The Grass May be Greener in Asia

Despite the financial crisis, Asia has continued to boom and companies are experiencing enormous gains in the region. For example, Alibaba and eBay have shown that resilience, localization and determination are key factors for success. Jack Ma’s Alibaba increased 2008 revenue by a substantial 39% with a net profit increase of 25%. Within this time period Alibaba posted a 41% increase in paying members and a 38% increase in registered users.

Alibaba’s Jack Ma also believes that 2009 is a year of investment. Alibaba has set strategic goals of aggressively pursuing growth through localized versions of Alibaba in Japan, South Korea and India while also expanding its presence in the U.S. and Britain. Alibaba is not alone. eBay has also begun to push its localization strategy deeper into Asia through numerous strategic alliances with companies such 99bill.com and Gmarket. South Korea’s market leader, Gmarket, has just begun to offer its services on eBay’s existing South Korean market platform. eBay hopes that the synergy will be able to provide it with a valuable potential platform for further expansion within Asia. As companies around the world push further into Asia investors may want to do the same…

The Tax Man comes to eBay

Red Bank, April 7, 2009/The FraudBlog Newsletter/- Last year, Congress passed legislation requiring third party payment processors like PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon to report individuals and businesses that received at least $20,000 a year from credit/debit-card payments from more than 200 transactions. Importantly, this required disclosure is part of the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 and will be in effect in 2011.

eBay’s move to force payment via PayPal under review in Australia

The Australian government is investigating if eBay Australia's policy of forcing payment using PayPal, which eBay owns, or cash on delivery/pick-up, breaches trade practice and competition laws.

For more information related to this subject go to theage.com 22 April 2008 article titled: “Reserve bank could Scuttle eBay’s plans”