Ecommerce marches on

Zoomer | January 1st, 2006

Those who love auctions as either buyer or seller can now indulge themselves from the comfort of their own homes. And judging by the stock performance of online auctioneer eBay Inc., this is one area of the net that is destined for continued high growth.

eBay sells Beanie Babies, computers, books, sports memorabilia, collectibles, coins and stamps –almost anything you can think of- online. As of last week, the site had more than 700,000 items for sale, in more than 1000 categories. In it short history, the company has had more than 24 million items for sale, and recorded over 90 million bids.

The fact that that the eBay website gets more than 12 million page views per day has also picqued the interest of both advertisers and investors. Last week, the company’s stock rose more than 160 per cent in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq exchange, gaining $29.37 to close at $47.37.

What does this mean? Consider the fact as of now eBay has a market capitalization (total stock market value) of more than $1.8 billion. The same figure for pre-eminent auction house Sotheby’s is around $1.05 billion. And unlike many other Internet-based companies that have seen their value ar in the early days, three-year-old eBay is already turning a profit.