Assignment #5: Case 15-2 “ eBay in Asia”
Sarah Bean
Dr. Isaac Owolabi
International Marketing 505
December 16th, 2012
Abstract
The following essay will discuss how the emergence of Ebay has impacted Asia. Ebay is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. EBay has already expanded to over two dozen countries including China and India. The only places where expansion failed were Taiwan and Japan, where Yahoo! had a head start, and New Zealand where TradeMe, owned by the Fairfax media group is the dominant online auction website. The essay will detail how Ebay may be able to become a dominate force in the Asian market.
Introduction
The following essay will discuss the impact of Ebay upon the Asian market. E-Bay Inc. (rendered as E-bay) is an American multinational internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages E-Bay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble. E-Bay has a vision “to be the world’s personal trading community.” Nevertheless, it struggled with early strategic moves in Asia, Japan and China in particular, and needed to reconsider its global strategy. In general, eBay sought global growth through acquisition and joint venture as way to gain quick access to markets and establish a leadership position. Since 1998 eBay has made 37 significant acquisitions globally, 25 of which amounted to $10.1 billion. In Asia, three acquisitions of leading online marketplaces in South Korea, China, and India totaled $1.5 billion. E-Bay sites also exists in other Asian countries such as Taiwan and Thailand. Approximately 54% of eBay’s 2010 net revenue comes from international locations, but revenues derived from Asian markets appear to be still much smaller....