The head of eBay Inc was in town yesterday to further stress her company's commitment to the Taiwan market, saying although Yahoo-Kimo is its rival, the two companies may have the chance to cooperate in the future.
"Right now in Taiwan eBay and Yahoo are competitors because both of us are trying to build marketplaces?[but] we would like to have a dialog with Yahoo-Kimo in the future," said Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay.
Whitman said eBay's relationship with Yahoo varies by countries and by regions. In Europe, for instance, the two are partners where in May eBay started offering auction services for Yahoo. In the US, eBay is so large that Yahoo chooses not to emphasize its auction business there.
PHOTO: HUANG REI-PO, TAIPEI TIMES
"However [in Taiwan] in any respect both of these two companies are expanding their e-commerce business and so it's actually a good thing to have two players because we are growing the market together," Whitman said.
In a recent interview with the Taipei Times, Yahoo-Kimo's general manager Rose Tsou (鄒開蓮) said their strategy was to topple eBay.
"There are not many online auction companies in Taiwan, and we are very confident the edge between us and eBay Taiwan is miles apart," Tsou said. "We absolutely want to be in Yahoo Japan's position: successfully defeating eBay Japan and become the market winner."
In an effort to boost traffic, eBay Taiwan has cooperated with major Internet portals -- PC Home online (網路家庭), Yam.com (蕃薯藤), MSN, Sina (新浪網) and Hinet, except of Yahoo-Kimo.
Whitman had her first visit to Taiwan yesterday after finishing trips in Shanghai and Seoul early this week.
eBay entered Taiwan in late February by fully purchasing local e-commerce venture NeoCom Technology Co (力傳資訊), along with its two shopping Web sites -- ubid.com.tw (買賣王) and bid.com.tw (拍賣王) -- for over US$9.5 million.
Even users of eBay in western countries have to pay for membership before selling stuff online, currently eBay doesn't charge Taiwanese users and all of the company's revenue come from advertising.
According to Whitman, pay-service is eBay's essential business model but it won't charge Taiwanese users until the market is ready.
"It depends on how the market develops?currently the most important thing is to build a vibrant marketplace which sellers and buyers are satisfied with," she said, adding that "it's impossible to tell right now when [we will charge] in Taiwan."
This is Whitman's first visit to Taiwan after going to Shanghai and Seoul early this week.
In late March eBay invested US$ 30 million to buy a 33-percent stake in Chinese auction site EachNet, the biggest online trading community in China with 3.5 million registered users.
A year ago, eBay acquired a 51 percent stake in South Korea's largest online auction business, Internet Auction Co, for about US$120 million.
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