According to an anonymous source, EBay Inc. (EBAY) will announce on Tuesday that it is in a new joint-venture targeting the domestic Chinese market.
The new site will be run by Beijing-based Internet company called Tom Online Inc. The existing EBay portal, http://www.ebay.com.cn, will transform into a place where Chinese merchants can sell to international customers.
EBay will have a 49% stake in the new website, with Tom Online retaining a 51% share of the company. Ebay's contribution to the venture will be $40 million, while Tom Online will contribute $20 million.
The efforts to penetrate the Chinese market have been as fluid and inconsistent ebay, as the market itself. China is a continually moving market at this time that is hard to count on in any way.
But with China representing the second-largest Internet community in the world, behind the U.S., the company has to keep trying to see what will work, as this is where their growth will be for the future. In 2005, the international market accounted for around half of the value of items sold on eBay.Another huge problem eBay has had is in managing the global currency fluctuations that are such a big part of doing business internationally.
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