How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#1

Post by williswee » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 7:30 AM UTC

How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao
techinasia.com

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#2

Post by hawflakes » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

I wonder if this gets into all the internal politics on the eBay-PayPal side of things...

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#3

Post by chaostheory » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

When the Chinese market is effectively closed to foreign companies once they make any inroads, it's easy to win against ebay or another US company.

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#4

Post by dqpb » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

> Jack told me: “I started looking at the market and realized that, pretty soon, eBay was going to try to get aggressive with its business in China. They’d start with consumers, but over time they will start coming after Alibaba’s wholesalers. Competition was inevitable. So I decided the only way we can slow them down is to launch a site to compete directly with their Chinese language site."

That, plus the fact that China will just pull the plug on any American business gaining too much traction.

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#5

Post by moscovium » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #3

When the Chinese market is effectively closed to foreign companies once they make any inroads, it's easy to win against ebay or another US company.

There's no competition like no competition!

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#6

Post by Leary » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

Seems like Ebay's status as a public company hurt it.

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#7

Post by scarejunba » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

Haha, all this is irrelevant when you can always count on your government arbitrarily banning foreign companies.

Not really complaining. It's just business. And we need them more than they need us so they're turning the screws.

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#8

Post by influx » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

scarejunba wrote: post #7

Haha, all this is irrelevant when you can always count on your government arbitrarily banning foreign companies. Not really complaining. It's just business. And we need them more than they need us so they're turning the screws.

Is it really just business? Why doesn't the USA do the same to all foreign companies as well?

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#9

Post by docker_up » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

Competing against eBay is like saying you're competing in a 100m race against someone in a wheelchair. eBay has done nothing to make itself better in the last 15 years. New "features" routinely fail, and their APIs are a graveyard of dropped ideas. I hope Taobao expands to the US, eBay needs real competition, anyone working there should be embarrassed for themselves, more importantly the Directors and above.

Re: How Jack Ma took on eBay with Taobao

#10

Post by dingo_bat » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

influx wrote: post #8

scarejunba wrote: post #7

Haha, all this is irrelevant when you can always count on your government arbitrarily banning foreign companies. Not really complaining. It's just business. And we need them more than they need us so they're turning the screws.

Is it really just business? Why doesn't the USA do the same to all foreign companies as well?

It's called free market.