According to the textbooks, eBay should own the Chinese market. In 2004 it acquired the largest local online-trading company, EachNet, which enjoyed an 85% market share at the time. EBay’s CEO, Meg Whitman, had witnessed the power of network effects in the company’s U.S. business and was supremely confident: “Ten to 15 years from now,” she said, “I think China can be eBay’s largest market on a global basis as we build up the local trade and the export trade.”