All roads lead east for web firms
Published September 6th, 2005
The boss of eBay recently told analysts that China was a “must win” for all global internet businesses.
Meg Whitman’s views are clearly shared by her rivals judging by the flurry of activity which has surrounded China’s fledgling e-commerce market in recent days.
Yahoo’s $1bn (£556m) purchase of a 40% stake in Alibaba.com, which owns China’s largest auction site, is the latest and most eye-watering in a series of deals involving Western firms.
Google, eBay, Amazon and Interactivecorp - owner of online travel firm Expedia - have all gained a foothold in the Chinese market in one way or another over the past 18 months.
While Amazon, eBay and Interactivecorp dipped into their pockets to buy Chinese firms outright, Google acquired a small strategic stake in the online retailer Baidu.com.
The wisdom of this move was seemingly highlighted this week when Baidu’s shares soared 350% on their first day of trading in the US, giving the firm a market value of $3.5bn.
It is not difficult, at face value, to see what is driving Western interest in China’s internet sector.
More http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4141550.stm
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