eBay Seeking Acquisition Targets in China

Techweb reported that that eBay is eyeing acquisition targets in China to expand its market share. eBay expects 2011 sales from Greater China to increase by 30-40% from last year’s USD$4 billion sales figure.

Cautious of the high valuations, Asia Pacific Managing Director Jay Lee said “We will continue to identify suitable opportunities, but must be a reasonable price. We all know, some of China’s overheated market.”

In China, Alibaba, Taobao and Dangdang dominate the market. Major local Chinese players have always managed to push out international players.

The company hopes to use its 97 million active users worldwide and about 100 million PayPal users to attract Internet users in China.

Analysys data show that the second quarter, the Chinese e-commerce transaction volume grew 65 percent to 192.9 billion yuan (about $ 30 billion), including B2C business grew 173% to 54.3 billion yuan.

In 2003, eBay acquired Chinese auction site, EachNet for $180 million but failed to secure a firm footing in the market. In other markets, eBay has acquired GSI Commerce, Zong and Magneto.