Word: ebay
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Classified ads--and the newspapers that heavily rely on them for revenue--are also vulnerable. An eBay listing is cheaper; there's no limit on length; you can include a photo; and it reaches far more people than any newspaper...
Flea-market aficionados insist that eBay is doing a more abstract kind of damage: it's destroying the pleasures of the offline collectibles world. Al Hoff, author of Thrift Score and collector of "everything but Levolor blinds," says eBay has changed the atmosphere in flea markets and thrift stores. She now comes across entrepreneurs who are trolling the aisles looking for items they can resell for a higher price online. "The code of ethics used to be that you bought things for yourself," she notes. And she objects that eBay's efficiency is making it harder for bargain hunters like...
...eBay is sticking with its core mission of consumer-to-consumer auctions but is also working to expand its reach dramatically. In October, eBay announced a new venture: eBay Great Collections, a new area on the site for antiques and fine collectibles. Along with the acquisition of Butterfield & Butterfield, the world's fourth largest auction house, Great Collections marks a move by eBay into the high-end market. (The average sale on eBay is currently about $40.) eBay has also begun rolling out local eBays, starting with eBay Los Angeles. The idea is to provide a local market...
...eBay's most ambitious undertaking right now is its drive to go international. It's a big enough priority that Omidyar has returned to his native France to help oversee the effort. eBay has always had a small percentage of overseas users logging into its U.S. site, but now it is aggressively moving into foreign markets. In June it purchased Alando.de--Germany's equivalent of eBay--and folded it into the eBay site. The company also has sites running for the U.K., Canada and Australia. eBay is far ahead in those countries but vulnerable in places where it is less...
...push for market share. Omidyar and his colleagues are still driven by the company's original goal of creating a global market where everyone competes on an equal footing. One pet project is an effort to bring a Guatemalan village into the global economy by hooking it up to eBay. Consumers in the developed world could buy local handcrafts at lower prices, and eliminating layers of middlemen would allow villagers to keep more of the purchase price for themselves...