|
By Edwin Chan
Shanghai, October 13, 2000 |
 |
|
(Reuters) - Major Chinese online auction house
EachNet.com will sign a wide-ranging pact with Nasdaq-listed
portal NetEase.com
<NTES.O> within a month, EachNet's chief executive and
founder said on Friday. "They've been focusing a lot of energy
on auctions," said Shao Yibo, the head of one of China's largest
online consumer trading companies, in which NetEase
has sunk an undisclosed strategic investment. |
|
|
"We'll provide good auction services for them
and they will certainly generate a lot of users for us and our
site," Shao told Reuters from EachNet's spacious offices on
an entire floor of new development CITIC Square in central Shanghai.
|
|
|
Shao said the agreement ranged beyond providing
auction services, but did not elaborate. The company, which
lists more than two million registered users, also has marketing
agreements with Nasdaq-listed Sina.com <SINA.O>. |
|
|
The pact would come just after EachNet announced
this week it had snared a total of $20.5 million in financing
from Europatweb, the Internet arm of Group Arnault, and from
existing investors Whitney & Co., AsiaTech Ventures Ltd and
Orchid Asia. |
|
|
Shao, who prefers to be called "Bo", said
the cash infusion, uncommonly large in China's fledgling Internet
industry, would bolster the firm's cash at hand and enable it
to continue burning cash for a "very, very long time", perhaps
years. |
|
|
"Certainly not months," he said. |
|
|
EachNet rakes in slightly more than $1.0 million
a month in revenue from mainly consumer to consumer (C2C) transactions,
but Shao declined to comment on when the company would break
even. |
|
|
DORMANT FOR NOW |
|
|
Shao said EachNet -- which in the past four
months has merged with, or bought, four web companies, including
auction house ChinBid.com -- would halt its buying spree for
the time being. "It's still a possibility that we will continue
to acquire businesses that fit with our core strategy," he said.
"But in the short term no, we have a lot to digest." |
|
|
EachNet has seen its user base leap from about
50,000 at the start of the year to around 2.3 million by mid-October.
|
|
|
"Frankly, I've been quite surprised at how
fast we've been growing," Shao said. Most of that was internal
growth generated through partnerships with companies like Sina,
he added. |
|
|
Shao also declined to comment on whether EachNet
would aim for a Nasdaq listing this year, saying the company
would have to mature and market conditions would have to be
just right. "Obviously we do have a plan for a listing -- but
it must be natural and go with the flow," he said. |
|
|
Shao had said in March that EachNet might
be prepped for a Nasdaq listing by the end of 2000. That, however,
was just before the Nasdaq embarked on an extended nosedive
that has seen its value trimmed by nearly half. ((Shanghai Newsroom:
(86) 21-6355-4010; Fax 21-6355-5015 reutersh@uninet.com.cn))
|
