Another rout in China: Ebay throws in towel after spending nearly $300M

December 18, 2006 | Matt Marshall

The New York Times has the story about eBay finally conceding it is shutting its main Web site in China.

Instead, eBay will form a joint venture with a Chinese company:

EBay will take a 49 percent stake in the venture, he said, with Tom Online Inc., an Internet company based in Beijing, taking the majority share and administering the venture, which has yet to be named. The plans call for eBay to put $40 million into the venture and Tom Online to contribute $20 million. Meg Whitman, eBay’s chief executive, is to make the announcement tomorrow at eBay’s office in Shanghai.

Silicon Valley companies Google, Yahoo and eBay have all struggled in China. The NYT has a good summary of the business and cultural mistakes eBay made.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.