eBay's (EBAY) PayPal online payment service today launched a new service specifically designed for Chinese Internet users called PayPal China.

A free service, PayPal China offers payments in the local currency and integration with 15 Chinese banks and more than 20 different debit cards. Additionally, PayPal China is the only direct online payment service that offers a buyer protection program for purchases made on popular Internet portal sites Netease (NTES) and TOM Online (TOMO). PayPal will offer buyer protection on China-based eBay EachNet starting September 1, 2005.

In addition to offering buyer protection, PayPal never shares buyers' financial information with sellers, and customers are fully protected against unauthorized use of their accounts.

"PayPal China is an extremely efficient online payment network that will improve the payment experience and increase the velocity of ecommerce in China," said Mathias Entenmann, vice president of PayPal International. "As a pioneer of online payments, we are proud to bring our global payments expertise and local business knowledge to China."

The new site can be found at http://www.paypal.com.cn