Online Auctions: A Review at Age 20

1. A Survey Of Online Auctions

The Internet is a new medium of communication connecting potential partners in trade worldwide. The initial frenzy over its promises led to grossly exaggerated valuations of business models that were mere transplantations of existing processes to the alternative channel. Now that the bubble has burst more sensible and critical thoughts can be turned to true transformations that are creating and nurturing markets of the future (Dan 2014). Online auction is one of the very few cases that has held a steady course, as evidenced in the success to date of eBay.com. Founded in September 1995, eBay has become a global trading platform with presence in 39 markets where on any given day, there are more than 150 million listings across 50,000 plus categories. By 2015, over 150 million people will buy and sell well over $2000 worth of goods every second (www.ebay.com). To review the development of online auctions apart from eBay over the past 20 years, we examine variations in the structural components of this e-business model, and give examples of operations online at this writing. For conciseness and consistency, the www prefix and .com suffix are omitted from the URL of corresponding companies, and all lowercase is used throughout.