eBayThe Customer Marketplace

Presentation submitted by:Group 8

Agenda

• eBay; A breif History

• Online Auction Process

• Consumer Market

• Present growth

• Comparative analysis

• Issues and Solutions

eBay A breif History

• Pierre Omidyar

– In 1995 Founded AuctionWeb with the idea of

• Providing an Internet site where person-to-person trading could take place

– Buyers and sellers rushed to the site, and by 1997 AuctionWeb became eBay.

• 1996

– 15,000 auctions daily

– 2 million hits per week

– Main category is “collectibles”

• 1998

– Expansion

• Benchmark Capital came on board

– Meg Whitman made president and CEO

An online auction

• Involved listing an item for sale with a closing date and time.– The seller

• Provided a description of the item

– Most provided pictures

• Could specify

– a minimum opening bid

– A bid increment

– A reserve price

» Not disclosed to the bidders

• The transaction between seller and high bidder– Executed with out eBay’s involvement

Consumer Market

Evolution of eBay:

• Consumer auction market for small segment of population to sell collectibles

• 37 million users listing 12 million items daily with own laws, feedback system, enforcement, payment processing unit

Policing at eBay

• eBay relied on its community to help police its site

– “the community is also self-policing, and users frequently form ‘neighborhood watch’ groups to help guard against misuse or violations of the sites etiquette.”

Present Growth

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 20011.00E+01

1.00E+03

1.00E+05

1.00E+07

Registered Users Listed ItemsSales

Years

Nu

mb

er

(in

th

ou

san

ds)

Comparative analysis

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 20021E+03

1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

eBay Amazon Wal-Mart

Years

Net

Inco

me

Issues

• Will eBay sustain the growth

• Will diversification to business like ‘Buy –It–now’ help or destroy the existing

• Quality of suggestions that were flowing in

Thank You