Ebay

Ebay is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online

auction and shopping website in which businesses buy and sell goods and services

worldwide. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized

websites in several other countries. Ebay Inc. also owns Paypal, Skype, and other

businesses. The online auction web site was founded in San Jose, California on

Septemeber 3, 1995 by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.

Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. Ebay has gone from

America's online flea market to a global powerhouse in 32 countries. Ebay set its sites

on China, Japan and South Korea.

Ebay has conquered online auctioning, racking in over $770 million in profit last

year on a transaction volume of $34 billion. But Ebay won't stay on top unless it also

conquers what eventually will be the world's largest market for online goods:China. Ebay

bought its way into China in 2002, holds half of a $1 billion market and will spend $100

million this year to bolster its presence there. China is a "must win" and is likely to be

the defining measure of business success on the Net. There are a " bunch of small

competitors nipping at our heels." says Ebay Chief Meg Whitman to Wall Street analysts

in early February. Jack Ma is one of which who is a strong competitor of eBay. Ma runs

the Taobao consumer auction site, the biggest homegrown rival to Ebay in China.

Though it didn't start up until a year after Ebay arrived, Taobao quickly has gobbled up

41% of online auction sales, compared with Ebay's 53%; it has 4 million registered users,

gaining on Ebay's claim of 10 million customers in the country. To take on the decidedly

american presence of Ebay, Taobao--Mandarin for "searching for treasure" plays up its

local staff and an all-China focus; its online moderators use screen names from characters

in famous Chinese kung fu novels. Ma also runs Alibaba, which claims to be the world's

largest global business-to-business auction site. Six million members use the main site,

devoted to in-China trade, and a second site for trade with companies in the rest of the

world. Alibaba and Taobao, which are controlled by Ma's Alibaba Holdings, aim to beat

out Ebay, setting themselves up for expansion beyond China's borders. If JackMa has his

way, Taobao--not Ebay--will end up conquering the online world.

In February 2000 eBay launched its Japanese site. The site offered over 800

merchandise categories, to include favorites such as Pokeman and pottery and "Hello

Kitty". The site also included categories including computers, electronics and Asian

antiques. Yet! Ebay hasn't come close to the success that Yahoo Japan has acquired.

Yahoo Japan has 95% of the online-auction market. Last year alone over 1.5 billion

worth of goods were traded. Ebay Japan only has 3% of the Japanese market (Belson,

2001). There are several mistakes eBay made coming