Ebay Ties Up With Yahoo Japan

[Mulboyne]

Bloomberg: Yahoo Japan, EBay to Set Up Auction Web Site
Yahoo Japan Corp., operator of Japan's most visited Internet portal, will set up a Japanese-language auction Web site with EBay Inc., the biggest U.S. online auctioneer. The site, which the companies plan to start this year, will allow Web visitors in Japan to bid for EBay's products, Yahoo Japan spokesman Kimihiko Sato said today. By the end of March, Yahoo Japan members will also be able to bid for EBay items on Yahoo Japan's Web site, while Yahoo Japan products will be posted on EBay's site next year, Sato said. Yahoo Japan will meet the press in Tokyo at 11 a.m. local time to discuss the tie-up. Tokyo-based Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue and EBay International President Lorrie Norrington will attend.

[Catoneinutica]

Bloomberg: Yahoo Japan, EBay to Set Up Auction Web Site
Tokyo-based Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue and EBay International President Lorrie Norrington will attend.

FGs, ask the nearest J-person to say "Lorrie Norrington" three times quickly. Or even once slowly.

-catone
-having trouble meself...Norrie Lorrington?

[canman]

I don't think a lot of Japanese are going to buy from Ebay, or anything in the States. First off most sellers won't ship internationally, and have you seen the cost of shipping anything from North America to Japan, it is fucking insane. I ordered two calendars for my kids for Christmas, together they cost $25.00US, the shipping for the small package, you guessed it $25.00US, what a fucking rip off.

[gkanai]

Whitman has publicly regretted not entering the Japan market sooner than eBay did. Whitman has said:

"We were very late to Japan--by six months. It was the fourth or fifth market we got to outside the U.S."

Instead, eBay jumped first into Australia, Germany, and the U.K. in 1999 and then tackled Japan the following year along with Canada, France, and Austria. "In retrospect," Whitman told the audience at the Rotman School of Business, "I would have gotten to Japan as our second market after the U.S."

There was an interesting paper by Yasushi Fujita on eBay's failure in Japan from 2005.

Another good read is the Knowledge@Wharton piece by Ohmae Kenichi which covers the Yahoo! Japan vs. eBay in Japan history pretty well.

[Catoneinutica]

This may constrict an arbitrage opportunity some J-folks seem to have found: buying foreign stuff on eBay and selling in Japan on Yahoo. A photographer I know pays the juku bills by buying old Rollei cameras on eBay, refurbishing them, and selling them on Yahoo Japan, and there are other folks doing it with pretty much every other species of collectable crap, particularly watches.

[FG Lurker]

I run an export business for a certain type of product. I don't buy all my items on Yahoo and I don't sell them all on eBay, but it is certainly a chunk of what I do. Overall sales average around $85,000 per month. I wonder how this is going to affect me next year... I think it is time to make a few changes!

[Kuang_Grade]

You can expect Ebay folks will be chatting this up during the 4Q numbers when they will try to distract people from the rot in the US auction numbers they probably won't be great.....they've been running endless promotions for the last 2 months that must be cutting in to their US margins big time....for the last five weeks, they've been giving away for free their #1 add on service, the "gallery' photo of the item that shows up next to the listing title in the search page.

As for Canman's S/H cost lament, there are several reasons for this. One is that Ebay doesn't charge fees on S/H, so for lower priced items where Ebay's listing and final fee structure if pretty regressive (including paypal fees, on items under $15 can be subject to a total Ebay bite of around 14%), so bumping those fees up is a good way to preserve one's bottom line. This is pretty much SOP for most non-amateur sellers, at least in the arenas that I deal in.

Another is that the dollar and prices in the US in general are so low that for those sellers willing to deal with the hassle and risk of international sales, in order to actually milk those international buyers, they jack up the S/H while keeping the price competitive for domestic buyers. Even after massive S/H mark ups, many items, once converted to their local currencies are still a bargain compared to their domestic prices. If I was really organized (and got pumped up thinking about office supply products) I could probably live quite well just going to Staples or Office Depot, paying normal prices on quite a few standard business goods, and then selling them to folks in the UK, who just get raped on pricing on many items (for example, handheld Dymo labelers sell for in pounds in the UK what they sell for dollars in the US).

