Information AboutEbay |
)]] eBay Inc. () is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an Online Auction and shopping Website where people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in several other countries. countries with localized eBay websites include Australia , Austria , Belgium , Canada , China , France , Germany , Hong Kong , India , Ireland , Italy , Netherlands , New Zealand , Poland , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Taiwan , and the United Kingdom eBay Inc also owns PayPal , Skype , and other businesses. ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY The virus.1 The very first item sold on eBay was a broken . The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book and confirmed by eBay. Chris Agarpao was hired as eBay's first employee and , a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, ''eBay.com''. http://www.happynews.com/living/online/history-ebay.htm eBay went public in 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. The company purchased PayPal in October 2002. ITEMS AND SERVICES Millions of Collectible s, Appliances , Computers , Furniture , Equipment , Vehicles , and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. In 2005, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide. Anything can be sold as long as it is not illegal or does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.2 Services and intangibles can be sold too. Large international companies, such as IBM , sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Regional searches of the database make shipping slightly faster and cheaper. Separate eBay sites such as eBay US and eBay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency as an additional option to PayPal . Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program.3 As of June 2005, there were over 15,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates. Controversy has arisen over certain items put up for bid. For instance, in late 1999 a man offered one of his Kidney s for auction on eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market for Transplantable Human Organs . On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke or to garner free publicity. In general, the company removes auctions that violate its Terms Of Service agreement within a short time after hearing of the auction from an outsider; the company's policy is to not pre-approve transactions. eBay is also an easy place for unscrupulous sellers to market Counterfeit merchandise, which can be difficult for novice buyers to distinguish without careful studying of the auction description. eBay's Latin America n partner is MercadoLibre . eBay's rivals include Amazon.com Marketplace and Overstock Auctions. eBay Express In April of 2006, eBay opened its new eBay Express site, which is designed to work like a standard Internet shopping site to consumers with United States addresses (eBay Express) . Selected eBay items are mirrored on eBay Express where buyers shop using a shopping cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to eBay members in mid October 2006 (eBay Express UK) , and differs from the US version by only offering brand new items from pre-vetted business sellers. The German version was also opened in 2006 (eBay Express Germany) . eBay Blogs and the eBay Community Wiki In June of 2006, eBay added an eBay Community Wiki and eBay Blogs to its Community Content which also includes the Discussion Boards, Groups, Answer Center, Chat Rooms and Reviews & Guides. eBay Mobile Ebay has a robust mobile offering, including SMS alerts, a WAP site, and J2ME clients, available in certain markets. AUCTION TYPES eBay offers several types of auctions.
BIDDING For Auction-style listings, the first bid must be at least the amount of the minimum bid set by the seller. Regardless of the amount the first bidder actually bids, until a second bid is made, eBay will then display the auction's minimum bid as the current high bid. After the first bid is made, each subsequent bid must be equal to at least the current highest bid displayed plus one bidding increment. The bidding increment is established by eBay based on the size of the current highest displayed bid. For example, when the current highest bid is less than or equal to $0.99, the bidding increment is $0.05; when the current highest bid is at least $1.00 but less than or equal to $4.99, the bidding increment is $0.25. Regardless of the amount each subsequent bidder bids, eBay will display the lesser of the bidder's actual bid and the amount equal to the previous highest bidder's actual bid plus one bidding increment. For example, suppose the current second-highest bid is $2.05 and the highest bid is $2.40. eBay will display the highest bid as $2.30, which equals the second-highest bid ($2.05) plus the bidding increment ($0.25). In this case, eBay will require the next bid to be at least $2.55, which equals the highest displayed bid ($2.30) plus one bidding increment ($0.25). The next bid will display as the actual amount bid or $2.65, whichever is less. The figure of $2.65 in this case comes from the then-second-highest actual bid of $2.40 plus the bidding increment of $0.25. The winning bidder pays the bid that eBay displays, not the amount actually bid. Following this example, if the next bidder is the final bidder, and bids $2.55, the winner pays $2.55, even though it is less than the second-highest bid ($2.40) plus one bidding increment ($0.25). However, if the next bidder is the final bidder and bids an arbitrarily large amount, for example $10.00 or even more, the winner pays $2.65, which equals the second-highest bid plus one bidding increment. For Dutch Auctions, which are auctions of two or more identical items sold in one auction, each bidder enters both a bid and the number of items desired. Until the total number of items desired by all bidders equals the total number of items offered, bidders can bid any amount greater than or equal to the minimum bid. Once the total numbers of items desired by all bidders is greater than or equal to the total number offered, each bidder is required to bid one full bidding increment above the currently-displayed winning bid. All winning bidders pay the same lowest winning bid. eBay has established detailed rules about bidding, retraction of bids, shill bidding (collusion to drive up the price), and other aspects of bidding. These rules can be viewed on the help pages. PROFIT AND TRANSACTIONS eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. The eBay fee system is quite complex; there are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells, plus several optional fees, all based on various factors and scales. The U.S.-based ebay.com takes $0.20 to $80 per listing and 5.25% or less of the final price (as of 2007). The £0.15 to a maximum rate of GBP £3 per 100 for an ordinary listing and from 0.75% to 5.25% of the final price. In addition, eBay now owns the PayPal payment system which has fees of its own. Under current U.S. law, a state cannot require sellers located outside the state to collect a Sales Tax , making deals more attractive to buyers. Although state laws require purchasers to pay sales tax to their own states on out-of-state purchases, most people ignore this requirement. The company's current business strategy includes increasing revenue by increasing International trade within the eBay system. eBay has already expanded to almost two dozen countries including China and India. The only places where expansion failed were Taiwan and Japan, where Yahoo! had a head start. ACQUISITIONS AND INVESTMENTS
CONTROVERSY AND CRITICISMS eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its Privacy policy (eBay typically turns over user information to law enforcement without a Subpoena ) to well-publicized seller Fraud . eBay claims that their data shows that less than .01% of all transactions result in a confirmed case of fraud. However, eBay states that their stated fraud statistic both undercounts and overcounts fraud. Chat with Rob Chesnut, Vice President of eBay's Trust & Safety Department Fraud One mechanism eBay uses to combat Fraud is its feedback system. After every transaction both the buyer and seller have the option of rating each other. They can give a "positive", "negative", or "neutral" rating and leave a comment no longer than 80 characters. So if a buyer has problems, he or she can rate the seller "negative" and leave a comment such as "never received product". Weaknesses of the feedback system include:2021
eBay acknowledges weaknesses in its feedback system on its own policy pages, noting several of the above points.22 When a user feels that a seller or buyer has been dishonest, a dispute can be filed with eBay. An eBay account (whether seller, buyer or both) may be suspended if there are too many complaints against the account holder. Many complaints have been made about eBay's system of dealing with fraud, leading to its being featured on the British consumer rights television program '' Watchdog ''. It is also regularly featured in '' The Daily Mirror '''s Consumer Awareness page. The complaints are generally that eBay sometimes fails to respond when a claim is made, and since eBay makes its money on commissions from listings and sales may not be in eBay's interest to take action against large sellers. Frauds that can be committed by sellers include:
Frauds committed by buyers include:
Other controversial practices of users
Intellectual property in auctions Holders of Intellectual Property rights, have claimed that eBay profits from the infringement of intellectual property rights. eBay has responded by creating the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program, which provides to rightsholders expedited auction takedowns and private information on eBay users, but has likewise been criticized.
Customer support A source of frustration for some eBay users is that owing to the company's size, it offers no Customer Support by phone, instead referring all ordinary members to its online help features. Apart from a library of self-help resources, these features consist mainly of e-mail contact forms and "Live Help," which lets users chat with customer service representatives via Instant Messaging , however this is not availiable to users from international sites such as eBay.co.uk. In fact, most visitors to the eBay site will not find any company phone number listed at all. eBay does, in fact, have a phone support department, but that service is limited to members of the rank "Silver PowerSeller" and above, the company's term for members who sell at least $3,000 worth of goods per month on the site. The phone number for that service is not published, although there have been reports on eBay's own forums and weblogs that customers who manage to obtain the number through legal documents are rudely replied and told to use the online service instead. |
|
|