EBay seeks to re-enter Japanese market

Bloomberg News Service

EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman and Founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar speak at the eBay Live! conference in Orlando, Fla. Bloomberg News Service

The company also believes its PayPal electronics payment service may rival its auction and sales business one day as more small businesses go online with their businesses, Whitman said in an interview at eBay Live!, a conference for its users in Orlando, Fla.

"We think the opportunity for PayPal is very, very large," said Whitman, referring to the e-mail payment service's potential market.

PayPal can be used by small businesses that need payment systems and don't qualify for accounts with credit-card companies.

"We hope PayPal will become the accepted form of payment for small merchants on the Internet," she said.

EBay shut down its money-losing Japanese site in March 2002, conceding that it wasn't making inroads to Yahoo Japan Corp.'s lead in the auction market. EBay spent two years working to increase the struggling site's business and said it would eventually re-enter the country.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company strives to be the largest auction company in each country where it operates.

Whitman said eBay could re-open a site in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, if the Japanese become more interested in cross-border selling and buying. It could also consider re-entering through an investment in another company, she said.

EBay Live! attracted more than 10,000 eBay customers who were offered advice and insight on selling on eBay, which makes its revenue from fees it charges sellers.

EBay also used the event to gather suggestions and get an idea of what issues concern its customers.

The company operates in Latin America through a 19.5-percent owned affiliate, MercardoLibre.com.

Whitman said she doesn't foresee buying the remainder of that company for another couple of years.

Whitman said besides input on how to solve the problem of nonpaying bidders and eliminating what users consider unfair negative feedback, she also got community feedback on the possibility of simplifying the eBay site to make it easier to use for new customers.

She said eBay probably won't open a separate "EBay lite" site for new users in the effort to gain more customers.