Also international shipping can be a pain...I used to regularly charge Canadian buyers 2x US shipping costs even though it was only about 5% higher than domestic US shipping costs to ship to Canada. The reason why was because it took 3x longer to prep those packages and then I had to stand in line and fill out paperwork when mailing them (unlike my domestic packages which I can just give to a clerk at the counter without waiting in line). Now I don't even bother because it is simply not worth my time.

[FG Lurker]

A story with a (very) few more details:

Yahoo Japan, eBay to enable cross-border bids
MarketWatch, December 3, 2007

Yahoo Japan Corp. and eBay Inc. will join forces to broaden their online marketplaces and enable cross-border bidding on auction items.

[...]

The companies plan to establish a Japanese-language site within Yahoo Japan by March 2008, enabling its registered users to bid on items advertised on the eBay's North American site.

A reverse set up, enabling North American users to shop for items from Japan under an English-language bidding system, is due to be implemented next year.

EBay will reportedly launch a portal by March featuring Japanese licensed-character goods, comic books, and other collectibles listed on the Yahoo Japan auction site.

The integrated marketplace will also offer services to streamline payment, shipping and customs clearance.

(Full Story)

Upon further reflection I think this is likely to be some sort of international version of eBay Express on both sides. I could be wrong of course, only time will tell.

[Kuang_Grade]

Yeah, that "streamlined" phase sounds alot like ebay express, which isn't all that popular with many US sellers, mostly due to the fact it lets buyers have the option of making sellers ship to non-paypal verified addresses (or the seller can choose to call off the deal and then have to eat the listing fees and deal with a pissed off buyer), so listing on Ebay Express can be significantly more risky for sellers than on Ebay, where you can be very particular on how payment is to be made and where it will be sent. So if you are selling crocheted beer can hats, Ebay Express may work for you but not if you are selling higher cost/higher risk items.

It is not like Ebay.com is devoid of Japan based sellers who list goods on ebay.com and other international Ebay sites, so I don't see a big upside for Ebay...if anything, they are risking their current J-based sellers biz since increasing the J-product listings 10x is not going to result in a 10x larger market...Nor do I imagine that a large portion of Yahoo auction sellers want to deal with the hassle of international shipment either. I suspect that the Paypal side of things is what is key for both parties...Ebay loves paypal, since there is actual growth potential there and Yahoo is probably thinking if J folks start using paypal (or something like it) more, it may help to speed up the sales process which will increase the number of listings (and listing fees for Yahoo auctions)....and bringing new eyes to their auctions certainly doesn't hurt either.

[times-up]

I run an export business for a certain type of product. I don't buy all my items on Yahoo and I don't sell them all on eBay, but it is certainly a chunk of what I do. Overall sales average around $85,000 per month. I wonder how this is going to affect me next year... I think it is time to make a few changes!

I do the same and this news startled me at first. But it's so rare to see a Japanese seller on yahoo auctions that will ship internationally I don't think it will make a difference in my livelihood because thats not about to change. Reselling is big business but I take relief in the fact that Japanese arent going to deal with shipping abroad on a continuous basis and im guessing the whole pay process will be a nightmare. eBay will no doubt try and work paypal into these auctions......I don't know I don't see this as being successful and I hope it fails.

[FG Lurker]

More details are emerging...

EBay, Yahoo Japan to link up auction services
Reuters via Earthtimes.org, December 4, 2007

EBay, the world's biggest online auctioneer, and Yahoo Japan, owner of the country's biggest auction Web site, are betting that more shoppers will hunt online for overseas bargains, once language barriers and cumbersome shipment and payment arrangements are cleared.

But such hopes may be misplaced, according to Masato Araki, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

"When you take into consideration shipping and transaction fees, participation may be limited," he said. "For Yahoo Japan, the move is unlikely to have a large impact on earnings."

