The Wholesale Forums

[mgs2]

Hi, I'm from Australian and have observed the great success of Australia's second biggest online auction site, oztion.com.au

Personally when I've gone on the oztion site, I find its site much more difficult to use than eBay. I can only believe the popularity of oztion, which has been up since the beginning of 2005, is due to the anti-eBay sentiment and the attractiveness of this Aussie competitor. Also the fact that Oztion has no listing fees, however it still has final valuation fees.

I was thinking about the viability of another such online auction site. The way I would market it would be to have no listing fees or final valuation fees, and attempt to have a better online format than oztion, almost mimicking eBay's. As I believe eBay's online interface is very smooth. The revenue from the site would be generate almost entirely by online advertising. There would be some fees for special auction characterisics like bold font, highlights etc. but revenue would mainly come from site ads.

What do people think of this idea? And the viability of alternative online auction sites? I would appreciate all feedback and discussion.

[JPB]

Lots of these sites get set up by us "average joe's" but its very hard to make them go anywhere with the power of ebay,

Personally if i were you i wouldn't bother as it's just to hard to suceed in that sector imo,

JPB

[pablow123]

Originally Posted by mgs2

Hi, I'm from Australian and have observed the great success of Australia's second biggest online auction site, oztion.com.au

Personally when I've gone on the oztion site, I find its site much more difficult to use than eBay. I can only believe the popularity of oztion, which has been up since the beginning of 2005, is due to the anti-eBay sentiment and the attractiveness of this Aussie competitor. Also the fact that Oztion has no listing fees, however it still has final valuation fees.

I was thinking about the viability of another such online auction site. The way I would market it would be to have no listing fees or final valuation fees, and attempt to have a better online format than oztion, almost mimicking eBay's. As I believe eBay's online interface is very smooth. The revenue from the site would be generate almost entirely by online advertising. There would be some fees for special auction characterisics like bold font, highlights etc. but revenue would mainly come from site ads.

What do people think of this idea? And the viability of alternative online auction sites? I would appreciate all feedback and discussion.

Don't waste your money and time mate i had a site no long ago called safebidsite.com and i'd never try again eBay is far too big to compete.

[chameleon]

for the people in the UK there was actually a TV program on a couple of days ago, about two lads who'd done exactly this, but with a (small) twist. it was an ebay mimic aimed directly at students. I didnt see the end, anybody else catch it?

[mgs2]

Thanks for the replies. But when you talk about the failure of these sites, how do you allow for the phenomenal success of oztion.com.au? Also the number of other sites in the US ubid.com ebid.com overstock.com etc. Theres so many. Don't you believe that there is a significant amount of anit-eBay and anti-paypal sentiment out there?

[anotheruser]

when you talk about the failure of these sites, how do you allow for the phenomenal success of oztion.com.au?

Marketing levels undertaken, anti-USA sentiment, Oz patriotism, coupled with anti-eBay and anti-PP sentiment. The timing was superb for the anti-USA moment. Bush was at his hegemonistic, brashest, bullying worst and the figures coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan were awful.

Also the number of other sites in the US ubid.com ebid.com overstock.com etc.

None of them are doing particularly well. Deep marketing pockets are helping them to survive and keep growing slightly.

Don't you believe that there is a significant amount of anit-eBay and anti-paypal sentiment out there?

Yes. But are your pockets deep enough to exploit that? If so, can you be sure you have an effective strategy to exploit it?

As you so rightly say, many others thought so and are trying. Maybe there is something effective to the eBay/PP model after all?

[mgs2]

My point is, I don't believe the Oztion website is very good in terms of its web interface, its vastly inferior to eBay. I think oztion is riding on the anti-ebay/paypal sentiment, without much else to its business success (maybe others will disagree).

So in relation to this theory, my belief is what if you took on oztion model, that had no final valuation fees, and had a much better web interface (almost mimicking eBay's successful interface). Wouldn't you have exactly oztion's model but siginifcantly better.

Additionally to this, you see all of the world's news outlets, be they free-to-air tv or newspapers, are increasing their presence online, and its increasingly free and has increasingly less ads (e.g. ninemsn has less ads than viewing nine on free to air tv).

So what if you take eBay's model, and predict that you can grow your customer base faster by going increasingly to an advertising model like these massive news outlets. This is theory is relying on the descreasing cost of bandwidth, and the increase attractiveness of the internet to advertisers.

[anotheruser]

increasingly free and has increasingly less ads

Whilst those very same media businesses going online are in desperate need of those missing advertising revenues if they are to survive. Doesn't this give just a little indication the advertisers are not there in quite the profusion you are intimating?

In which case, how are you going to survive whilst you build your user base? How is your initial and continuing marketing budget to be raised?

[mgs2]

Yes thats a good point. What I am not sure about is how you create a customer base of sellers initially, to get a load of buyers to the site. This seems very murky to me and I don't know how Oztion was able to do it so well.

What seems attractive to me, is the way Oztion has done so well. I don't believe they had a large marketing budget initially, yet they have grown to a very strong business.

[anotheruser]

Timing. Sentiments have switched quite a lot since that time, but now they have that presence so it's not doing them much, if any, harm.