Below is an excerpt from an article I co-wrote for Red Herring ( with Kaiser Kuo ). Get the full story here.
BEIJING–Peace may have broken out between eBay and Yahoo in the United States, but one of the bloodiest battles on the web—the contest over China’s online auction space—rages on between their Chinese allies.
Yahoo and eBay announced last week they’ll cooperate on their U.S. search, advertising, and online payment efforts (see Yahoo, eBay Ally on Ads). But that teamwork won’t extend to their affiliates in China, according to officials at the Asian operations.
Yahoo’s interests are tied with Alibaba.com, China’s leading online business-to-business platform, which owns auction site Taobao.com. Last August, Yahoo paid $1 billion in cash for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba as part of a $4-billion deal that gave Alibaba control over Yahoo’s operations in China (see Yahoo’s $4B Alibaba Move).