[...]

The companies launched the site, called Sekaimon or "Gateway to the world" on Tuesday. The Web address is:

http://www.sekaimon.com

Shop Airlines, a unit of online sales services firm NetPrice <3328.T> will manage the site, payment services, customs clearance and delivery. It plans to charge 15 percent in fees on each transaction.

Revenue from fees and advertising will be shared by the three firms, executives said, without elaborating.

(Full Story)

Okay, this is hilarious. 15%??? Holy shit! Well, that about takes care of the "buy from eBay in Japan" side of things... I wonder if the "buy from Yahoo Japan in the USA" will be any more reasonable?

[Taro Toporific]

[Samurai_Jerk]

Dang, Taro, you must be slipping. The same story is literally four posts down the top page.

[Catoneinutica]

Let's ask an Accenture consultant!

Hey Accenture consultant, "YahBay" or "e-hoo"?

"Hold on. [Mentally calculates day's contributions to LDP.] What's that? Oh yeah. We really should workshop this, but on a back-of-the-envelope basis, I'd go with 'YahBay.' It perfectly captures the synergy behind the the marriage of two companies with such complementary core competencies. And the 'Yah' part is first, because that's the company Japanese people have come to know and love, just like they'll come to know and love 'YahBay.' And besides, it's not like 'YahBay' means 'Don't go' in Spanish or something."

[Catoneinutica]

Dang, Taro, you must be slipping. The same story is literally four posts down the top page.

I'd say Taro's minting of the name YahBay deserves a thread of its own.

Shit, it deserves a forum of its own.

[Doctor Stop]

Oy veh!

[Kuang_Grade]

15% isn't as insane as it might sound..The Ebay/Paypal bite goes from 14.7% on a $10 item to 9.4% on a $100 item (using US rates)...if there is some value added services in there, it may appeal to some, albeit likely a very small number, sellers. Since they are handling "delivery", this sounds more like 3rd party shipping service bundled with a online sales tool....ie, you hold on to a couple hundred of these widgets and I'll tell you where to ship to ship single shipments of them. If this is the case, then this doesn't sound like it would have any appeal to Joe Watanabe trying to sell his prized Shogun Warriors Mazinger Z robot
[yt]6J5P2gHerEQ[/yt]

[ttjereth]

15% isn't as insane as it might sound..The Ebay/Paypal bite goes from 14.7% on a $10 item to 9.4% on a $100 item (using US rates)...if there is some value added services in there, it may appeal to some, albeit likely a very small number, sellers. Since they are handling "delivery", this sounds more like 3rd party shipping service bundled with a online sales tool....ie, you hold on to a couple hundred of these widgets and I'll tell you where to ship to ship single shipments of them. If this is the case, then this doesn't sound like it would have any appeal to Joe Watanabe trying to sell his prized Shogun Warriors Mazinger Z robot
[yt]6J5P2gHerEQ[/yt]

I used to have that exact same godzilla toy when I was a kid!

[FG Lurker]

15% isn't as insane as it might sound..The Ebay/Paypal bite goes from 14.7% on a $10 item to 9.4% on a $100 item (using US rates)...

Yes, eBay makes a killing percentage wise on the small items.

I get the feeling that the 15% is going to be totally separate from the eBay/Yahoo/PayPal fees, and likely paid by the buyer, not the seller. Although previously I thought the new venture would be something like eBay Express it seems that (at first, anyway) they are moving into the cross-border "assisted bidding" market. If I was one of these companies I would really be shitting myself right now:

http://www.rinkya.com/
http://www.celga.com/
http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com/
http://www.us-buyer.com/

I'd also be pretty damn unhappy if I was running jList.com:
http://www.jlist.com/

if there is some value added services in there, it may appeal to some, albeit likely a very small number, sellers. Since they are handling "delivery", this sounds more like 3rd party shipping service bundled with a online sales tool....ie, you hold on to a couple hundred of these widgets and I'll tell you where to ship to ship single shipments of them. If this is the case, then this doesn't sound like it would have any appeal to Joe Watanabe trying to sell his prized Shogun Warriors Mazinger Z robot

If it turns out to be "assisted bidding" then the sellers quite likely won't even realize what is happening (at least at first). The assisted bidding company will buy the item from the auction, take payment from the customer, and then forward payment to the seller. The seller will ship domestically to the assisted bidding company, and the assisted bidding company will take care of all the international shipping and customs declarations. It's slick, as long as there are no problems with the item in question.

