Where Tencent dominates in instant messaging and social networking services, it trails local players like Baidu and Alibaba's Taobao in search and e-commerce businesses. However, the absence or low profile of foreign players is palpable. "The major local companies know local users better and can react to the local market better because we have a fairly localised decision-process and fairly localised organization here," says Ma. eBay was an early entrant in the Chinese e-commerce market but was quickly dwarfed by Taobao whose success has been attributed to smart strategies designed specifically for the Chinese consumer. For instance, no listing fee or transactions fees for cost-conscious consumers which eBay dropped only much later - Taobao generates revenues from ads and preferred listing fees. It also designed specific tools to help users haggle over prices in real time to match local shopping behaviour. But this could well change with foreign companies focusing and investing more in China, Ma says.