eBay India signs MoU with Cultuzz to empower the travel category in India

November 14, 2006: eBay India, India’s leading online marketplace, today announced a strategic partnership with Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH, providers of technical and content solutions for the travel vertical. Through the partnership, Cultuzz will provide travel content (both airline and hotel packages) for the eBay India platform (www.ebay.in), enabling the 2 million eBay India community spread across 670 towns to book great deals on travel easily and conveniently from their homes or offices.

The eBay India Travel category has immense potential for the travel industry to tap into the potential consumer base of the 212 million global community of eBay members worldwide, thus providing travel agents and travel operators with access to inbound tourists or NRIs. The easy to use eBay interface will offer consumers an option of booking travel products in both auction and fixed price formats. By listing on eBay India, travel companies will realise the dual benefit of higher price on high-demand inventory as well as higher occupancy on relatively low-demand inventory.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Gautam Thakar, Country Manager, eBay India, Marketplace stated, “The travel industry in India is booming and several initiatives are being undertaken to promote this sector. Over time, the consumer response towards using the net for travel purchases has increased enormously largely driven by the price advantage and the convenience. We foresee a great demand from our users, who are looking to explore the domestic and international travel packages market on the eBay India platform. The association with Cultuzz will help us provide wider and better travel options for our community.”

Michael Hughes, Global Director of Sales & Marketing, Cultuzz said, “We are delighted to be enabling travel operators in India to set up travel seller accounts and add to their business, by integrating them into the global eBay Marketplace. Our partnership globally, has received a great response and we would like to offer our expertise to the Indian market to make travel comfortable, convenient and memorable. With our vast domain knowledge we hope to enhance and grow the travel category on eBay. Understanding and utilizing the eBay model, we at Cultuzz have the technology and the expertise to enable the smallest travel company in India to sell globally and be a part of the worlds biggest online marketplace. “

With the advent of travel and tourism in India, the travel category on eBay India has been receiving a remarkable response especially during festive seasons, where travellers from cities as diverse as Alleppy to Ziro are keen to bid for travel. Through this partnership, Cultuzz will enter the booming online travel market in India providing end to end travel solutions to the eBay India community. To sign up, interested travel operators can email: [email protected]

About Cultuzz
Cultuzz Digital Media GmbH was founded in Berlin in the year 2000. Cultuzz provides a suite of integrated software solutions to the tourism and hospitality industry designed to make the processing, managing and transacting of E-Commerce more efficient using state of the art solutions. The Cultuzz product suite is OTA compliant (Open Travel Alliance) ensuring that system-to-system interfaces are achieved with minimal additional resource requirements. Cultuzz has more than 3000 hotel partners in Europe, Asia and Australia making them the largest deliverer of auction hotel content to eBay globally.

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 are a wide range of products listed on eBay India in an array of categories including Apparel & Accessories, Books & Magazines, Cameras & Optics, Cars & Bikes, Coins & Stamps, Computers & Peripherals, Consumer Electronics, Fitness & Sports, Health & Beauty, Hobbies & Collectibles, Home, Décor & Furnishings, Jewellery, and Kitchen & Home Appliances. Mobiles & Accessories, Movies & Music, Musical Instruments, Services & Real Estate, Tools & Hardware, Toys, Games & Baby, Travel, Tickets & Vouchers, Video & Computer Games, Watches and Everything Else. eBay India is a 100% subsidiary of eBay Inc.

About eBay
Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. Through an array of services, such as its payment solution provider PayPal, eBay is enabling global e-commerce for an ever-growing online community.

eBay is The World’s Online Marketplace®.