eBay Korea: Kakao reportedly withdraws from the preliminary bidding to acquire the e-commerce platform

eBay Korea is up for sale since January, and while it has yet to find a buyer, the bidders for its acquisition have grown in number. The best thing about it is that major companies in South Korea have expressed strong interest in buying the e-commerce platform.

Backing out of the bidding race?

As per Yonhap News Agency, the biggest companies, including Kakao, SK Telecom Co., Lotte Group, and Emart Inc., have all been confirmed to place their bids at eBay Korea’s preliminary bidding event. From this list of bidders, industry insiders think that Kakao is one of the investors with the most potential to acquire eBay.

Lotte Group and Emart were also viewed as strong candidates, so it appears that the bidding war would be rigid. However, the list of the bidders was only revealed this week, but there is already a new report that states Kakao is dropping out from the bidding race.

The applications for the preliminary bid were only filed on March 16, and today, it was disclosed that the South Korean Internet company decided to withdraw. With this development, The Korean Times reported that the move raised questions as to why Kakao made the decision.

Possible reason for abandoning plans to buy eBay Korea

Sources stated that Kakao might have canceled its participation in the bidding to focus on its own KakaoTalk e-commerce business model. It was said that the company might have realized that it has its own strengths in successfully managing digital models.

In fact, Kakao has been offering e-commerce and other services under the KakaoTalk platform, where users can buy products at discounted prices. The company has been operating this for some time now, and it was able to gather many customers, and it’s growing continuously.

What’s more, based on the report, Kakao’s e-commerce business reported an annual transaction record amounting to KRW4.6 trillion. Although it is doing great in the business, it was said that it failed to catch up with eBay Korea that has been in operation much longer.

Finally, it is apparent that Kakao has been swayed by its decision to abandon its bid to buy eBay Korea as its own commerce business has a big potential to make it big as well if it will only be developed more. Plus, Kakao may have also taken into account the huge commission fees that it has to pay for acquiring eBay.