Sense the pattern in China?

ARTICLE: "For eBay, It's About Political Connections in China," by Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 22 December 2006, p. C1.

ARTICLE: "Home Depot to Buy Protege Retailer in China," by Michale Barbaro, New York Times, 14 December 2006, p. C2.

eBay closes its web site in China and instead takes a 49 percent stake in a joint venture with a Chinese company. Rather than try to build its own, it's paying the price of building the Chinese version first. What emerges down the road is probably what eBay will end up owning or sharing. It will be bigger than what eBay could grow on its own. It will tap the Chinese and larger Asian market better than what eBay could grow on its own. Later on, it will give eBay opportunities elsewhere at the bottom of the pyramid better than it could create on its own.

Home Depot already made this lap. Ten years ago it began "training executives at a small Chinese retailer, called HomeWay, on how to sell screwdrivers and shower heads."

Today?

Now, Home Depot is buying its retail protege in a move that will give the giant American chain its first stores in the fast-growing Chinese market.

So it goes to the head of the line....

With the acquisition, Home Depot will become the latest American big-box chain to enter China, a country that, despite its size and growing middle class, remains largely untapped by foreign merchants.

Wal-Mart agreed in October to purchase Trust-Mart, a Chinese retailed with 100 stores, people briefed on the matter said. And Best Buy said in May it had bought a stake in the Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Company, an appliance and electronics chain.

Sooner than you think, Chinese salesmen wearing orange smocks will be selling screwdrivers in Gap countries you'd never believe would ever need them, much less have the disposable income for home improvement.

As my younger son likes to say, "That's what I talking about!"