In my experience on Yahoo up to 30% of (used) items are not as described. Sometimes it is something small but other times there are significant problems. So, assisted bidding would work well for new items (think jlist.com) or for items where not much can go wrong. Not so good for high value items or for items that have many potential problems.

[Kuang_Grade]

I agree with you Lurker that I'd be worried if I was current Japanese auction agent services company doing this. However, if the job they are doing is satisfactory and is price competitive, it doesn't automatically mean they'll lose all their customer base when a big guy enters the market...I would suspect that their existing customer base is some what fussy about how things are done and handled, and just because this new company has big backers, it doesn't' automatically mean they know how to pack a box right (or more realistically, how to hire people who will pack stuff right).

I'm not sure that Jlist is big trouble or not, but I do know from some of my own orders, that for some of their inventory they've started to stock stuff directly in the US to cut down on shipping expense and shipping time. They will also have an advantage for buyers who are interested in getting several things at the same time and save a bunch on shipping, which for an auction agent that can be a bit of hassle to carry out and keep track of. Also Jlist's stock seems to be pretty current as well, so for those folks just now looking for ultraman salaryman series trading figures weren't going to have any luck on Jlist to begin with.

Also there may be licensing issues with media content products as well. While someone in Japan selling on Ebay say, video games, to someone in the US is unlikely to attract the attention of the game companies, big firms investing in a service that would facilitate grey market exports/imports probably would get more attention. Granted there is the whole "ownership" aspect to consider, since the auction service doesn't actually possess the items, but license holders may object if Yahoo/Ebay get too close to the process that may complicate (if ever so slightly) some of their licensing agreements in other countries. So it will be interesting to see how this all actually plays out and what products they actually OK to be sold.

[FG Lurker]

I agree with you Lurker that I'd be worried if I was current Japanese auction agent services company doing this. However, if the job they are doing is satisfactory and is price competitive, it doesn't automatically mean they'll lose all their customer base when a big guy enters the market...

I agree that their existing customers won't immediately abandon them for the new venture. However it will become a lot more difficult to get new customers. If eBay and Yahoo are advertising these services on their sites, anyone looking for such a service is likely to start with the new venture first. Before users had to search for these sorts of services but now they will be presented with a packaged service from a provider they already know and use. It is tough (but not impossible of course) to compete against that. Life just got a lot harder for anyone running such a business.

I would suspect that their existing customer base is some what fussy about how things are done and handled, and just because this new company has big backers, it doesn't' automatically mean they know how to pack a box right (or more realistically, how to hire people who will pack stuff right).

I am sure there will be bumps for the new business, all new businesses have a few. However if they are tied directly into eBay and Yahoo it will streamline a lot of things.

One thought that ties into both of the above paragraphs. I wonder how tightly they will integrate the service? For example, will people be able to add Yahoo Auction items to their eBay watchlists and then bid directly using their eBay IDs? If this is the case then it should be quite a smooth operation overall and will be very difficult to compete against.

I'm not sure that Jlist is big trouble or not, but I do know from some of my own orders, that for some of their inventory they've started to stock stuff directly in the US to cut down on shipping expense and shipping time. They will also have an advantage for buyers who are interested in getting several things at the same time and save a bunch on shipping, which for an auction agent that can be a bit of hassle to carry out and keep track of.

You have some good points about Jlist. I don't think this new service will kill their business out right but I think it will limit them in some ways. One thing that will likely get easier is price comparison. Some of their items have a fair amount of markup, and this will be easier to check on if people have greater access to Yahoo Auctions. The reverse is true too, lots of businesses that have imported western goods into Japan and sold them at much higher prices will find people complaining more about price I think.

