| Auctions,
Online Retail
Online Payment Processing
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eBay, Inc. operates ebay.com, the world’s largest
Internet auction site. The company’s trading
platform is a fully automated, topically arranged
and easy-to-use online service that is available 24
hours a day, seven days a week, enabling sellers to
list items for sale in either auction or fixed-price
formats, buyers to bid for and purchase items of interest,
and all eBay users to browse through listed items
from any place in the world at any time. The platform
includes software tools and services, available either
for no charge or for a fee, that allow buyers and
sellers to more easily trade with one another. These
tools and services include Turbo Lister, Seller’s
Assistant, Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro,
which help automate the selling process; the Shipping
Calculator, which makes it easier for buyers and sellers
to calculate shipping costs; the eBay Toolbar, which
helps eBay users stay connected with eBay wherever
they are on the Internet; and PayPal, which facilitates
the online exchange of funds. In addition to listing
traditional auction items such as jewelry, stamps,
coins, antiques, computers, toys, memorabilia and
collectibles, eBay has become a major auctioneer of
real estate and cars. Aircraft and yachts are also
among the site’s more than 1 million listings
per day. eBay maintains local sites all over the world,
including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
It also has investments in Latin America and China
through mercadolibre.com and EachNet, respectively.
In recent news, the firm acquired baazee.com and its
subsidiary Baazee.com India Pvt. Ltd, the biggest
online marketplace in India. The company also recently
purchased Marktplaas.nl, an online classifieds web
site in the Netherlands and Rent.com, a U.S. web site
devoted to the apartment and housing industry. The
firm plans to invest $100 million in growth projects
in China during 2005 through 2006.
eBay
offers its employees adoption assistance, tuition
reimbursement and a casual dress code. The firm also
provides employee training courses, credit union membership,
referral bonuses and on-site services such as dry
cleaning and chiropractic care.
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