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of eBay in Shanghai. The US internet giant launched its online
payment service PayPal yesterday in an attempt to expand its
development of e-commerce in
China.(newsphoto) |
US Internet giant eBay launched its online payment service PayPal in
China yesterday in an attempt to give a boost to its development of
e-commerce in China.
PayPal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay, said yesterday that it had
partnered with China Pay, an official online payment operator in China, to
offer online payment services in the world's second largest Internet
market.
"This is a very special and important moment since we started to
introduce PayPal to non-US markets in 2003," said Mathias Entenmann,
vice-president of the US online payment company's international business.
China has become the first Asian market eBay has introduced to its
online payment service in the region.
PayPal claims that security, speed and convenience are the three major
draws it can offer. It also allows users to send and receive payment
through an e-mail address.
By the end of the first quarter PayPal had 72 million users worldwide,
with the volume of total transactions reaching US$18 billion last year,
about 9 per cent of the total e-commerce transactions in the United States
and 5 per cent of the global total.
In China, PayPal has partnered with China Pay, the online payment arm
of the country's official band card information switch centre, China
UnionPay.
Zhou Ye, general manager of China Pay, said that in the co-operation,
China Pay provides a cross-bank payment platform and its certified shops,
while PayPal acts as an important payment tool for consumers to buy
products and services from the Internet and certified shops of China
UnionPay.
Chinese Internet companies NetEase.com Inc and Tom Online, as well as
Kijiji.com, an online classified ads website of eBay, became the first
partners to accept payment from PayPal in China.
However, eBay Eachnet, the Chinese arm of eBay,
will become the biggest beneficiary
of the introduction of PayPal, which is expected to formally
launch in September.
"It is just like a tiger getting a pair of wings," said James Zheng,
chief operating officer of eBay Eachnet, citing an old Chinese saying to
describe the huge help of PayPal.
The development of e-commerce in China faces bottlenecks in the areas
of payment, logistics and credit, and the introduction of payment tools
like PayPay will make payments easier and encourage more people to try
e-commerce.
Ebay Eachnet already has an Escrow service in China, which allows
buyers to send money to an account of eBay Eachnet. Sellers, meanwhile,
can only access remittances from the account once a buyer verifies the
products. The move is aimed at curbing fraud, but of necessity means it
takes much longer to receive payment. With PayPal, however, remittances
are instant.
To meet the requirements of the Chinese market, PayPal will offer free
services to Chinese users for some time, but Entenmann declined to say
when it will begin to charge users. It usually charges around 2 per cent
of the transaction price in other parts of the world where it
operates.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2005-07-12 09:28
