Auction site Webuy extends free share offer

Newly launched auction website Webuy has extended its free share offer in the wake of teething troubles since it went live last month.

Webuy director Brooke McKenzie said the website was swamped when it opened on August 29, forcing an upgrade of its servers.

Problems with Hotmail and Yahoo emails being rejected as spam had also been resolved, with traders now able to contact buyers or sellers through a Webuy message board.

Unashamedly following the huge success of Trade Me, the privately funded Webuy is issuing 49.5 million shares to buying and selling members free of charge.

McKenzie said the company was extending its offer of 50 free shares to the first 30,000 members, from 10,000 originally. The first 500,000 buyers would now also get five shares per purchase.