According to a Shanghai Daily report, eBay has sold its China div and its PayPal to Tom.com. Incidentally, Tom.com distributes eBay’s Skype service in China.
Two reasons are cited. First, eBay, which had as much as 90% market share in China for C2C transactions, has lost significant market share to upstart (and free) rival Taobao. eBay is now left with just less than 30% market share for C2C transactions, even after moving to eliminate transaction fees in China a few months ago.
The two reasons given are:
a. eBay has lost significant market share to rival Taobao. eBay once had 90% of the Chinese market share for C2C transactions.
b. China is preparing new regulations aimed at limiting foreign ownership of cos involved into online payment systems. So far, eBay failed to find a local partner for its Chinese PayPal service.
eBay is yet to come up with an announcement. But, by the signs now, it is more or less certain that it is going to move away from China before everything starts getting even more complicated for it.
Via: Techcrunch
