Online users on eBay China's Website will not be charged any fees as the portal tries to catch up with market leader Taobao.com which has provided free services since it was founded five years ago.

China is now the only region where the world's biggest online auction Website doesn't charge users for trading.

Starting from yesterday, users can establish all kinds of online stores on the Website, eachnet.com, including so-called "high-end or superior store," which used to cost users 25 yuan (US$3.57) or 50 yuan a month for customized services, according to eBay Eachnet, a joint venture between eBay and Tom Online.

eBay Eachnet used to charge sellers a commission to close a trade, copying its model in the United States, but the Website canceled it in 2006.

eBay China won't charge users to register products and opening stores. Instead, the firm will generate income via other services, like selling "recommended positions" in the product search result list.

"China's online trade is still in the infant stage and lots of new comers will try the service on our zero-cost platform," Chang Ling, eBay Eachnet's vice president, said in a statement.

Cao Fei, an analyst at Analysys International, believed that the ''new free policy will bring eBay China new users as it's a sensitive time for Taobao."

Taobao has plans to charge users as its current free service will end in October, which triggered a chorus of complaints from sellers.

To woo users from Taobao, eBay Eachnet announced recently it would partially admit Taobao users' credits.

eBay China previously occupied more than 70 percent share in the domestic online auction Website market in the late 1990s. In 2003, Alibaba.com invested 450 million yuan to establish Taobao.com with free services and the Alipay online payment tool, which ate the market share of eBay China.

China's online auction Website trade value totaled 51.8 billion yuan, a jump of 125.2 percent year on year. eBay Eachnet's market share by volume was 7.7 percent, following Taobao's 83.6 percent and Tencent Paipai's 8.7 percent, according to iResearch, a Shanghai-based Internet research firm.

(Shanghai Daily May 6, 2008)