In the early years of the auction is rapidly gaining momentum, turning out of the ordinary "flea market" into serious "B2C" portal, where customers have been both legal and natural persons. Its main advantage was due to the availability of the complete absence of commission. Other auctions at that time took about 30% of the transaction value.
After AuctionWeb had become the most popular auction in the US, Pierre Omidyar realized that this business becomes complete. After the business maintenance costs began to grow, he decided to introduce a fee of 6% of the value of the goods. The commission, which he received from each sale, was spent on the promotion of the auction. At the auction there was a forum where buyers and sellers can evaluate the reliability and integrity of each participant.
Now eBay is one of the most expensive in the US Internet companies. On January 18, 2012, on the NASDAQ closing auction one share of eBay was worth 30.34 dollars, and market capitalization amounted to 39.4 billion dollars.
In 2009, the company has recorded a profit of 684.45 million dollars. In 2010, according to the company's financial report, profit reached 809.84 million, that 18.31% more than in 2009. The annual turnover in 2010 amounted to 9.5 billion dollars, while through the area were sold lots worth more than 53 billion dollars, of which sales in the US amounted to the sum of over 20 billion dollars, the rest - in other countries.
The basic idea is to give eBay sellers online platform for the sale of any goods. The firm eBay acts only as an intermediary in the contract of sale between the seller and the buyer. Payment for the product and its transmission occurs without eBay. Using the platform sellers pay a fee, usually consists of fee for exhibiting the lot and the percentage of the sale price. For customers the use of eBay is free.
At EBay there are financial guarantees and compensation for customers in the event of malfunction of the Web-site. EBay rules provide cash and credit incentives to participants online auctions where unplanned unavailability of web site for more than 2 hours. Also provides compensation for failures in the system search for a lot that occurs due to problems on the site. EBay is taking steps to improve the scanning of content.
Today auction successfully operates in more than 20 countries. Among them are young and rapidly developing markets of China and India. To participate in the auction a person can trade all the goods that are not prohibited by the legislation of the country in which they are produced and sold. The auction site offers many additional services that make buying and selling process more comfortable.
These include, in particular:
eBay Pulse, with the help of which you can see the most popular queries on the site;
eBay Express - a kind of jacket online auction, which turns it into a virtually full-fledged online store;
Best of eBay - allows you to view the interesting and unusual items.
