipkart according to company executives the exact number of employees under each vertical was not confirmed by ebay india flipkarts ebay connection ceo kalyan krishnamurthy worked at ebay asia pacific for five