Survival of the fittest: Snapdeal 2.0 is about being the Taobao of India

Taobao, founded by Alibaba in 2003, does not charge transaction fees and is free for merchants

It is official. Online marketplace Snapdeal would be changing its business model for the fourth time and its inspiration, just like earlier, would be Alibaba. In the next few weeks, Snapdeal is going to change from a pure-play marketplace to a Taobao — a consumer-to-consumer e-commerce marketplace. 

Taobao, founded by the Alibaba in 2003, does not charge transaction fees and is free for merchants. It allows merchants the option to buy advertising, and earns revenues from the advertisements posted by them.

Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are used to coming up with new business models — mostly to