EBAY Inc, forced to hand over control of its venture in China to a local partner in December, saw its market share decline greatly last year under intense competition, according to a latest industry report.

Its share could further decline this year as about 25 percent of online store owners on EachNet.com - eBay's China division - are considering closing the stores, said China Intelli Consulting Co, a Beijing-based IT consulting firm, citing a survey done in January and February in five Chinese cities.

EBay had a share of 15 percent in terms of trading volume, according to the consultancy, which didn't provide the figure of 2005 for comparison.

Figures from the China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC, showed that eBay's share in 2005 was 29 percent, much smaller than its major rival Taobao.com, which dominated 67 percent of the online consumer-to-consumer (C2C) trading.

Hangzhou-based Taobao, a unit of China's largest e-commerce firm Alibaba.com Corp, widened the gap last year, with a share of 80 percent of the C2C market.

EBay entered the Chinese market in 2002 when it bought a third of EachNet's stake for US$30 million. EBay spent another US$150 million on the remaining shares of EachNet in 2003, changing its Website address to ebay.com.cn.

Since then it lost market share under competition from Taobao, which charges no fees for online transactions, forcing eBay to hand over control of EachNet to TOM Online, which has 51 percent of EachNet.