Hazel

CASE STUDY: EBAY

EBAY

SUMMARY OF THE CASE:

EBay is an online auction sites in US. There are 230 million registered users who can bid on 45000 different categories of goods that are engaged in more than 100000 million auctions. The company established presence in countries like Australia, Brazil, Spain and Switzerland. However, Yahoo! opened its internet portals in Japan, 4 years ahead of eBay. Yahoo! Japan is a joint venture of Yahoo! Inc. and Japan’s Softbank Corporation that offer variety of free services like chat rooms, e-mail, etc. thus eBay launched its Japanese service in 2000 wherein they charge commission on transactions on which Yahoo! Japan didn’t. EBay also acquire Eachnet (popular Chinese consumer auction site); spent $40 million for 40% stake of Tom Online (Chinese internet portal and wireless operator). EBay announced that Tom-eBay service would be launched in 2007.

VIEWPOINT:

As the CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman, is definitely in a catch up mode because one of their competitors, Yahoo! Japan has listed more than 3 million items than their which is only ranges between 20000 and 25000 items. But unfortunately, in September 2006, head of eBay China, Martin Wu has resigned.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

* How will eBay be able to dominate online auction industry in Asia with its competitor Yahoo!?

STATEMENT OF THE OBJECTIVE:

* To be able to increase 45% of their online transactions in Asia at the end of 2012.

SWOT:

STRENGTHS: * Giant online auction/marketplace with 230 million registered users. * Successfully established presence in Australia, Brazil, Spain and Switzerland. * Uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by collecting data of buyers and sellers registered with the company. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/259894/eBay-SWOT-Analysis) * Diversifying of products; branching and localizing in countries like India, China and U.K.(http://www.scribd.com/doc/259894/eBay-SWOT-Analysis) | WEAKNESSES: * Made a...