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**Kristijntje** · 11-12-2005, 11:19 AM,

Quote:While eBay has been working hard on its own Chinese e-commerce business the "brand strength" will not be enough to sway China's consumers to trust an American e-commerce source when they can find the same opportunities in a home-grown business, which Ma is banking on to the tune of $1 billion dollars.
...
...The point of relating the eBay "baby for sale" story is that this would never have happened on Alibaba due to its pure China management rather than half-U.S.-based influences and operating practices.

In the U.S. too, eBay was under investigation by several state securities regulators for its practice of using a mutual fund approach to depositing funds from sales that were to be credited and paid to customers. While no formal securities charges came of the probe, eBay corporate never disclosed it was under investigation either.

If Alibaba's Ma is successful, eBay China could follow in the footsteps of Yahoo and a sale of its business there could be in the making.

full article: http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsect...cleid=6591

xppman · 11-12-2005, 03:12 PM,

Quote:While no formal securities charges came of the probe, eBay corporate never disclosed it was under investigation either.

Why does this not surprise me?

Quote:If Alibaba's Ma is successful, eBay China could follow in the footsteps of Yahoo and a sale of its business there could be in the making.

I would love to that happen.
Happy001

bargainbloodhound · (This post was last modified: 11-12-2005, 03:41 PM by bargainbloodhound.)

[quote author=xppman link=topic=1244.msg4675#msg4675 date=1131808330]

Quote:If Alibaba's Ma is successful, eBay China could follow in the footsteps of Yahoo and a sale of its business there could be in the making.

I would love to that happen.
Happy001

[/quote]

I can see it happening. EBay has been a failure so far in every Asian country where it has gone up against Yahoo Auctions: Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Besides losing to Yahoo, eBay has also come out the loser in several other international markets: New Zealand (where TradeMe has 76% of the online auction market compared to eBay's 4%), Sweden (Tradera), Switzerland (QXL's Ricardo), Poland (QXL's Allegro). Outside of its strongholds in the US/UK/Germany eBay has often run into trouble.

I do think the fact that the Alibaba/Yahoo Taobao is Chinese owned and managed gives it a huge edge over eBay Eachnet...I also think that when TenCent opens its Chinese auction site it will quickly beat out both Alibaba and eBay. TenCent's instant message service has 170 million users so it will have a huge base of existing customers to market its new auction site to for free...eBay and Alibaba both have under 12 million users.

xppman · 11-12-2005, 04:27 PM,

This is why I love this site.
Good info from fine upstanding folks.
No SPIN or BUZZ
Just the facts and some mighty fine commentary to boot. Thumbsup

**Kristijntje** · 02-13-2006, 09:13 AM,

Quote:Online shop owners are the target group both firms want to attract.

"The big sellers, many of them full-time sellers, can bring the Website online traffic, boost product categories and transaction value. The group has become a key measure to decide who will win the game," said Sun Lilin, an Analysys' analyst.

In December, eBay China announced it will provide free services for to set up a cyber shop whereas one had to pay 35 yuan to 500 yuan a month to do so previously.

By the end of the third quarter, more than 10,000 cyber stores had been opened on eBay China.

Taobao also said it plans to attract about 1 million shop owners to its Website, up from 250,000.

full article: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/02...on_war.htm

landofsmiles · 02-13-2006, 01:53 PM,

I think ebay has very little chance of succeeding in China. I wonder if they could even get their investment back if they sold out their China operations.

xppman · 02-13-2006, 03:02 PM,

China's government can simply seize all assets and kill any executives.
If they wish.

Wonder how all these companies will fair when China says.

OK we want Taiwan back and we want it now.
You do realize they are about poised for this now don't you?

What is the US going to do militarily?

Nothing.

But the State Department will put out a warning / directive to
companies and US citizens over there to get out due to rising tensions between
US and China as relations begin to sour when that day comes
for China to just take Taiwan back.

rejoicemusic · 02-13-2006, 03:38 PM,

Boy, I hope eBay China goes belly-up in spectacular fashion. Conspiracy-theory fans should note that the eBay keyword for 2006 - retiring the ever popular VIBRANCY from 2005 - was "digesting", per The Megster's comments recently in Europe that eBay had acquired so much lately that 2006 was going to be a year of digesting, with no additional major acquisitions.

So, eBay waits until after the summer, and then announces that they are going to recommit themselves to the success of eBay US, Canada, [include handful of other successful sites here], add a bit of PR hype for Skype, plus a note about the importance of the eBay Community, and there you have it.

bargainbloodhound · 02-13-2006, 04:42 PM,

Quote:Boy, I hope eBay China goes belly-up in spectacular fashion.

I don't think they'll go belly up, but I think the cultural differences between the Megster and her elves in San Jose and the Chinese people will prevent them from being #1.

Two cases in point:

Until recently the eBay China site looked like the eBay.com site--a Western site. They finally took a clue and designed it to look more like a Chinese site (well actually, I don't think they designed it, I think they just ripped off the designs of Taobao and PaiPai).

Another example of eBay's cluelessness was during the holiday shopping season. Taobao and PaiPai both had snowmen on their front pages...eBay had a Western (European) Santa Claus.

eBay seems to have a hard time adjusting to local cultures (biggest example Japan), and so I think eBay will end up in 4th place behind Taobao, PaiPai (which just opened a few months ago), and Danddang (China's equivalent of Amazon).

rejoicemusic · 02-13-2006, 04:56 PM,

BBHC - very insightful stuff there. Santa Claus - what are they thinking? I don't think eBay China will go belly-up (one can hope, however!) but they must be thinking that if they throw enough money at it, it will eventually be successful, despite not having a clue about how to integrate it into the culture.

I had read somewhere earlier that the eBay site wasn't popular because they bought out an existing company, and then proceeded to mess up their rather simple and easy to navigate platform. Any word about how PP is being received there? I thought I'd read that Alibaba uses a payment system that is backed by the major regional banks, and is very popular.