Yahoo! Beats eBay?

CPU Review: 

Founded just 10 years ago, eBay is now a $3 billion company, and growing, serving more than 130 million registered users in 32 countries. However, eBay’s growth is slowing in the US, putting pressure on non-US Web sites to accelerate their growth. While it is believed that eBay is wisely betting on global markets, specifically China, eBay should be expanding into more markets more quickly.

This report provides a global analysis of eBay’s current business strategy, Web site, and its plans for continued growth. In addition, the report draws lessons from eBay that may benefit other companies looking to expand into global markets.

eBay is one of the great Internet success stories and a bellwether for the state of global ecommerce. As countries around the world have embraced ecommerce, eBay has flourished. But eBay has also stumbled along the way, and there is plenty of room for improving the web site.

By 2006, possibly earlier, non-US revenues will surpass US revenues. eBay is investing $100 million in China with a more localized strategy, including customer support and television advertising. It is believed mobile commerce, via PayPal, is not far behind. The eBay web site has wisely evolved into a mostly consistent global template across all locales. eBay is developing a sophisticated approach to globalization workflow and marketing, which results in more culturally relevant and financially successful web sites. However, global navigation remains a weak spot.

Topics covered in the report include:

– Key Facts
– A Brief History of eBay
– eBay by the Numbers
– eBay International: Where the Action Is
– eBay Europe: Is the UK the “The Next Germany”?
– eBay Asia: The Future Is China (Not Japan?)
– Kijiji: eBay Quietly Returns to Japan
– PayPal: eBay’s Secret Weapon
– Web Site Analysis: Room for Improvement
– Business Analysis: Not Growing Fast Enough
– Looking Ahead: Three Predictions
– Five Lessons for Companies Going Global