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Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alomex who wrote (6656)	10/31/2000 7:27:51 PM
From: J.Y. Wang	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7772

The question is not if you or I have bought sandals on Ebay. The question is if the average Jane/Joe finds the auction model attractive for purchasing sandals in the long run, or if it is just a fad... I have a hard time envisioning the average customer saying "Honey, I'm going to the computer room to purchase sandals on Ebay, don't wait for me, as I'll have to keep on biding until 9:00pm when the auction closes".... Very valid point, and by no means am I saying I buy everything on Ebay. However, Ebay is large enough that I go to Ebay first for hard to find many items, items I don't know where to find, or items I don't even know exists or not. Ebay is the largest flea market / mall / garage sale / swap meet in the world and that is a barrier to entry that is extremely difficult to break unless Ebay suddenly blows up. And barrier to entry is really something very few e-tailers have -- thus their paper thin margins. But Ebay is not an e-tailer. Ebay aggregates information and facilitates B2C and C2C commerce. Ebay leverages the Internet to its greatest power. Ebay will last a long time. Ebay is still very richly valued using conventional valuation methods. However, when the Nasdaq 100, the index of arguably the most important new economy stocks, trades at a 2000 P/E ratio of around 140, conventional valuation methods have been thrown out the window. The question really is which companies will be around when the dust settles, and Ebay will be. Ebay has a viable business model, it is very dominant in its market, it has significant barriers to entry, and it is growing rapidly and should continue to do so as more and more of the world hooks up to the Internet.