eBay: The Competition

johna by | December 25, 2007 | eBay and PayPal Computers & Internet

Many have tried to complete against eBay and all have failed to make a significant impact.

Yahoo! probably had the best chance of success. Years ago they had an auction facility where people could search locally or internationally (before eBay did) and was completely free to buy and sell. The service seemed very popular.

Later, in Australia, Yahoo bought out the successful Australian auction site, sold.com.au, and integrated it into their own auction system. They started charging final value fees and removed the international search ability. Within a very short time they had destroyed both Yahoo auctions and sold.com.au.

In Australia Yahoo now just refer visitors to eBay. Internationally, Yahoo auctions is still operating in the USA (see auctions.yahoo.com) but is very small now.

Today, in Australia eBay's most serious competitor is Oztion (pronounced "aus-shun", kind of rhymes with "auction"). Whilst Oztion have nowhere near the number of customers and item listings, they are certainly worth a look when buying and selling.

Wrap-up of competition to eBay Australia:

Oztion (www.oztion.com.au)

  • Free to list, cost for listing enhancements and a fee if the item sells
  • Australia only

    Swap Ace (www.swapace.com)

  • Offer different types of selling in addition to auctions including swapping and negotiating
  • Completely free
  • International site, with Australian section

    Bid Mate (www.bidmate.com.au)
    Auction Bidz (www.auctionbidz.com.au)
    Ozebid (www.ozebid.com.au)
    [These auction sites seem to be the same]

  • Free to list, cost for listing enhancements and a fee if the item sells

    Bid Sell (www.bidsell.com.au)

  • Free to list, cost for listing enhancements and a fee if the item sells
  • International site, with Australian section
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    Comments

    by thanatos | March 9, 2008

    www.bidMate.com.au is certainly not the same as the others as they are the one getting the news coverage about being Ebays main competitor. Pc-Authority and Channel 7 plus News.com.au have all done stories on them in the last few weeks

    Reply

    by Abelhr | April 6, 2008

    thats for sure, guy

    Reply

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