eBay tramples over Amazon

By SUSIE MESURE

LONDON - Internet auctioneer eBay has usurped amazon.com, the online bookstore, as the world's favourite e-commerce website, according to an internet survey published this month.

Launched in Britain in December 1999, eBay offers shoppers all the possibilities of a giant car-boot sale with none of the downsides such as getting up early on a Sunday or crossing a soggy field in the rain.

Jennifer Mowat, country manager of eBay UK, summed up the site's popularity: "It's just about choice really. It's like shopping at a vast shopping centre rather than going to the corner store."

The survey, compiled by Nielsens/Net Rating, shows that March's visitors to the eBay site grew by nearly 4 million to more than 22 million.

Amazon.com, the world's leading online retailer, gained only a million more visitors and now trails eBay in audience numbers by just under 50,000.

On average, eBay surfers spent considerably longer logged on to the site than those visiting amazon.com - just over one-and-a-half hours compared with around 13 minutes.

The report, a monthly study of global internet users, also saw eBay setting a record for the e-commerce industry in terms of page views, with 1.3 billion for the month. Amazon recorded 164 million.

Although eBay does not police all the goods displayed for auction - with more than 4.5 million a day there are too many - the site's users do the job for them.

"If something goes up that shouldn't be there, within minutes another eBay auction user has e-mailed us to say so-and-so is trying to sell their kidney - or whatever," said Ms Mowat.

The site, eBay.co.uk, guides visitors through the steps to buying and selling goods online and will give even the most devoted shopping junkie a decent fix.

This week, eBay's (UK) list of goods available ranged from a pair of tickets for one of Madonna's sell-out London gigs - to an Austin Powers fancy-dress outfit, seeking bids at the bargain reserve price of £29 ($87).

Cars, dolls' houses, film memorabilia, paintings and toys - nothing is too far-fetched for eBay as long as it is not on the list of "prohibited, questionable or potentially copyright infringing" goods.

The original US site was set up in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, chairman of eBay, so that his wife, an avid collector of Pez sweet distributors, could increase her collection via internet contact with other Pez fans.

Since its launch, eBay has made money. Last month it posted a huge increase in first-quarter net income, to $US21.1 million from $US1.76 million in the year-earlier period, on the back of more people listing items for sale on the site and increased user-fees in Canada and the US.

Revenue rose 79 per cent to $154.1 million. In contrast, Amazon reported a net loss of $49 million for the first quarter.

Ms Mowat said: "It's one of those amazing business products. We don't touch anything, we have no warehouses, no delivery charges and, unusually for an internet company, we are very cost conscious."

She points to eBay's functional and cheap British base in the London suburb of Chiswick, which is staffed by just 30 people.

The eBay concept rests on the Utopian notion of an eBay community in which "people are basically good", and where "everyone has something to contribute."

Not easy on a medium that conjures up all manners of gloomy images, havens for rip-off merchants and possible fraud scams.

But the eBay site offers "safety aspects" to protect both parties involved in any transaction.

It encourages buyers to contribute to a "sellers' feedback forum," which allows users to cement a good eBay reputation, helping to ensure repeat business.

The site has a safety resource and protection arm called SafeHarbour, which helps unhappy customers investigate fraud cases and file complaints or insurance claims.

All goods sold through the site are insured up to a value of £120 ($NZ360) - although in practice the average purchase is well under this sum.

"Our insurance is there more as a feelgood factor," said Ms Mowat. "People rarely need to use it."

She admits that fraud can still be a problem, but emphasises that the onus is on eBay to make the site a safe place to trade.

Plans for eBay include the imminent launch of what it calls "a fixed-price concept," where sellers will be able to set the prices of their goods, turning the web-based car-boot sale into a much larger retail platform.

- INDEPENDENT

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