EBay Inc., the world's largest online retailer, will become the first foreign company to receive a financial payments license in China, CEO John Donahoe predicted, as sohu.com reported on Tuesday.

“I am confident that PayPal will be the first non-domestic company to get a payments license in China. That could be in three months or five years,” John Donahoe said to the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York on Monday.

“But it remained next-to-impossible to guess when the PayPal unit will finally get the green light to operate in China,” Donahoe added, it is not clear whether PayPal will set up a joint venture with domestic companies and hold the 49 percent stake. Moreover, whether eBay will be able to take a majority stake is unknown yet, he added.

Currently, the sales turnover of eBay in the Chinese market is around $6 billion, according to the sohu.com report. On eBay’s platform, most of the Chinese companies selling to the rest of the world products as the domestic companies are testing global markets.

Donahoe also said eBay knows the challenges coming from Chinese retailers.“The evidence would suggest that a non-Chinese company is at a disadvantage. We have chosen not to compete aggressively.” he said.