Ebay, the world's largest online auction site, is hoping to crack the Chinese market by acquiring Taiwanese company NeoCom Technology.

Ebay - which sells everything from antiques to cuddly toys - has paid £6.7m for NeoCom in an attempt to grow its international operation.

NeoCom operates two of Taiwan's largest auction sites - Bid.com.tw and Ubid.com.tw - and eBay will use the two brands as a basis for a Chinese launch.

At the same time, eBay is abandoning is Japanese operation because of strong competition and poor market conditions.

Ebay's success has been founded on persuading its millions of users to pay to list and sell items online.

However, analysts suggest the company could find this approach difficult to implement in Asia.

The nascent Chinese market, for example, has no established method of allowing users to make online payments.

Ebay's international sales accounted for 18% of the group's turnover during the fourth quarter of 2001 and overseas sales are growing at twice the rate of revenues from the US.

The company recently signed a deal with Sotheby's to enable users across the globe to participate in auctions over the web.