Monday, November 10, 2008

EBay Going Unnoticed-Template for Alibaba.com

Something remarkable happened last month in terms of eco enforcement and for the most part this watershed event went unnoticed by the larger NGO community and the broader implications for the ongoing battle against Alibaba.com and Yahoo!

EBay has decided to ban the sale of Ivory products system wide. As it turns out EBay's decision to institute the ban came just before the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) released findings from a three-month investigation in 11 countries.

This study is in our humble opinion first rate work by an NGO that resulted in an opening to both Yahoo! and it's 50% stake in Alibaba.com for continued unregulated sales of shark fin. As we have been covering Alibaba.com is "The New York Stock Exchange" of shark fin sales world wide and remain one of if not the largest sharks fin portal on the planet.

The problem with these sales? 100% are unregulated with many protected species being sold along with literally tons of sharks fin that are being moved daily through this site. Worldwide sharks are being killed at an estimated 50-70 million animals a year to feed the lucrative Asian fin market. Yahoo! Inc is a California based company with a multi billion dollar stake in Alibaba.com. Yahoo! has refused any discussion about it's involvement in this ongoing slaughter calling the issue a "cultural practices one" (see video).

Congratulations to EBay for seeing the light, now all eyes turn to Yahoo! Will they see the light as well? For our money as long as Jerry Yang is at the helm, probably not.

Recent Yahoo! stock numbers here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This was a huge deal and I am surprised no one is really talking about it.

Wake up Yahoo! you're next!