eBay switches its Eastern focus

NEWS Online auction giant eBay has pulled out of Japan, admitting defeat in the territory, and has moved its attention instead to the burgeoning Chinese market. eBay was struggling to make inroads into a Japanese market dominated by Yahoo! Japan, so instead has bought Taiwan's NeoCom Technology for $9.5m, providing a foothold in the Chinese market as well as instant number one status in Taiwan's auction sector. NeoCom is Taiwan's largest online auctioneer, operating at ubid.tw and ubid.com.tw, and had already achieved profitability. According to the Financial Times, the cost of the purchase is likely to rise depending on working capital adjustments which will be decided when the deal is closed.