Online auction giant eBay Inc. has launched its Philippine portal but the company has yet to decide what single payment system to use.
EBay uses PayPal, a company it acquired in 2003, as its online payment unit. PayPal, however, does not yet cover users from the Philippines.
The local portal will undergo enhancements based on user feedback, said Frederic De Bure, eBay managing director for Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.
"We don"t want to force a single payment system ·whether online payment or through SMS," De Bure said during the launching of eBay.ph last week.
According to him, eBay was encouraged to put up a Philippine portal because of the large number of Filipinos using its main site.
"If we don"t have a big business here in the Philippines, we wouldn"t build a local portal," De Bure answered when asked how many Philippine-based users are trading in the main site.
Community
However, in putting up its Philippine portal, eBay, at best, is trying to build a local community of buyers and sellers. Unlike the company"s main site, eBay.ph does not charge users a fee for buying or selling goods on the site.
While there are several existing local auction sites already, eBay is counting on its strong brand to give it a substantial edge. Its global trading platform now covers 30 countries worldwide, nine of which are in the Asia Pacific.
According to De Bure, eBay currently has more than 125 million users trading items in more than 50 categories, from consumer electronics to memorabilia. At the end of 2003, eBay reported more than $24 billion in total value of goods traded on its site.
EBay.ph is hosted in Singapore along with local portals in other Southeast Asian countries. Each local portal, servicing 30 different countries and connected to the main site, shares a single database, according to De Bure.
Asked how eBay intends to earn revenues from its local portal, De Bure replied: "From a cost basis, it is something we do not worry about. We are not thinking of charging fees, it is not relevant to us at the moment."