CHINA is forecast to become the biggest market for online auction house eBay Inc.

Meg Whitman, chief executive of the company, predicted that China will overtake the US and become its biggest market.

Mrs Whitman said she was upbeat about EachNet, a subsidiary of the US Internet auction site that does business in China. The site is being renamed eBay EachNet from today.

EachNet now has four million registered users, who traded more than £22m in merchandise in the fourth quarter of last year.

Speaking in Hong Kong, Mrs Whitman said: "Ten to 15 years from now, I think China can be eBay's largest market on a global basis as we build up the local trade and the export trade."

Founded as an antique and collectibles auction site in 1995, eBay is now the world's largest online auction site. It is based in San Jose, California, and has 94.9 million registered users globally