Chapter 1975: Earnest Advice

This unusual quietness was naturally short-lived, and then it was as loud as a volcanic eruption.

quit? Don’t we want to lose face?

"That's the e-commerce market with the greatest potential in the world,"

If these guys, who have rarely been to mainland China before, just regarded this as a speculation that everyone else said, then before the Lunar New Year last year, the round of promotions launched by Jiasheng Mall , so that they have an intuitive understanding of this.

In those short ten days, the strength of the Chinese people made it clear to them over and over again that this is truly the e-commerce market with the greatest potential in the world.

So, we have to give up on such a market with huge potential? And then stood aside and watched Chinese e-commerce companies, with Feng Yiping's company as the main force, making a lot of money?

"Such a field with huge potential has never been like a track and field competition in a stadium. A temporary victory or defeat does not mean anything. Please, how long has Feng Yiping's e-commerce company been established?"

"Just because they have an advantage now doesn't mean they will survive until next year,"

Whitman took a deep look at the director who said this, with a chill in his eyes.

She felt that the other party's words seemed to be paying tribute to her.

However, the other party's salute was not a nice word. On the contrary, it was a word that made people like Whitman extremely regretful, because that sentence, to this day, still slaps her in the face from time to time. Snap.

That was what she said when Taobao was born, asserting that it would never survive 18 months.

Now, people who are familiar with this matter may ask another question: Can eBay's China business unit survive for 18 months?

The person was obviously aware of it, and his words may have touched Whitman's sore spot again, "I'm sorry, I mean, at the beginning of last year, we were still the leader in China's e-commerce market, occupying 90% of the market. % market share, isn’t it?”

"So, as long as we persist and copy the successful experience of eBay in the United States and other regions, perhaps, at the beginning of next year, we will return to the top position in China's e-commerce market?"

Whitman was speechless. She was not sure whether this person really understood the situation. "Our current market share in China is less than 9%," she said, looking at the other person coldly.

"What?" Several directors suddenly shouted in shock.

They knew that eBay's development in China had been somewhat unsatisfactory during this period, but they didn't know that it could be so unsatisfactory.

Figures like 90% and 9% made all the directors present look at them with suspicion. This was really hard to accept.

"I don't know if figures like this give everyone a clear idea of ​​the competition in China's e-commerce market?" Whitman said.

"How could this be?" The directors looked around blankly at first, and then stared at Whitman in unison. Did you make a major mistake in your work?

"Our work is still very effective," Whitman knew very well what their eyes meant. "I believe that the directors are still fresh in their minds about another matter related to the Chinese market. I have repeatedly begged everyone to approve our business in China." District, lower charges for users,"

"Didn't we already agree to reduce the relevant charges in China?" When it comes to money-related matters, these directors have always had a very good memory.

"More importantly, past experience shows that our charging strategy is undoubtedly correct," another director insisted at this time.

He wasn't lying, it was indeed the truth.

In 1998, Yahoo launched an attack on eBay in the US market. The main strategy at that time was to make it free.

But that time, American users instead supported the paid eBay, because there were fees for renting a store, fees for logging in products, and fees for successful transactions. This made sellers more cautious and would not put useless junk products online. Displayed on eBay The products are of relatively high quality, so eBay successfully defeated Yahoo.

When she first arrived in the Chinese market and acquired eBay, Whitman also insisted on this concept. She believed that insisting on charging was obviously better. She boasted more than once, "eBay's standards bring together global information and knowledge. We What we bring to China makes everyone excited and proud,"

She just didn't seriously think about whether the strategies that worked in the United States would definitely work in China.

By the time she realized the huge differences between the Chinese and American markets, and worked through the board of directors, she tried to reduce charges in China after the 2004 Spring Festival, but it was difficult to reverse the decline because the adjustment was not satisfactory to merchants and users.

"We are so arrogant, and after such a debacle in the Chinese market, we are still so arrogant. This is one of the main reasons why I have no confidence in our business in China," Whitman said.

The arrogance she mentioned was not only a disregard for the consumption habits of Chinese users, but also a stubborn implementation that has proven successful in the United States, "Dear, I charge for your own good,"

Another very important point is that they have not delegated power to the Chinese team at all.

After acquiring all the shares of eBay in June 2003, the original founding team was put in cold storage, or forced out, and Zheng Xigui, the former second-in-command in the European market, was responsible for eBay's operations.

Now it seems that this is also a big failure.

"I know that even today, everyone here may still not understand our pressure and difficulties. It doesn't matter. We have been doing this for many years, and I have long been used to it,"

"It's just that the situation this time is very special. I have sorted out our possible future direction in the Chinese market in detail in the past two days. Facing the e-commerce competition under Feng, which includes B2B, B2C, C2C and other business forms, and the competition with the original Jiasheng Mall and Alibaba's two teams with super execution capabilities, I can't find any advantages in our China region,"

"Even if we announce it for free now, it is estimated that we will still face the same outcome: our share of the Chinese market will still shrink, not expand,"

"This is the main reason why I finally made such a difficult and painful decision,"

Is the business in China not optimistic to this extent?

"But after the China region realized the connection with our global platform last year, didn't it provide a very good foreign trade channel for Chinese merchants? Isn't this also attractive to those Chinese users?"

Everyone knows that China is a country that encourages exports.

"Facts have proved that it was also a big mistake on our part," Whitman shook his head.

On September 17 last year, Eachnet successfully achieved docking with eBay, but what happened later fully proved that this docking was unsuccessful.

After the platform docking, Eachnet fell into unprecedented chaos. The adjusted page made many users uncomfortable, and the frequent and inexplicable freezing of Eachnet user accounts by eBay headquarters also made people extremely angry...

On the forum, there were many initiatives such as "E-bay Member Self-Help Association" and "Collective Moving to Taobao". Many Eachnet users rushed out and fled to the arms of their opponents.

"Of course, we are not unable to work hard, but such efforts will inevitably require a lot of capital investment, and I think no one can guarantee that such efforts will achieve the results we expect,"

"So, I think that temporarily selling the Chinese business may be a good decision,"

"I also agree with everyone's views. In the competition in the field of e-commerce, temporary victory or defeat does not mean anything. Our temporary withdrawal from China does not mean that we will not have the opportunity to enter in the future,"

"At the same time, please also consider the importance of Skype to us," Whitman ended his speech.

The conference room fell into silence again, different from the stunned silence when the proposal was just heard. This time, it was a heavy silence.

After a while, after a series of eye contact and whispers, a director spoke, "We will comprehensively review the development of our business in China. We believe that it is necessary to let the head of the China region give us a special report."

This was a statement that made Whitman optimistic. She did not expect these guys to immediately agree with her decision after listening to her words.

"At the same time, Whitman, are you sure we are ready to face the doubts we will face when we announce such a decision to the public?"

Big companies also need face, and this face is not only spiritual but also material.

If eBay announces the relevant news to the public, it will definitely have an impact on the stock price. As you can imagine, it will definitely be a negative impact.

But Whitman laughed at this time.

Because such a question actually shows the inclination of the board of directors, supporting her inclination.

"We have always been very experienced in this regard,"