ebay in hong kong...yet again im afraid!

[zazz]

ok...here is the problem

i am not a chinese speaking person but the local ebay site is only in cantonese.

so i cant even register here.

so as was suggested earlier i register in say the uk and transfer over to hk.

but part of the signup process is that a checking phonecall to a uk number must be verified for the account to be completed.

so i have no way of going forward with this.

but further to this problem is the fact that a huge number of people including chinese locals with access to the lionshare of disposable income acctually speak english. Added to the fact that a fair share of canton speaking locals cannot even write and do not have access to a computer.

so statistics lie and ebay should at least have an english option.

call me a cynic but i cannot help thinking that situation is all part of a grand plan by ebay to be seen as being pro chinese and so soften their entry into the chinese market.

or to put it another way ..why is the philippine and signaporean sites in english.....

or do you know that the potential disposable income of all english speaking people in hong kong might well be on a par with the phillipines.

....we english speakers deserve our own ebay website!!!!


and to top it off i rang up directory inquiries to get the local ebay tel number for hk.....and the young well spoken lady told me in perfect english "ebay...how do you spell it because i have never heard of this website"......

no suprise that it wasnt available or she couldnt find it.

oh did i mention ....we english speakers deserve our own ebay website!!!! yes i did.

[RastaMan]

I don't like ebay. Is there any other site where one can sell stuff? I also want to sell some stuff (paintings, carvings, 19" screen...). Does anybody want to buy something?

[KnowItAll]

http://www.geoexpat.com/classifieds if its personal stuff ..

[RastaMan]

Excellent! Thanks a lot!

[HKChigger]

call me a cynic but i cannot help thinking that situation is all part of a grand plan by ebay to be seen as being pro chinese and so soften their entry into the chinese market.

My guess is HK Ebay either thinks there is not enough market for English or think everyone living in HK that would use English is only temp. and has their own accts elsewhere.

Ebay is not trying to stop themselves from another source of income. Come on! They love $$$! Having an English and Chinese version is not going to make the Chinese think any less of it than just Chinese.

[zazz]

My guess is HK Ebay either thinks there is not enough market for English or think everyone living in HK that would use English is only temp. and has their own accts elsewhere.

Ebay is not trying to stop themselves from another source of income. Come on! They love $$$! Having an English and Chinese version is not going to make the Chinese think any less of it than just Chinese.

well lets assume your right ...so if you have an account elsewhere can you then change it to a hk address ...the same as your credit card because i think you may encounter a chinese langauge page at some point??

also i would guess that the cost of maintaining an english webpage...even if it was just cut down to only allow registration would bring cost less than the comissions they might otherwise lose out on.

and the idea of the mainland looking favourably on a website that is committed to chinese only in hong kong is totally understandable...just look at the actions of other search engines that readily give up private information to state police to gain favour with the mainland....its all part of the game.

nah.....the revenue they might be losing out on in hk is peanuts when compared to the huge potential in the chinese mainland market ...as long as they dont rock the boat in anyway ...every little bit counts.

[KnowItAll]

Nothing to do with rocking the boat. There is plenty of stuff that ebay has done wrong, and corrected over time when they've figured they were wrong.

Right now, Hong Kong is a drop in the ocean in terms of revenue for them so if they figure they don't want the additional editorial and translation headaches then good for them.

They also have some serious management issues in Hong Kong, which I simply cannot go into ..

[PDLM]

Added to the fact that a fair share of canton speaking locals cannot even write and do not have access to a computer.

These ridiculous assertions just take away any positive points from your post:

1) The literacy rate in Hong Kong is around 95%
2) Hong Kong has the highest penetration of broadband internet in the world in terms of connections per household (around 70%).

[discobay]

Korea has the highest broadband penetration.

[PDLM]

Measured by percent of population, yes, Korea is the highest. But measured by percent of households it is Hong Kong (the difference being explained by the fact that the average number of people per household is higher in Hong Kong).