The History of eBay Back in September 1995, eBay was founded in Pierre Midair’s San Jose living room. eBay start to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services from Individual to Individual. The first Item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14. 83(Celt). In 1998, Pierre and his expounder Jeff skill brought In Meg Whitman to make the success. Meg had studied in the Harvard Business School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasher.
Meg asked her senior staff from companies such as Pepsi and Disney to create an experienced management team. Members In her team had an average of 20 years of business experience. They built a strong vision for company that eBay become a company that’s in the business of connecting people, not selling them things. How eBay change our life Before eBay appeared, there were no many large Internet auctions. If some people wanted to buy specific or antique items, they have to spend a lot of time looking for a supplier. There were not many physical auctions, high price was always charged.
Also, if somebody wanted used and cheaper goods, they attended garage sales, hysterical markets, bought magazines that listed different used items offered for sale. Overall, the processes for looking needed goods took a lot of time and was very annoying. After eBay founded, it changes the whole sector of the market and quickly occupied dominant position. eBay helps people trade practically almost everything on earth. eBay was founded with the belief that people are basically good. They believe that each of their customers, no matter he is a buyer or a seller, is an individual who deserves to be treated with respect.
Bay enhance the online trading experiences of all collectors, hobbyists, dealers, small business, unique item seekers, bargain hunters, opportunistic sellers, and browsers(Kettle). The growth of the eBay community comes from menus and exceeding the expectations of their customers. The eBay Business Model eBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the Internet. They make their market based on the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brought together In a virtual marketplace where sellers are permitted to list their teems for sale, buyers can bid on items of interest, and all eBay users can browse through listed items.
The items are arranged by topics, where each type of auction person-to-person trading, which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. These easy procedures for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering. Browsing and bidding on auctions is free of charge, but sellers are charged two kinds of charges (www. EBay. Com): When an item is listed on eBay a nonrefundable Insertion Fee is charged, which ranges between 30 cents and $3. 0, depending on the seller’s opening bid on the item. A fee is charged for additional listing options to promote the item, such as highlighted or bold listing. * A Final Value (final sale price) fee is charged at the end of the seller’s auction. This fee generally ranges from 1. 25% to 5% of the final sale price. eBay notifies both of the buyer and seller via e-mail at the end of the auction if a bid reach the seller’s minimum price for sale, and the seller and buyer knish the transaction independently of eBay.
The binding contract of the auction is between the winning bidder and the seller only. EBay’s Position in the Industry Currently eBay is extending to markets overseas; it is now operating in eight of the top ten countries by online market size outside of the United States. In Asia, eBay is in 80% of its largest e-commerce markets. eBay is gaining users 50% faster in Europe than in the United States, and gross merchandise sales are growing 135% faster( Keller). The faster it grows, the more secure will it hold its top position in the hole auctioning service market.
In a very open market, where anyone can enter, the threat of substitute service is greater. An example of which, Half. Com, was mentioned before. In fact, the management of eBay believes that fixed-priced trading as is done on Half. Com has as much, or even more, potential than eBay’s core auctioning service (O’Brien). Competition Since participating in the auction industry requires only a web presence, at first sight competition looms heavily over eBay. In fact, two online heavyweights have entered the market, Yahoo and Amazon.
