In terms of opportunities, the Asian market offers in itself a great potential of expansion for any company. With growing individual revenues and boosting economies, markets such as Singapore, Korea and, presently, China, are virtually limitless in the possibility that can be offered to the company. As far back as 2002, eBay shifted its operations from Japan to areas such as Taiwan and Singapore (it closed its Japanese operations in March 2002), thus wanting to benefit from the economic expansion and potential in these countries.

The threats for eBay Asia generally come from the same area of online services and sites providing similar services. For example, for eBay Asia a serious competitor, Yahoo, forced it out of the Japanese market, because it was already established there and ensured that a eBay received only a small market share. Companies such as Yahoo had had a longer time to establish on the Asian markets, where the eBay brand is still relatively less well-known than in Europe.

Even more so, they also come from extremely successful local brand sites, like alibaba.com...

Yahoo! Vs. eBay in Asia: Who Needs Desperate Housewives? Branding Asia. On the Internet at http://www.brandingasia.com/columns/013.htm.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007
2. Steineri, Ina. February 2002. eBay Regroups in Asia: Goodbye Japan, Hello China. AuctionBytes.com. On the Internet at http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m02/i27/s01.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007 http://www.managedns.eu/news.html?news_id=1579&archive=1.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007

Yahoo! Vs. eBay in Asia: Who Needs Desperate Housewives? Branding Asia. On the Internet at http://www.brandingasia.com/columns/013.htm.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007

Steineri, Ina. February 2002. eBay Regroups in Asia: Goodbye Japan, Hello China. AuctionBytes.com. On the Internet at http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m02/i27/s01.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007 http://www.managedns.eu/news.html?news_id=1579&archive=1.Last retrieved on September 6, 2007