eBay 1999 Annual Report Download - page 11

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Please find page 11 of the 1999 eBay annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

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markets and actively marketing and promoting these services. The Company has introduced country-specific
services for Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and as of February 2000, Japan. The Company
believes that its user base already includes users located in over 200 countries.
The Company can choose from several strategies to enter new international markets including building a
user community from scratch, acquiring a company already in the local trading market or partnering with strong
local companies. The company has adopted each of these strategies where appropriate, including the following:
●eBay’s presence in the United Kingdom has been built with local management, grass roots and online
marketing and local events;
●the market in Germany was built primarily through the June 1999 acquisition of alando.de.ag, an
existing German trading service;
●the Company entered into a joint venture with a subsidiary of one of the largest media companies in
Australia and New Zealand to penetrate that market; and
●the Company announced in February 2000 that it had entered into a relationship with NEC to jointly
address the market in Japan. As part of that agreement, NEC agreed to purchase a 30% equity interest
in eBay Japan.
The eBay Service
The eBay trading platform is a robust, Internet-based, centralized trading environment that facilitates buying
and selling of a wide variety of items.
Registration. While any visitor to eBay can browse through the eBay service and view the items listed for
sale, in order to bid for an item or to list an item for sale, buyers and sellers must first register with eBay. Users
register by completing a short online form and thereafter can immediately bid for an item or list an item for sale.
Users in Canada, Germany, Japan (as of February 2000), Australia and the United Kingdom may instead register
through a country-specific home page.
Buying on eBay. Buyers typically enter eBay through its home page, which contains a listing of product
categories that allows for easy exploration of current items for sale. Bidders can search for specific items by
browsing through a list of items within a category or subcategory and then ‘‘clicking through’’ to a detailed
description for a particular item. Bidders also can search specific categories, interest pages or the entire database
of item listings using keywords to describe the types of products in which they are interested, and eBay’s search
engine will generate a list of relevant items with links to the detailed descriptions. Each item is assigned a unique
identifier so that users can easily search for and track specific items. Users also can search for a particular bidder
or seller by name in order to review his or her item for sale and feedback history as well as search for products
by specific region or search in ‘‘Gallery’’ mode. Once a bidder has found an item of interest and registered with
eBay, the bidder enters the maximum amount he or she is willing to pay at that time. In the event of competitive
bids, the eBay service automatically increases bidding in increments based upon the then current highest bid for
the item, up to the bidder’s maximum price. As eBay encourages direct interaction between buyers and sellers,
bidders wishing additional information about a listed item can access the seller’s email address and contact the
seller. The Company believes that this interaction between bidders and sellers leverages the personal, one-on-one
nature of trading on the Web and is an important element of the eBay experience. Once each bid is made, eBay
sends a confirmation to the bidder via email, an outbid notice to the next highest bidder and automatically updates
the item’s auction status. During the course of the sale, eBay notifies bidders immediately via email if they are
outbid. Bidders are not charged for making bids or purchases through eBay. In addition, buyers can also specify
items of interest on a service called ‘‘Personal Shopper’’ and receive automated email messages when particular
items are available for sale on eBay.
Selling on eBay. Sellers registered with eBay can list a product for sale by completing a short online form
or using ‘‘Mr. Lister,’’ ‘‘Auction Assistant’’ or third party tools that facilitates the listing of multiple items. The
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