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***mandy*** · (This post was last modified: 12-19-2005, 12:52 PM by mandy.)

Quote:eBay, under substantial competitive pressure in China from Alibaba.com's free online auction services, said Chinese users will starting Tuesday be able to open online stores on its C2C platform for free.

http://www.interfax.cn/showarticle.asp?aid=8528&slug=EBAY

(subscription required to read full story. sorry :-[ )

xppman · 12-19-2005, 01:14 PM,

feebay is like a crack dealer on the streets.

The give away a few FREE rocks to get you hooked.
Then bam...Hit you with a price you WILL pay after your hooked. : Smile

I'm glad I don't smoke crack or just "DO" feebay.
Happy001

Jen · 12-19-2005, 08:33 PM,

Hey, I thought "free" was a four letter word in eBay land?

**amy** · 12-19-2005, 11:24 PM,

Jen Wrote:Hey, I thought "free" was a four letter word in eBay land?

In October eBay China issued a press release stating that "free is not a business model". eBay China has continued to lose ground to market leader Taobao over the past 2 months.

ebay October press release: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051019/196179.html?.v=1

eBay China in October press release Wrote:"Free" is not a business model. It speaks volumes about the strength of eBay's business in China that Taobao today announced that it is unable to charge for its products for the next three years.

related topic: http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...802.0.html

stardust · 12-20-2005, 12:42 AM,

Our stores were offered free to us the first 4 months when they first rolled out. I have no problem with that. What I will have a problem with is if they open their stores on the ebay.com site, instead of on their own ebay.china site. It's my understanding that they're already doing a bit of Featured Store listing over here.............

***mandy*** · 12-20-2005, 09:44 AM,

Quote:In addition, eBay Eachnet will also waive the fees for the first three items listed each month and will waive final value fees for any transaction that uses Paypal or eBay Eachnet's escrow system...

full article: http://www.pacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=P48788

accentnepal · 12-21-2005, 01:35 AM,

[quote author=stardust link=topic=1801.msg6316#msg6316 date=1135039342]
What I will have a problem with is if they open their stores on the ebay.com site, instead of on their own ebay.china site. It's my understanding that they're already doing a bit of Featured Store listing over here.............[/quote]

Tibetan Jewelry is swamped with Chinese sellers. Item is 50 cents, shipping is $17. "Silver" all over in the advertising, no mention that they mean "silver" COLOR, not sterling.

Works, too - and they do not seem to get much negative feedback.

bargainbloodhound · 12-21-2005, 02:57 AM,

Quote:Quote from: eBay China in October press release

"Free" is not a business model. It speaks volumes about the strength of eBay's business in China that Taobao today announced that it is unable to charge for its products for the next three years.

related topic: http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...802.0.html

It only took 2 months for panic to set in.. Happy001

eBay is apparently also doing as poorly in its attempts to convince Chinese users to use PayPal instead of Alibaba's AliPay hence the "no FVF if paid for with PayPal".

Quote:"Silver" all over in the advertising, no mention that they mean "silver" COLOR, not sterling.

Works, too - and they do not seem to get much negative feedback.

It sounds like many other categories on the US site that are full of designer knockoffs (Tiffany and hand bags are two categories where its estimated over 3/4 of items for sale are knockoffs). The problem with silver colored jewelry and knockoff designer goods isn't just online though. Many B&M sellers also sell (many of them unknowingly) items like this.

stardust · 12-21-2005, 07:11 AM,

We have the same fight against the 1-cent paintings from China. Those, of course, have been in the US for many, many years. But the 'net is overloaded with them, single web sites, plus all auction places, ebay, amazon, yahoo, overstock -- that's almost all there is on the O right now, even fraudulently masquerading as 'euro' paintings -- so everyone has to find a way to defeat/get-around the Chinese competition if you want to survive.........it doesn't matter WHAT type of widgit you're marketing............ Protest

***mandy*** · (This post was last modified: 12-21-2005, 10:57 AM by mandy.)

More background on the reason for eBay's dropping of the $62 monthly fee for Chinese store owners from Shanghai Daily: rival Taobao currently has 250,000 stores while eBay China has attracted only 10,000 stores.

full article: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2005/12...setups.htm

Quote:Is eBay Losing China?

...Could Taobao be doing to eBay in China what Yahoo! did to eBay in Japan?

full blog post: http://www.corante.com/goingglobal/archi..._china.php

related topics on the Taobao vs. eBay China battle can be found in the Alibaba and Other Auction Sites forums