It is all speculation at this point. If the initial business goes well they might expand it in ways that we haven't yet considered...

Also there may be licensing issues with media content products as well. [...] So it will be interesting to see how this all actually plays out and what products they actually OK to be sold.

Agreed 100%. It will be interesting to watch and see how they handle problems like this as they come up.

[GomiGirl]

To apply for this position, please send your resume as the body of an email
message to jobs@japanesejobs.com with ID#7607 in the subject line. No file
attachments.

--------------------------------

Company: Yahoo!

Position Title: Project Manager, Yahoo! Japan Operations

Location: Sunnyvale, CA **RELOCATION AVAILABLE**

Job Listing:

YAHOO!
Position: Project Manager, Yahoo! Japan Operations
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Job # 7607

About Yahoo!
The Internet is a big, busy place, and we at Yahoo! are proud to stand out
in the crowd. As the world's number one Internet brand, servicing over a
half billion people, we're determined to maintain our commitment to
delivering news, entertainment, information and fun each and every day.

In order to maintain our position as one of the world's most trafficked
Internet destinations, weire always on the lookout for people with big
ideas and big talent to help us provide our visitors with the innovative
products and services theyive come to expect from Yahoo!. We're looking for
people like you.

How Big Can You Think?

The Yahoo! International Operations team plays a critical role in managing
various business relationships and product development between Yahoo! Inc.
and Yahoo! Japan. The team is structured with multiple members each
contributing respectively to their area: business strategy, business
development, product development, marketing, pr and sales. Each member
works dynamically across the Yahoo! network and global properties, to
enhance content, market growth, and revenue.

This role is of strategic importance in the extension of relationships
between Yahoo! US and Yahoo! Japan. In this role, you will support the
ongoing technical and product exchanges between various business units and
develop solutions to expand and monetize Y! Japanis business.

Responsibilities:
* Facilitate localization and tactical roll outs of key platform products
in Japan
* Responsible for ensuring that the global product managers are aware of
Japanese market needs, product requirements, linguistics issues, and
competitive environment
* Work closely with cross-functional teams of multiple business units to
support the development and execution of product roadmaps even in the face
of geographical distance
* Responsible for providing strategic product insight, global market
knowledge, and competitive analysis to Y! Japan
* Communicate US priorities and road maps to Y! Japan and serve as primary
point of contact for all project status
* Share best practices from local marketplaces, highlight opportunities and
threats, and help create a battle plan to win in Japanese market
* Evangelize Y! Japanis business initiatives to US counterparts
* Organize, coordinate and schedule Japanese staff visits and training as
necessary

Basic Qualifications:
* 4 years of demonstrated experience in web base project management and/or
software development lifecycle
* Fluency (verbal, reading, writing) in Japanese and English a must
* A proven track record in managing multiple projects and delivering
results in complex international environments
* Strong analytical, communication and coordination skills
* Experience in writing and owning detailed technical product requirements
and processes
* Familiarity with project management tools (e.g. MS Project)
* Highly aware of emerging internet trends, technologies and markets
* Has technical savvy, clarity, positive attitude, and integrity to gain
credibility rapidly

Preferred Qualifications:
* BS in Computer Science or equivalent preferred
* An understanding of technologies and metrics behind internet consumer
services desired
* Experience with internet-based I18N/L10N issues a plus
* Experience with international business and relationship management
desired

Yahoo! Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. For more information or to
search all of our openings, please visit http://careers.yahoo.com

------------------------------
To apply for this position, please send your resume as the body of an email
message to jobs@japanesejobs.com with ID#7607 in the subject line. No file
attachments.

If you are not interested in this job, but know someone who may be, please
feel free to forward this message to him or her.

Japanese Jobs
Careers for Japanese/English Bilinguals

web: http://www.japanesejobs.com
email: jobs@japanesejobs.com