EBay to Partner with NEC in Japan

TOKYO (02/17/2000) - NEC Corp. today announced plans to take a stake in eBay Japan, the soon-to-be established Japanese unit of online auction site eBay Inc., and work with the company to build its market in Japan.

NEC will take a 30 percent stake in the Japanese unit for an undisclosed sum, said company spokesman Yasuhito Jochi, and will promote the auction service to customers of its Internet service provider Biglobe.

In planning since late 1999, the service is expected to go live within the next few weeks, according to eBay Japan. The new service will be offered entirely in Japanese and allow goods to be priced in yen, something that is not possible on the U.S.-based eBay main site.

It will launch into an already competitive market. Both Yahoo Japan and start-up site Bidders already operate Japanese language auction sites and foreign sites such as eBay are popular among English-speaking Japanese Internet users.

Biglobe is Japan's second largest ISP, with 2.3 million active members, or around 17 percent of Japanese Internet users. Its Web site top page, where eBay Japan will be promoted, attracts around one million hits per day, said Jochi.

The online auction house also announced today that Merle Okawara, currently chairman and president of JC Foods Ltd., will be chief executive officer of eBay Japan.

NEC Corp., in Tokyo, can be found online at http://www.nec.co.jp/. Yahoo Japan can be found athttp://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/. Bidders can be found at http://www.bidders.co.jp/.

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