eBay.com.my is here ... softly does it

PETALING JAYA: There is now a localised version of online auction site eBay, with eBay.com.my having gone online, albeit in very low-key fashion.

There was no official launch or even a press release – in fact, In.Tech only found out after being tipped off by a local surfer.

The IT analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, stumbled upon the website (http://ebay.com.my) last week. She had been habitually checking to see if certain domains were taken up or not.

“I’ve been checking on ebay.com.my monthly for several months now, and it was finally in use when I checked (last week),” she said.

eBay.com is arguably the world’s largest online auction website, and currently has 25 localised spinoffs that use different country domains. eBay Australia, for example, is available at eBay.com.au, while eBay Singapore is eBay.com.sg.

eBay Inc announced in October net revenue of US$805.9 (RM3.1bil) for the third quarter of this year.

It had recently made aggressive forays into Asia, which culminated in a US$50mil (RM190mil) takeover of India’s top online auction site Baazee.com Inc (which is now eBay India). The deal was completed in early August.

eBay Hong Kong and eBay Singapore were both launched early this year as well.

At press time, it was not immediately known when eBay.com.my first went live, but according to the latest official press release available at eBay.com and dated Nov 16, eBay Philippines was the newest addition to the eBay family of subsidiary websites.

Localised eBay spinoff websites have essentially the same look and feel as the more international eBay.com, but some actually have different policies. For example, sellers on eBay Philippines are not charged fees, unlike sellers that use eBay.com.

eBay.com.my is an English website, with items sold there listed in “MYR,” or Malaysian ringgit. Local users can sell items on the website without paying any sort of charges.

If Malaysians opt to sell their items for free, the items will only appear on eBay.com.my, and not on eBay.com. Malaysians have the option of listing on eBay.com -- all the standard charges apply.

eBay.com.my has far fewer categories compared with its international counterpart, with only 14 main categories as opposed to eBay.com's 32.

According to Mynic (MalaYsian Network Information Centre), ebay.com.my is registered to Kuala Lumpur-based High Options Sdn Bhd.

A division of Mimos Bhd, Mynic is the registrar for “.my” domains.

When contacted by In.Tech, High Options would not comment on when the local eBay spinoff first went live, and would only say that the company registered the domain name on behalf of “its client,” which is believed to be eBay.

eBay.com.my was registered on June 24, as stated on the Mynic website (http://whois.mynic.net.my/).

High Options did refer In.Tech to an eBay.com spokesman, but he did not return his calls nor reply to e-mail. In.Tech had previously also e-mailed two other eBay spokesmen last week, but again, no replies had been received as at press time.

Growing the pie

Interbase Resources Sdn Bhd managing director Richard Tan said the emergence of eBay.com.my can be seen as a positive sign for the local online auction industry.

Interbase maintains Lelong.com.my, for many years the flagbearer for online auctions in the country and which is often referred to as Malaysia’s largest online auction website (http://lelong.com.my), with 6,000 to 8,000 items listed at any one time.

Tan would not disclose the daily, monthly or annual value of items sold through the website, nor would he say how many members the site has.

“Competition (in the form of eBay.com.my) is not necessarily bad, as everyone would stand to gain from it,” he said.

He said he hopes that with a local eBay website, the Malaysian online auction market will actually grow bigger.

When asked whether if Interbase had ever been approached by eBay on the possibility of a tie-up or a takeover, Tan said both companies did come into contact “some time ago,” but he refused to elaborate.

Faced with eBay's deep pockets, Tan is not quaking in his boots but isn’t turning a blind eye to the competition either.

He said Lelong.com.my had key advantages in its low charges and local tieups, as well as user loyalty, especially from veteran sellers who have accumulated dozens or even hundreds of positive feedback ratings.

(Feedback systems are widely used in trading websites to help curb fraudulent transactions. A positive is given for every successful trade or transaction. eBay and Lelong.com.my users give positives based on the number of unique users who have traded with a buyer or seller.)

Users can list items for free on Lelong.com.my, with only premium features such as listing items in the Featured section, reserve and Dutch auctions incurring charges.

Featured items are displayed more prominently compared with regular items, while reserve auctions mean the items are only sold at minimum prices set by sellers. A Dutch auction is a listing of more than one identical unit of an item.

Tan said that a new market player can “bring excitement,” as more people will "now sit up and realise that online auctions are a worthwhile pursuit."

“It is hoped that with market growth, the slices of the online auction market pie will maintain their current proportions, or grow even more,” he said.

Lelong.com.my does not have any plans to respond to eBay.com.my; Tan said that any new services or changes to its existing member services would only be done after careful consideration.

“The company only implements new policies or adjusts policies if Lelong.com.my members request them,” he said, citing the newly-implemented iPay service for payment transfers between verified Lelong.com.my members as an example.

iPay allows Lelong users to send payments of up to RM50 to pay for auctions. The facility is only available to “Verified” members (who are required to have their identification cards validated at Interbase), and carries a 2.5% service charge per transaction.

Lelong.com.my has been successful so far in fending off competition from the likes of Netbuy.com.my (http://netbuy.com.my) and Mbid.com.my (http://mbid.com.my). The number of listings on both these sites have remained low and changed little since they went live earlier this year.

How ... exciting

Lelong.com.my users were not terribly excited to hear about eBay.com.my, as a number of them had already garnered a large amount of positive feedback on the local site. They said they were also very comfortable with the various member benefits and services that the top Malaysian online auction website is currently offering them.

“I’ll still use Lelong.com.my because I have quite a strong reputation there now. I might try out eBay.com.my, but my good feedback record in Lelong.com.my means I’ll be more likely to obtain sales there,” said a local online auction user who wished to be known as only Chew.

“It doesn’t make any difference if you use Lelong.com.my or eBay.com.my, because if I was a seller, I’d still have to go to the post office to mail the sold items,” said another local Lelong.com.my user, who requested anonymity.

But he pointed out that using eBay.com.my does not really help Malaysians at this point, because if they want to start selling at an international level, they would still need to pay the standard eBay.com commissions.

“eBay.com.my does not really offer much, since Malaysians who want to use eBay would be doing so already over at eBay.com,” he said.

While it is possible that overseas shoppers will actually go to eBay.com.my and browse for items, he feels that this would be unlikely.

“If I can’t find something that I’m looking for on the international site, then I’ll check eBay.co.uk, eBay.co.au and so forth. If I can’t find the item in those websites, then what are the chances of my finding it on eBay.com.my?” he said.

Interbase’s Tan said his company was not sitting on its laurels as there is definitely room for improvement in Lelong.com.my in a bid to boost its membership numbers.

There are plans to bring back its “e-Courier” service, which was discontinued several years ago – a sure sign that Interbase is steadily making the website more attractive to use and head off possible user defections to eBay.com.my.

“e-Courier” gave Lelong.com.my users the option to arrange for a courier company to pick up and deliver an item sold through the auction site.

However, Tan could not specify a timeframe for the return of “e-Courier.”