Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Olu Emuleomo who wrote (77527)	9/17/1999 11:15:00 AM
From: Eric Wells	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164684

>>This gangup stuff is crap. I disagree. I think that distributed auction sites that share auction data and allow bidders to bid on all items, no matter what site the items are posted on is a much more efficient way to handle online auctions than Ebay's dedicated site approach. The distributed approach allows for greater competition in the auction market - where auction sites will compete on the ease of use of their front ends as well as on customer service - with the same underlying auction data being presented to all. Sellers can also benefit in that they can move their items from one server to another without fear of losing access to their customers. Ebay's "monopoly" allows Ebay to be "lazy" with regard to their front-end, customer service and server infrastructure. Yes, Ebay has a tight hold on the online auction market at the moment, but it might be possible for Microsoft and others to use marketing dollars to pry open that hold - and Microsoft has quite few dollars to spend on marketing. And with Ebay's outages, I imagine that some sellers are open to evaluating other sites. I admit to having a very bearish view on Ebay's stock price - I have a short position at the moment. But I think this new distributed model could pose a significant competitive threat. Thanks, -Eric