Maybe eBay China execs never learned to speak the native Chingchong tongue, or maybe its Chinese auction site sucked ass, but for whatever reason the company's adventures in the Middle Kingdom have been a spectacular failure. Now—"hundreds" of millions of dollars later—eBay is calling for backup.

The company said it will fold its Chinese auction site eBay Eachnet into a new auction site with local partner Tom Online. eBay's woes aren't unique, though.

Microsoft has apparently contemplated pulling from the market depending "if the persecuting of bloggers reaches a point that it's unacceptable to do business there."

And the president of Yahoo China recently quit abruptly, possibly due to a case of sore-loseritis. (Local Chinese search engine Baidu.com kicks Yahoo's butt.)


Microsoft considers China policy [BBC]
eBay is expected to close its auction site [New York Times]
eBay, Chinese partner announce Web site [Associated Press]
Yahoo's China Syndrome [Red Herring]