eBay: The China Challenge Part Ⅱ

摘要

In the same month as it withdrew from Japan, eBay decided to establish a bridgehead into another Asian powerhouse, one with even more potential: China - a country with its population of internet users that had been forecast to surpass 100 million by 2005. Victor Khoo, owner of the Chinese internet portal Sohu stated at the time that, "if eBay wants to be a global consumer site, it needs China". eBay's CEO Meg Whitman told Wall Street analysts that China remained a "must win" and was "likely to be the defining measure of business success on the Net", even as "a bunch of small competitors are nipping" from behind. She was also quoted as saying that "10 to 15 years from now, I think China can be eBay's largest market on a global basis as we build up both local and export trade... We think China has tremendous long-term potential and we want to do everything we can to maintain our number one position." The mid-2000s saw an explosion in the number of internet users in China. Statistics show that the country went from having 22.6 million netizens in 2000 to 94.8 million in 2004. This statistic continues to grow rapidly, with current numbers (2017) in the order of 680 million.