Chinese online auctioneer Taobao.com upbeat despite EBay challenge BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese online auctioneer Taobao.com said it expects to dominate the local market despite the challenge from US giant EBay Inc, which has also set its eyes on the world's most populous country. Liens Commerciaux "The market is so big and so complicated, so probably we'll have at least two big players," said Jack Ma, chief executive of e-commerce company Alibaba.com, the parent of Taobao.com. "I think Taobao in the future will get 70 percent (of the market) and EBay definitely will get 20 or 30 percent," he said. EBay and Taobao.com are currently engaged in a high-profile fight for dominance in China's online auction market. EBay entered China last year by purchasing Shanghai-based Eachnet and now says it has 11.6 million registered users, up from 6.9 million in the second quarter of 2004. The US company previously announced it planned to spend 100 million dollars in China but Ma said he was not worried about EBay's spending power. "I encourage them to put more money in (China). I'm worried that if they do not pour money into China, we'll have to pour money into China to educate the market," Ma said. EBay, however, has a track record of success in foreign markets. The company posted international sales of 393.9 million dollars in the first quarter of this year, a 52 percent year-on-year increase.