Revision as of 03:45, 13 April 2007 editJpgordon (talk | contribs)Checkusers, Administrators82,499 edits Undid revision 122372788 by 24.211.155.108 (talk)← Previous edit | Revision as of 23:23, 13 April 2007 edit undo84.13.225.199 (talk) →Items and servicesNext edit → | ||
Line 55: | Line 55: | ||
===Turbo Lister=== | ===Turbo Lister=== | ||
Turbo Lister 2 is a software tool designed by eBay to streamline the process of creating large numbers of listings. It is provided as a free download for eBay users. | Turbo Lister 2 is a software tool designed by eBay to streamline the process of creating large numbers of listings. It is provided as a free download for eBay users. | ||
<p><table align=center width=400><tr><td bgcolor='#ffffcc' width=400 align=center colspan=2 cellpadding=3><b>What Petpet Are You?</b></td></tr><tr><td width=80><img src='http://images.neopets.com/items/pet_gruslen.gif' border=1 height=80 width=80></td><td width=320>I am a gruslen. A gruslen may seem cute and harmless at first, but if you make them mad you are in for it. Just stay on their good side. What petpet are you? Click <a href="http://www.neopets.com/~Traeria">here</a> to find out.<br></td></tr></table> | |||
<div align=center><table align=center border=0 cellpadding=1 width=400><tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor='#ffffee' align=center><b>Which Neopet? are you?</b></td></tr> <tr><td width=90 align=center valign=center><a href="http://www.neopets.com/~LSU_tigers_rule7"><img src="http://images.neopets.com/pets/happy/jetsam_electric_baby.gif" width=80 height=80 border=0></td><td><a href="http://www.neopets.com/~LSU_tigers_rule7">I am a JETSAM!!! To find out which Neopet? YOU are, click here!!!</a></td></tr></table></b></font> | |||
<div align="center"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="425" height="300" background="http://images.neopets.com/shopblogs/captainscarblade.gif"><tr><td width="425" height="72" colspan="3"> </td></tr><tr><td width="209" height="224"></td><td width="212" height="224"><div style="width: 212; height: 224; overflow: auto; font-family: Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: #000000; scrollbar-arrow-color:#FFFFFF; scrollbar-track-color:#98D5DC; scrollbar-face-color:#71C2CE; scrollbar-highlight-color:#9CE3EE; scrollbar-3dlight-color:#9CE3EE; scrollbar-darkshadow-color:#3693A1; scrollbar-shadow-color:#3693A1;"><div style="padding: 5px;"> | |||
Hello and welcome to my shop | |||
If you wish to haggle neomail me or rate it out of 10.We restock very quickly and once we restocked over 70 items in 10 minutes!!!Remember if you prees ctrl+f to find a item and ctrl+d to bookmark this shop.If you wish to have a refund neomail me.If you want to have some more fun try my brilliant quizes.If you like paste the danser and quizes into your shop. | |||
Only for 1 week.Buy my lab map and youl get 10 freebies including 2 advent items and 8 pieces of food!!! | |||
Every 2000np you spend you get a freebie!!! | |||
So SHOP! SHOP! SHOP!!! | |||
ENJOY!!! | |||
<br></div></div></td><td width="4" height="224"></td></tr><tr><td width="425" height="4" colspan="3"></td></tr></table></div> | |||
<body background="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/neonuggler/hasee.jpg"> | |||
<center><a href="http://www.neopets.com/~tim_v76"> | |||
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/neonuggler/gbn.gif" border="0"> | |||
</a><br> | |||
<center><a href="/~nuggler ghraphics"> | |||
<table align=center width=400><tr><td bgcolor=#ffffcc width=400 align=center colspan=2 cellpadding=3><b> | |||
<img src=http://4np.us/50/matthewdavies998.png alt='Shop counters @ 4np.us'> | |||
<img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/alysezag/August/dec3.jpg"></a> | |||
<div align="center"><a href="http://petpages.neopets.com/~Shidurri"> | |||
<img src="http://www.chaotix.net/~dproper/neopets/snowager/status2.jpg" width="397" height="103" border="0"></a></div><br> | |||
<center><a href="/~nugglers_graphics"> <img src='http://images.neopets.com/template_images/krawk_disco_dancing.gif' border='0'></a><br> | |||
<bgsound src="http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF153575-01-01-01.mp3" loop="infinite"></bgsound>a href="http://www.neopets.com/~nugglers_graphics | |||
<style>td,p,body{color:red;font:8pt verdana}</style> | |||
==Profit and transactions== | ==Profit and transactions== |
Revision as of 23:23, 13 April 2007
Company type | Public (Nasdaq: EBAY) |
---|---|
Industry | Auctions |
Founded | San Jose, California, USA (September 3, 1995) |
Founder | Pierre Omidyar |
Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA |
Key people | Meg Whitman, CEO & President Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman John Donahoe, Chief of eBay Marketplace |
Products | Online auction hosting, Electronic commerce, Shopping mall PayPal, Skype, Gumtree |
Revenue | $5.969 billion USD (2006) |
Operating income | 2,350,000,000 United States dollar (2022) |
Net income | −1,269,000,000 United States dollar (2022) |
Total assets | 23,847,000,000 United States dollar (2016) |
Number of employees | 11,600 (Q1 2006) |
Website | www.ebay.com |
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) 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. eBay Inc also owns PayPal, Skype, and other businesses.
Origins and early history
The online auction web site was founded in San Jose, California on September 3, 1995 by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.
