Ebay Russian launch delayed

The launch of the Russian version of eBay, the online auction site, has been delayed until March 25 after it was supposed to open on Tuesday.

Although eBay is refusing to comment, speculation as to why the launch was postponed has been swirling around the media.

The two main problems facing eBay are payment methods and delivery.

EBay uses PayPal to carry out payment transactions; however PayPal is not allowing domestic accounts in Russia to be opened.

A source told Vedomosti that EBay has held talks with Yandex.Money among other payment companies, but according to a Yandex.Money representative, it’s too early to talk about results.

The payment system could be linked to recent complaints that delivery has been severely delayed in the Russian post in recent months which causes problems for EBay sellers who are required to return the money to the buyer if the purchase has not reached its destination within 45 days.

Yandex.Money General Director, Evgenia Zavalishina, confirmed these issues and doubted the success of EBay in the country.

“If you launch auction service the two main questions you need to solve are first, payments and second, delivery. Unfortunately we have very big problems with delivery here in Russia; this is why auction services are not very popular in Russia.”