We’re looking for communities rather than companies because the latter drown out the little guys he says
“We’re looking for communities rather than companies because the latter drown out the little guys,” he says.To achieve this, the company is setting up joint ventures with established players in different marketplaces. Earlier this year, for example, it announced a co-branded tie-up with Johnston Press, the UK newspaper group.”We know we’re not going to outspend eBay in marketing, but this is a way for other companies to marry our expertise and their member base,” adds Zaleski.However, Hellen Omwando doesn’t believe that the likes of QXL will provide the stiffest competition to eBay. Instead, relatively new entrants to the market, such as Yahoo! and Amazon, she believes, will pose the biggest threat because they ahve the scale to compete.”Both these companies have their own online auction portals and the capability to give eBay a run for its money. They have the audience, the technical capability and potential to rope in partners,” she added.As for smaller, more specialist players, Omwando believes that’s how they will stay.
“To succeed in the online auction market you need to have a huge number of people participating,” she explains. “If you have a niche audience you can target specific groups, but your growth potential will be limited.”Charlie Coney of eBay, agrees that businesses have become a significant presence on the site, but rejects any suggestion that this deters the average person.”You get the choice on eBay to buy a phone, for example, from Vodafone, a small seller or from someone who is selling it themselves,” he says.”It is your high street. There are the large stores, but also the independent traders. That mix has made it a success.”While not dismissive of competition from specialist operators, Coney believes eBay’s global presence provides a clear barrier to entry.
“We’d certainly watch such developments closely, but the success of eBay is partly due to the network effect,” he says.”If you are selling an item you want as many people as possible to look it. Similarly, if you’re buying something then you want to go to stores which have the best selection. On ebay.co.uk there are some 3 million items on sale at any one time. It has critical mass and a large, vibrant, thriving community,” Coney adds.Online auctions: benefits and pitfallsOnline auctions can be a terrific way to find and buy rare, collectible items or snare cut-price bargains – but they can also be potentially disastrous for those unlucky enough to fall victim to rogue sellers. These auctions operate on the basis of trust.This means you can’t actually do anything to force the seller to part with the goods or the buyer to hand over the money.
In the vast majority of cases sites will make it clear that any transactions won’t have anything to do with them; they are merely providing the marketplace in which trades can take place.”It is important to know whether you are buying from a private seller or a trader who is acting as a business,” says a spokesman for the Office of Fair Trading. “You have fewer rights when buying from private sellers.”To help potential buyers decide whether to take a risk, many sites will operate a ratings system, where previous buyers are invited to post comments about their experiences with the seller concerned.Consumer champion “Which?” recommends beginners stick to buying low-value items from sellers with good ratings, checking how much postage you’ll have to pay and not to bid more than items cost in the shops. “It’s important to do your research before you commit to buying anything,” “Which?” says.. The best reason for studying the Global Investment Returns Yearbook, the annual bible of global stock and bond market performance produced by ABN-Amro and London Business School, is to keep your feet firmly on the ground. As well as updating their rigorously researched database of world financial market returns from 1900 onwards, this year’s edition proffers another timely warning of the dangers in believing one-year forward forecasts of where the markets are heading.
The yearbook, produced by three academics from London Business School, chronicles the investment returns of the 17 largest stock markets in a series dating back to 1900.
These 17 countries account for 91 per cent of the world’s stock market capitalisation. There are data on a further seven countries where, for whatever reason, the figures do not go back that far. This brings the coverage to 98.1 per cent of the world stock market by capitalisation.It may be worth reiterating that stock market capitalisation has only a tenuous connection to the size of economies. The United States accounts for fully 50 per cent of the world’s stock market on this measure, followed by Japan, the UK, France and Germany.