Talent pool drives eBay to set up Global Capability Centre in Bengaluru

The quality and diversity of talent in Bengaluru prompted the American e-commerce company eBay to choose the city over Hyderabad to set up its first Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India, said Mazen Rawashdeh, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, eBay. He was speaking to The Hindu ahead of the unveiling of the GCC.  

“The talent in India, in general, is amazing. We were debating between Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and we decided on Bengaluru as the quality and diversity of the talent is really attractive here…We want to open and expand our presence with the dev centre and attract top talent. It’s a world-class tier-1 tech dev centre for us,” he said. 

eBay’s approximately 65,000-square-foot new office will host a variety of functions, including technology and engineering, AI/ML, applied research, product development, product management, data analytics and more. According to Rawashdeh, the centre, which is expected to see upwards of 300 engineers, would play a strategic role for the company and would serve as a technology innovation hub similar to those in the U.S. and China. 

“Us coming to India at this point is not a business strategy. It’s not to expand eBay’s business in India,” said Mr. Rawashdeh, calling it a ‘180-degree shift’ from the company’s previous stint in the country.  

“We never exited India. We stayed here, but shrunk the footprint, and looked at supporting and augmenting the functions outside of India. This time the strategy is completely different,” he said. 

Clarifying that the centre would not simply serve as a supporting role, but would build, incubate and architect services and functions, including engineering, design and product development, he said that it will have a semi-autonomous team.

Mr. Rawashdeh added that the company is already in talks with the government and universities, similar to how it is done in the U.S.

“We intend to build those relationships, especially with the universities from a research and development angle. That would be a great pipeline to not only bring talent to the organization, but also leverage the tremendous experience and knowledge with the PhD students and do joint research with them,” he said.