EBay to Shut Down Web Site in Japan
Bloomberg News
EBay Inc., the largest Internet auctioneer, will close its money-losing Web site in Japan this month after two years of struggling to gain online sales there.
The company will shut down the site March 31 and give severance packages to the 17 employees, spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.
It’s the first time EBay has closed an overseas site.
EBay is the fourth-largest online-auction site in Japan, falling short of the company’s goal of being the biggest in each of its 17 overseas markets.
The site opened in February 2000 in a partnership with Japan’s No. 3 chip maker, NEC Corp. EBay bought back NEC’s 30% interest last year as it sought to gain on Yahoo Japan Corp., which is the largest online-auction site in Japan.
