'India to be among top 10-ecommerce hubs globally'

India will be among the top 10 e-commerce hubs in the world by 2015 as it has the fourth-largest number of internet users in the world, eBay India Head (Partnerships and Pop Culture) Deepa Thomas said today. She said though India is witnessing many changes in 3G and broadband, there are issues with connectivity. “India is still not as connected as it should be. Connectivity beyond metros needs to be better,” she said. However, broadband penetration in countries like the Philippines and Malaysia is good. “Hence there is scope for e-commerce or online transactions,” Thomas said. [caption id=“attachment_99185” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“AFP”]  [/caption] Even so, Bangalore has tremendous potential to become number one e-commerce centre in the country. The city had been in the top five list of e-commerce states until now. “It has jumped to top three. Bangalore has immense potential as it is active on all fronts like e-commerce, imports and exports,” she said. Thomas however expressed reservation over Bangalore giving competition to Mumbai and Delhi this year as those cities have larger number of internet users. Sceptical about the growth of online group buying in India, Thomas said the space was already saturated. Bloggers and small e-commerce sites are no threats to companies like eBay, she said. “In fact these small sites wish to occupy space on our site to build credibility in the market … we actually encourage bloggers to share deals,” she said. eBay has been on acquisition spree on regular basis for gaining technical competence and entering a market. One of the biggest acquisitions this year was GSI Commerce which gives platform to set up their own e-commerce sites, she said. “Definitely there are acquisitions that have happened, but there are no acquisitions right now on our radar,” Thomas said. PTI