Internet Auctions Industry Description

Companies that provide auction services over the Internet.

Summary

The phrase “I got it on eBay ” is so often spoken that it’s hard to believe the Internet auctioneer is only slightly more than 10 years old. The company, which began as an experiment designed to examine how equal access to information and opportunities would affect marketplace efficiency, has grown into a global trading platform with millions of items -- from tchotchkes to Tamiflu -- to be had each day. Along the way it spawned legions of home-based eBay entrepreneurs. eBay, which boasts more than 220 million registered users worldwide, has expanded its Internet auction service through acquisitions, joint ventures, and site launches to operate local sites in some two dozen countries. To sustain its impressive sales growth the Internet auction leader is expanding in the world’s two most populous nations: China and India.