The Ebay Auction SiteBY: Carmen Anderton
The Ebay Auction Site is arguably the most influential and most successful online business of all. The history of this site and its prominent rise since then is as amazing as it is unlikely. The Ebay Auction Site was founded in Pierre Omidyar's living room in San Jose, California, back in September 1995. It was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals, so the common person would have a way to buy and sell goods from other common individuals, with more access to buyers and sellers without having to pay high premiums for a low value item. Pierre was not the sole founder. Jeff Skoll was also a co-founder, and in 1998 they made one of the best decisions they could by hiring Meg Whitman, who is now seen as one of the most powerful businesswomen in the world. The Ebay auction site was different than any other business, and so it was only appropriate that they would come up with a unique vision for the company: the Ebay auction site would be a company that was in the business of of connecting people, not selling things to them. The format of the Ebay auction site is pretty simple and straight forward. Their web site has built a trading market place online. Buyers and sellers are brought together in a way so sellers are permitted to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all users to browse through items organized in a very specific fashion. The Ebay auction site is revolutionary in that it has taken the technology that has brought us the internet and used it to make a global version of person-to-person trading, which until the last decade has always had to be conducted through garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more. On the Ebay auction site looking around and actually bidding on auctions is free, but sellers are charged two separate kinds of charges. When a buyer lists an item a non- refundable “Insertion Fee” is charged, which varies depending on the value of the starting bid. Fees are charged for optional additions to promote the item, increase traffic, and increase appearances to make it look more attractive. Sellers will also be charged a final value fee at the end of the seller's auction. This fee generally ranges from 1.25% to 5% of the final sale price. The growth of the Ebay auction site has been amazing, at it has come along way from its original version. The popular legend is that Ebay started as a way for the founder’s girlfriend to trade Pez dispensers with other collectors. He says this is partially true, which is why at Ebay’s main offices there is a display case of Pez dispensers. The original version of the Ebay auction site appeared in September 1995. It was a slow and humble start, but it has exploded. Ebay had $3.3 billion in revenue in 2004, getting to that mark faster than Dell or Microsoft. It has 135 million users worldwide. They bring in far more money and material than Amazon.com and Yahoo, which were two companies started about the same time. When it comes to online businesses, there is no question that the Ebay auction site is king. They do the business and provide the benefits, and whether the person is a staunch business person checking profit margins and trying to put up thirty listings a day, or a casual shopper just looking for a good deal, or someone just looking to sell a bunch of extra supplies, there is no better place to go than to the Ebay auction site.
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