Online Auctions

Q1: eBay is one of the only major Internet "pure plays" to consistently make a profit from its inception. What is eBay's business model? Why has it been so successful?

Ebay is a site that allows people to buy and sell goods and services. Ebay is a broke model due to its structure. The reasoning behing why Ebay is so successful and popular is because people trust the site through their own experiences and dealing with it and also other peoples dealing with the site in a positive manner.Ebay has in place policies and prodecures to help in the safety and privacy of personal details, to pervent people getting ripped off.

Q2: Other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo!, have entered the auction marketplace with far less success than eBay. How has eBay been able to maintain its dominant position?

The difference between a site like Amazon and Ebay is that Amazon is more of a company trying to sell products whereas Ebay allows anybody to place items for sale on the website. Ebay is a very popular site and is able to reach a large number of people through advertisment. Ebay receives commission for every item that is sold on their website, therefore most of the profit from the sale goes to the person how has placed the item on the site. Ebay also allows people to bid on items which is pretty unique in itself, this may give customers some excitment and competitiveness to see if they are able to win or not.

Q3: What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?

Ebay has in place a number of methods to help protect the customers of their site, some of these include, authentication of identity, create customers own account, provide unique passwords, submit the feedback to their management central. These measures help to prevent fraud in search for a safe trade while maintaining a good trust with the larger community and marketplace.

http://liuzhaofu0902.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html
Retrieved may 4th 2011

Q4: eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say "customers" or "clients"). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?

By ebay conceptualizing their community gives their audience a  feeling of loyalty towards the community not to a business. Ebay gains because more people that are likely to be return users to the site seeing as the profile of the business is everyday people selling every kind of item or service.

Q5: eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?

As the public are moving towards purchasing from the internet due to it being convenient, easy and possibly cheaper it is reasonable to think that the popularity of ebay will increase and the number of businesses selling on ebay will also increase. ebay allows to purchase brand name products and services at a bidding price which may or may not be the same as a retail price.

Q6. I have a few businesses, and I have used eBay for about 12 years on and off. Currently I have about 600 books listed on eBay (seller name ozrural). I stopped selling on eBay for a few years but they changed the rules this July and it is viable again (for me). What do you think changed?
Ebay changed its rules of payments in July 2010. The change in payment options was used to increase the security of transactions and to help make it easier for consumers.

http://fatmah-ballarat.blogspot.com/2010/10/online-auctions.html retreived may 4th 2011