I choose eBay and uBid, which are two very popular online auction sites, with some differences and similarities. EBay was created in 1995 and is still running stronger than ever in today’s marketplace. I often hear people say, just go on eBay you can find anything that you may possibly want to purchase for the best price. Today eBay is the world’s largest online marketplace. On eBay practically anyone anywhere can sell anything at anytime. The benefit to consumers is clear, eBay provides an open trading where the market truly determines the value of items that are bought and sold. Business Week was noted calling it "nothing less than a virtual, self-regulating global economy." eBay has presence in 39 markets, with approximately 84 million active users worldwide. EBay has changed the ways of Internet commerce. Approximate total sold items on the site for 2007 totaled $60 billion. Along with eBay's overall success allowed it to make great technological advances in the marketplace as well, one most noted example is PayPal. PayPal allows secure payments online for consumers buying and selling.
One interesting area I found on the eBay website was eBay fast facts at a glance. This area shows the top shopping categories and what name brands or products were searched for the most in each category. The three sections they have are clothing shoes and accessories, consumer electronics, and home and garden. And then for each they note gross merchandise volume (GMV), average daily listings, top searches, velocity statistics, other and hot trends. For example, for clothing shoes and accessories the GMV was $4.8 billion in Q2-2009, with average daily listings at $9.4 million. While electronics GMV was $5.8 billion in Q2-2009, with average daily listings at $1.7 million. I found this information very interesting and valuable especially if I were a firm whose products fell within those selling parameters.
UBid is the other online auction site that I found. Ubid...