Advertisement
E-commerce
TechBig Tech

Chinese consumer e-commerce platform operator Eachnet.com to cease operations after 23 years amid tough market competition

  • Shanghai-based Eachnet.com will shut down transactions on all its online stores and close its servers before August 12
  • In 2003, Eachnet was fully acquired by eBay for a total investment of US$180 million. The firm was later divested by eBay.

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Bo Shao Yibo, founder and then-chief executive of Eachnet.com, visits the South China Morning Post at its old offices in Causeway Bay on October 26, 2000. Photo: SCMP
Tracy Qu
Eachnet.com, formerly a leading Chinese consumer goods auction site that was acquired by eBay, will cease operations after 23 years in business, making it the latest casualty of aggressive competition in the world’s biggest e-commerce market.

The Shanghai-based company, which once had 70 per cent of China’s consumer online sales market, will shut down transactions on all its online stores and close the platform’s servers before August 12 because of a “change of operations”, according to an announcement posted on the site by operator Shanghai Yingshi Information Technology Co.

Users will not be able to register, log in, or recharge accounts after that date, according to the announcement earlier this month.

Eachnet was founded in August 1999 by Harvard University graduates Bo Shao Yibo and Tan Haiyin, who looked to create an online platform like eBay that would match buyers and sellers of consumer goods.

A Chinese worker checks her computer at eBay Eachnet’s offices in Shanghai on September 16, 2004. Photo: Reuters
A Chinese worker checks her computer at eBay Eachnet’s offices in Shanghai on September 16, 2004. Photo: Reuters
The e-commerce start-up’s early success in China had attracted eBay, which paid US$30 million in 2002 to own a 33 per cent stake in the company. The following year, eBay acquired the rest of the firm for a total investment of US$180 million. The US company spent another US$100 million in 2005 to build up Eachnet’s operations.

The demise of Eachnet reflects the rapid and relentless march of change in China’s e-commerce industry since the turn of the 21st century.

Advertisement