|
<< Previous
Excerpts Contd...
Joint Venture with Tom Online
Sensing the need for local support, eBay entered into a JV
with TOM Online in December 2006. Whitman said, "One thing we've learned
operating here for three or four years is that actually we're going to be better
served by tapping into a local partner who has local knowledge."...
A Strategic Shift?
Many analysts considered eBay's new move indicative of the
company's retreat from the Chinese market. Caris and Company analyst, Tim
Boyd, said, "It's an admission that they failed in China, on their own at
least...
But I
think that's something the market already knew."They saw the venture as a
bail-out considering that Whitman had aggressively projected China as a key
driver for eBay in the future in the face of slackening growth of eBay in the
mature markets...
|
|
The Aftermath
The new entity started operating with the name 'Tom Yi Qu' (which means Tom
eBay) in 2007. Wang Lei Lei (Wang) headed the JV, while Jeff Liao, head of eBay
China, was also included in the management...
|
OutlookChina was well
poised to unseat the US as the country with the largest number of
Internet users in the first few months of 2008, according to Morgan
Stanley. According to Chinese government figures, the number of Internet
users in China had reached 210 million in 2007, a growth of 50 percent
compared to 2006. Moreover, there was tremendous scope for future growth
as the penetration levels were low, with only 16 percent of the
population using the Internet. Unlike the US, people aged below 30 years
were driving the growth... |
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Online Trading Companies in China
Exhibit II: eBay Inc Financial Summary (In Millions of US$)
Exhibit III: Nine Problems in Development of e-commerce in China
Exhibit IV: Reasons for Failure of Foreign Internet Companies in China
|