The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, he contacted the winning bidder and asked if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." 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 Jeff Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name EchoBay.com but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.
Items and services
Millions of collectibles, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. In 2004, 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. 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. 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 kidneys 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 study of the auction description.
eBay's Latin American partner is MercadoLibre.
eBay's rivals include Amazon.com Marketplace, PriceGrabber.com Storefronts, Yahoo! Auctions and Overstock Auctions.
eBay Stores
Since their introduction in 2002, eBay Stores have opened up ecommerce for eBay sellers and a way to have access to over 200 million shoppers worldwide.
eBay stores can be set up in a few minutes with subscription fees ranging from $15.95 for the basic store to $49.95 for a features store to $499.95 for an anchor store. The stores can be customized by the owner in various ways and sellers can showcase their items in the eBay store and sell at a fixed “buy it now” price.
eBay stores also offers several tools for promotion such as a newsletter, search engine keyword management, listing fees and a referral credit for external links coming in to the eBay store.
It is also possible for users to customize the look and feel of the eBay Stores to use their own HTML and images to better brand their eBay Store. This feature has greatly aided many "Mom and Pop" brick-and-mortar locations nationwide.
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.
Turbo Lister
Turbo Lister 2 is a software tool designed by eBay to streamline the process of creating large numbers of listings. It is provided as a free download for eBay users.
What Petpet Are You? | |
<img src='http://images.neopets.com/items/pet_gruslen.gif' border=1 height=80 width=80> | I am a gruslen. A gruslen may seem cute and harmless at first, but if you make them mad you are in for it. Just stay on their good side. What petpet are you? Click <a href="http://www.neopets.com/~Traeria">here</a> to find out. |
Which Neopet? are you? | |
<a href="http://www.neopets.com/~LSU_tigers_rule7"><img src="http://images.neopets.com/pets/happy/jetsam_electric_baby.gif" width=80 height=80 border=0> | <a href="http://www.neopets.com/~LSU_tigers_rule7">I am a JETSAM!!! To find out which Neopet? YOU are, click here!!!</a> |
Hello and welcome to my shop If you wish to haggle neomail me or rate it out of 10.We restock very quickly and once we restocked over 70 items in 10 minutes!!!Remember if you prees ctrl+f to find a item and ctrl+d to bookmark this shop.If you wish to have a refund neomail me.If you want to have some more fun try my brilliant quizes.If you like paste the danser and quizes into your shop. Only for 1 week.Buy my lab map and youl get 10 freebies including 2 advent items and 8 pieces of food!!! Every 2000np you spend you get a freebie!!! So SHOP! SHOP! SHOP!!! ENJOY!!! | ||
<body background="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/neonuggler/hasee.jpg">
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/neonuggler/gbn.gif" border="0">
</a>
<img src=http://4np.us/50/matthewdavies998.png alt='Shop counters @ 4np.us'> <img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a180/alysezag/August/dec3.jpg"></a> <a href="http://petpages.neopets.com/~Shidurri"> <img src="http://www.chaotix.net/~dproper/neopets/snowager/status2.jpg" width="397" height="103" border="0"></a><bgsound src="http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF153575-01-01-01.mp3" loop="infinite"></bgsound>a href="http://www.neopets.com/~nugglers_graphics <style>td,p,body{color:red;font:8pt verdana}</style> Profit and transactionseBay 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 UK based ebay.co.uk (ebay.co.uk offices) takes from GBP £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. 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
Accounting Ratios
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 . FraudA major fraud-prevention mechanism for eBay users 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". Learning the system and examining a seller's feedback history is a buyer's best protection. Weaknesses of the feedback system include:
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 auctionsHolders 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 supportA source of frustration for some eBay users is that despite 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. 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 "Gold PowerSeller" and above, the company's term for members who sell at least $10,000 worth of goods per month on the site. The phone number for that service is kept closely guarded, though ordinary users persistent enough to discover it will usually be offered help as a one-time courtesy. Other eBay controversiesOther notable controversies involving eBay include:
An investigation by The Sunday Times in January 2007 uncovered substantial evidence of shill bidding. eBay's decision to hide much information about bidders once an auction reaches a particular price have opened it to accusations of encouraging shill bidders by making them significantly harder to identify. The case has been put that it is in eBay's interests to protect high turnover sellers who profit from shill bidding since they generate substantial income for eBay. There are claims that this change in policy, favouring unethical sellers over buyers, has significantly weakened eBay's reputation both amongst buyers and ethical sellers. Prohibited itemseBay in its earliest days was essentially unregulated, but as eBay grew, it found it necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Note that some of the restrictions relate to eBay.com (the US site), while other restrictions apply to specific European sites (such as Nazi paraphernalia). Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Among the hundred or so banned or restricted categories:
Unusual sale items
Charity auctionsUsing MissionFish as an arbiter, eBay allows sellers to donate a portion of their auction proceeds to a charity of the seller's choice. Some high profile charity auctions have been advertised on the eBay home page, and have raised large amounts of money in a short time. For example, a furniture manufacturer raised over $35,000 for Ronald McDonald House by auctioning off beds that had been signed by celebrities. See also
References
Further reading
External links |
- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from February 2007
- Companies established in 1995
- Companies based in Silicon Valley
- Companies listed on NASDAQ
- EBay
- Internet companies of the United States
- Online auction websites
- Online retail companies of the United States
- Virtual communities
- Global internet community