Shinsegae, Naver win bidding battle for EBay South Korea

 EBay will sell its South Korean business to retailer Shinsegae Group and e-commerce firm Naver for about 4 trillion won (US$3.6 billion), local newspapers reported today.

EBay Korea is the country’s third-largest e-commerce firm with market share of about 12.8 per cent last year, according to Euromonitor. It operates the platforms Gmarket, Auction and G9.

Shinsegae, Naver and eBay Korea declined to comment.

Lotte Shopping had also been in the running, the Korea Economic Daily and other newspapers said, citing unnamed investment banking sources.

South Korea represents the world’s fourth largest e-commerce market. Driven by the coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce has soared to account for 35.8 per cent of the retail market last year compared with 28.6 per cent in 2019, according to Euromonitor data.

Shinsegae and Naver formed a retail and e-commerce partnership in March by taking stakes worth 250 billion won in each other’s affiliates.

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