“Over time, we will look for opportunities to partner or joint venture or work together with Chinese companies,” Donahoe, 50, said in an interview in Hangzhou, China. “We’ve, in essence, exited the domestic market.”
Cross-border trades will probably rise more than 80 percent to $4 billion this year, Donahoe said. EBay is counting on PayPal and partnerships with local companies to help it expand revenue from China after failing to gain a local foothold to compete against entrepreneur Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Donahoe said Alibaba Group and its Alipay system shouldn’t be seen as rivals to eBay and PayPal.

Source : Konaxis

Under the plan, eBay hopes to woo Chinese merchants by developing shipping programmes that make it easier for them to sell to US consumers, eBay officials said at a signing ceremony in Shanghai.

“The collaboration will make the most of the advantages of the three while helping expand profits,” Jeff Liao, eBay’s Greater China chief executive and head of Asia-Pacific cross-border trade, told reporters.

The partnership centres on an express delivery service to the US that will be run by China Postal Express and Logistics Corporation, part of China Post, and which will include online tracking systems, eBay said.

The US auction site largely withdrew from China years ago after being overtaken by Taobao, part of China’s largest e-commerce firm, the Alibaba Group, which also operates business-to-business marketplace Alibaba.com.

The American firm shut down its Chinese consumer website in late 2006 and folded its China operations into Eachnet, a joint venture run by Hong Kong’s Tom Online Group, after Taobao won the lion’s share of the Chinese market.

Unlike eBay, Taobao charges no commission to list items for sale and the site’s revenue comes from advertising.

Starting as a consumer-to-consumer auction website, Taobao has grown into an online retailer that also features a growing number online shops run by big brands such as US computer maker Dell.

However, eBay is fighting to make a comeback in China, a market with more than 400 million web users, by refocusing on export-oriented Chinese merchants who are keen to reach overseas buyers through international websites.

The firm’s current Chinese operations include eBay.cn, a Chinese platform targeting Chinese merchants — mostly small and medium-sized enterprises — by offering online training courses on international trade and listing tips.

It also runs Beibao.com, a Chinese version of payment site Paypal.

Source : Konaxis

Tom Group’s newly appointed CEO Yang Guomeng says the company’s big loss was mainly due to a one-time expenditure, particularly the payment for the use of eBay platform and the cost of promotion, but he does not say when eBay Eachnet can make up the deficit.

Tang Meijuan, former CEO of Tom Group, who has reportedly resigned because of personal reasons, says the company’s acquisitions in the year also attributed to about RMB164 million in losses.

Source : Chinatechnews