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Indians go online to bid for flights of fancy
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 22:47 IST |
1 Comments
New Delhi: Quest for extraordinary feats like flying a jet, driving a Formula One car or experiencing zero gravity, are gathering momentum in the cyber world among Indian surfers. They are flocking popular online auction sites to bid for fixing a price and building enough critical mass for the firms and individuals concerned to look at this option as a new revenue generator.
"Online auctions act as a great platform for individual sellers, who don't have any other opportunity to offer their services or product, as the market doesn't exist," says Ambareesh Murthy, Country Head for eBay India. EBay recently hosted an auction on 'Eternity with Marilyn Monroe' at Westwood Village Cemetery in Los Angeles which grossed almost $4.6 million as highest bid.
Last week, around 300 employees at the consultancy firm Sapient India's Gurgaon office decided to pay to see their Managing Director Karandeep Singh and his top management dance to the tune of Bollywood numbers, reports Economic Times.
A bid was placed by the top team for their dance numbers, and the employees coughed up 
2.16 lakh for performance. Different teams across 4,000 strong Sapient Indian employees bid online to raise the money. The effort was part of a community fund raiser programme, and the amount went to Delhi based Literacy India and Butterfly, charities for street children. Bids were also placed for the breakfast to be cooked by top team went, and it went for 1.35 lakh. The whole process garnered 15 lakh.
The trend surfaced at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, too, in June last year where 26 CEOs including N.R. Narayana Murthy, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Deepak Parekh, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and Adi Godrej auctioned a day of their time for bidding by ISB students on ebay. ISB collected 6.8 lakh from the auction, and N.R. Narayana Murthy, got the highest bid at 1 lakh. The winning students got to spend a day each with their favourite CEO. The amount collected went to a charity of the choice of the CEO, who also contributed to it.
That was preceded by an eBay auction in U.S., this year, where a lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffet went for a record $1.68 million. "These auctions drive employee engagement and also add fun in the work environment," says Sapient's Karandeep Singh.
2.16 lakh for performance. Different teams across 4,000 strong Sapient Indian employees bid online to raise the money. The effort was part of a community fund raiser programme, and the amount went to Delhi based Literacy India and Butterfly, charities for street children. Bids were also placed for the breakfast to be cooked by top team went, and it went for 1.35 lakh. The whole process garnered 15 lakh.
The trend surfaced at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, too, in June last year where 26 CEOs including N.R. Narayana Murthy, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Deepak Parekh, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and Adi Godrej auctioned a day of their time for bidding by ISB students on ebay. ISB collected 6.8 lakh from the auction, and N.R. Narayana Murthy, got the highest bid at 1 lakh. The winning students got to spend a day each with their favourite CEO. The amount collected went to a charity of the choice of the CEO, who also contributed to it.
That was preceded by an eBay auction in U.S., this year, where a lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffet went for a record $1.68 million. "These auctions drive employee engagement and also add fun in the work environment," says Sapient's Karandeep Singh.
