LEARNING FROM EBAY’S FAILURE IN CHINA

Internationalisation is a level that most companies hope to achieve amidst its plans of expansion. Being a global player in ones area of expertise is regarded as the prime point when it comes to buying and selling. Sometimes this expansion doesn’t work too well for some companies no matter how successful they are in their home countries. In this post, I’ll be sharing a few mistakes made by EBay which led them to fail in China, and how other companies can learn from their experience.

1. Having a partnership with a strong local Chinese brand. This can be established as a mode of entry since little to no hands on knowledge has been achieved. By collaborating with an already existing brand, this gives the company a boost as compared to other brands who did not.

2. Using a catchy and meaning Chinese name. There have been a lot of instances where translations made from English to Mandarin ended up being complete fails. Taobao, the competitor of Ebay in the early 2000's mean digging for treasure and this name resonated a lot with the Chinese as such played a major role in the brand recollection of the company.

3. Hiring local leadership and establishing a separate service based in China. Setting up a company in China is no small feat and having a local team that oversees activities is an essential step in being successful. The language and cultural barriers are easier bridged that when there is only one base in America as in the case of Ebay.

https://www.marketingtochina.com/ebay-failed-china/

https://medium.com/@alexlee611/a-case-study-on-international-expansion-how-ebay-failed-in-china-d762d94b9f4b