Log in ....Tribune--Feature article

Monday, May 27, 2002		Article

Yahoo! stops ticket auction in Japan
To promote eBay in Europe

Japanese office worker Satoru Ogura smiles upon receiving tickets for the World Cup applied for through the Internet at a FIFA ticketing kiosk counter in Tokyo.

INTERNET site Yahoo! Japan stopped the trading of tickets for the World Cup finals on its auction site last week to help prevent touting of tickets for the tournament that starts on May 31.

"We have removed all World Cup listings," a Yahoo spokeswoman said. Japanese organisers (JAWOC) have banned the resale and transfer of World Cup tickets except in limited cases, and said ticket holders' identities would be checked at stadium gates.

But reports that only spot checks would be made seemed likely to boost interest in auctioning the tickets, threatening to send prices sky high and increase the possibility of fraud and other scams, the spokeswoman added.

Japanese media reports said some tickets for a single Japan squad match had already been sold for nearly $3,000.

Yahoo! Japan, a subsidiary of World Cup sponsor Yahoo! Inc, was also worried that buyers of the tickets would unwittingly fall foul of a Tokyo city bylaw banning the purchase of tickets for the purpose of resale, she said, adding it was unclear whether the by-law actually applied to net trading.

"It was an unfortunate decision to have to make, but we are an official sponsor," she said.

Yahoo! now plans to make some of its sponsor tickets available as gifts to those who had been unable to buy them.

Moreover, Yahoo! Inc. will also close most of its European auction operations and promote rival eBay's Inc. instead, the Wall Street Journal reported on its online edition last week.

Yahoo! is expected to suspend its auction sites in United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain within the next six weeks as part of an agreement with eBay, the market leader in auction sites in the region, the Journal said.

According to the publication, Yahoo! ranks a distant third place in the European auction market but it will keep its Denmark, Sweden and Norway operations where the company believes it has a stronger position.

The site, eBay, will pay Yahoo! an undisclosed sum over the course of a multiyear deal to promote eBay's auction sites through banner ads, text links and other promotions. Officials from both companies were not available for comment.