Yahoo, EBay Team Up in Online Auction

Yahoo Japan Corp. and eBay Inc. said Tuesday they have agreed to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things via the Internet from the U.S. and Japan.

Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site.

The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers.

Americans using eBay will be able to more easily buy Japanese goods popular abroad, such as "manga" comic books, CDs, and products that feature Japanese animation characters and other mascots, it said.

Also, some products are cheaper online abroad than in Japan, and consumers will be able to compare prices for the best deals.

News of the agreement, initially reported in the business daily The Nikkei, sent shares of Yahoo Japan climbing Tuesday morning. By midday, the stock was up 3.9 percent at 56,040 yen ($509).

Yahoo Japan, a unit of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc., has more than 15 million auction items listed on any given day, while eBay, based in San Jose, Calif., the world's biggest online auction site, boasts 248 million registered users.

The online auction markets in both countries are growing, Yahoo said. In Japan, it's up about 27 percent from a year ago to an estimated 4 trillion yen ($36.4 billion), and in the U.S., it's up 21 percent to more than 19 trillion yen ($172.7 billion).

Although Japanese already can shop online on overseas sites, and vice versa, the agreement will make it easier by bridging language and other barriers.

Macquarie analyst Nathan Ramler said the deal is positive for both sides.

"Now there is going to be a formal channel by which you can sell products from one market into another," he told Dow Jones Newswires.

The tie-up may be expanded, both sides said.

Lorrie Norrington, head of eBay's international operations, said the deal may be expanded in the future to other businesses. Besides the online auction, eBay owns the PayPal online payment service and Skype, an online telephone service.

Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue said the companies may pursue a capital tie-up, although Tuesday's deal doesn't involve such mutual investments.