Archive for the ‘eBay’ Category

How eBay lost the China market – an insider account

Sherman | August 10, 2009 in China, Eachnet, Internet, Taobao, eBay, online auction | Comments (2)

This week’s article at Global Times is about eBay. It is the Editor’s Choice.
Many believe Taobao beat global online auction king eBay in China by being free, but not EachNet founder Bo Shao (the person in the picture) who sold the company to eBay in July 2003. A key catalyst was “migration”, the decision to terminate EachNet’s homegrown technology platform and move all EachNet users to the eBay US platform, said Shao.

On the day of the migration, traffic to eBay China dropped by half. Despite the serious customer losses, Meg Whitman, then CEO of eBay, only learned about it a month after it occurred, on a visit to Shanghai. Whitman was shocked and very upset. Apparently, even the head of eBay International at the time, who was one of the most ardent proponents of migration, did not tell Whitman about it. Read the article in Global Times.

Alibaba: Opening global markets for small businesses

Sherman | July 28, 2009 in C2C, China, Internet, Taobao, eBay, online auction | Comments (1)

This week’s article in Global Times is about Alibaba. Of all the China Internet companies, Alibaba is the most original. While others replicated successful western models, there was no booming western company doing what Alibaba does. Jack Ma (the person in the picture), an ex-English teacher, become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country by having the simple idea of setting up an electronic message board for small businessmen in China and entrepreneurs around the world to exchange trade information. Read more in Global Times