Sensis Classifieds News Service

Online Used-Vehicle Classifieds Outpace Print Ads Two to One

2006-06-01T11:13:00.000+10:00

More than twice as many late-model used-vehicle buyers find the vehicle they purchase through the Internet than both newspaper and magazine classified ads combined, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Used Autoshopper.com Study(SM) released today. The study finds that in the past five years, the percentage of buyers finding their used vehicle through a traditional newspaper or magazine classified ad has been cut in half (from 14% in 2002 to 7% in 2006). During the same period, buyers who found their vehicle through an online classified has doubled (from 8% in 2002 to 16% in 2006). "Print continues to serve an important purpose in marketing, but its role in the area of classified listings is diminishing quickly," said Min Cho, senior analyst at J.D. Power and Associates. "The domination of the Internet over print in the used-vehicle market will only increase as today's younger buyers become a larger buying force in the market. Buyers under the age of 35 are more than four times as likely to be led to the vehicle they purchase by information found online than by print classified ads."

Full Article: Online Used-Vehicle Classifieds Outpace Print Ads Two to One

Microsoft Considers eBay Acquisition

2006-06-01T11:06:00.000+10:00

Microsoft has been in talks for several weeks about a possible acquisition of eBay, reported the New York Post on Friday, citing sources close to the issue. Apparently, Microsoft has considered buying eBay and merging it with MSN in a bid to challenge Google for internet supremacy, but as a result of antitrust concerns the talks have "cooled somewhat," according to the Post.

Full Article: Microsoft Considers eBay Acquisition

Google launches its database service called "Base" in Germany

2006-06-01T11:02:00.000+10:00

Google has launched its database called Google Base in Germany, which may allow it to enter into competition with online auction site eBay, among others. Surfers can use Google Base to put all kinds of information -- such as news, job offers, recipes, and classifieds -- online; the offers can then be found via a normal Google search, in Google Maps, or in the product search Froogle. This Wednesday, the Internet search engine operator has launched the beta version of its database service in Germany and Great Britain.

Full Article: Google launches its database service called "Base" in Germany

Yahoo, eBay Will Work Together To Boost Revenue

2006-05-29T10:57:00.000+10:00

Yahoo and eBay said they'll work together to boost advertising and other sources of revenue.
Hard to believe, but Yahoo is now 11 years old, making it old dog, senior citizen by Silicon Valley measures. At today's shareholder meeting, top executives said the best is yet to come, even with tough competition from rivals such as Google.
It's the one time a year that small investors can gather and hear directly from top management. Yahoo is still the number one web site. It claims 500 million people visit yahoo every month around the world.
Shareholders learned how Yahoo has updated its home page, improved its popular email service, and is looking for ways to boost advertising revenue.
Yahoo Shareholder: "They keep re-inventing themselves. When you look at General Motors and some of the other companies, they've really had to struggle. But Yahoo they're looking five, 10 years out. They see the big picture."
Yahoo executives said they're planning to be big in China. But that raised criticism how Yahoo's cooperation with Chinese authorities may have put a journalist and others in prison.
Anthony Cruz represents Amnesty International and challenged Yahoo chairman Terry Semel:
"I asked him specifically, would he call on the Chinese government to release these prisoners in China, and there was not a 'yes' or 'no' answer, so, no, I wasn't satisfied."
Other shareholders recognize yahoo is caught in a tough spot.
Dick Hackenberg from Berkeley: "I don't know that they could actually come out and challenge the Chinese government. I don't think that would have been prudent from a business standpoint. But certainly from a human rights and a moral standpoint, under the mission that yahoo has, I would have liked to hear something more specific about that case."
A retired teacher thinks Yahoo should be reaching out to students.
Lillian Reiter: "These children come home with these names, like Google, Google. And I didn't hear Yahoo as much as I heard Google."
Yahoo shareholders clearly see Google as its main competition.
We did request interviews with Yahoo senior executives, but they turned us down.

Source: www.abclocal.com, May 25th 2006

Yahoo, eBay form Web advertising alliance

2006-05-29T10:30:00.000+10:00

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and online auctioneer eBay (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday said they reached a multi-year advertising and commercial partnership aimed at boosting their position against Web search leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research).
According to the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay's auction site. Yahoo has also chosen eBay's online payment system PayPal to allow its own customers to pay for Yahoo Web services.
Yahoo and EBay said they will begin to roll out their joint initiatives this year.

Source: http://today.reuters.com, May 25th 2006

eBay, Yahoo Alliance Rumored

2006-05-29T10:15:00.000+10:00

Wall Street is apparently abuzz about a huge potential internet alliance - most likely a Yahoo-eBay partnership - but also possibly involving others, including Google and Microsoft, writes the New Zealand Herald, citing a JP Morgan report. According to eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, the company works closely with the major search providers, but he would not address a potential Yahoo relationship. "We don't comment on rumors and speculation," Durzy is quoted as saying.

Full Article: eBay, Yahoo Alliance Rumored

News Ltd, PBL merger 'unlikely'

2006-05-29T10:13:00.000+10:00

The federal Communications Minister says it is unlikely that media companies News Limited and PBL would be allowed to merge under the Government's planned media law changes.
Senator Helen Coonan has told a Senate estimates hearing she hopes to finalise proposed changes to media laws soon.
In March, the Government released a discussion paper on plans to relax media ownership restrictions. Senator Coonan says the laws will include safeguards making a merge between major companies News Limited and PBL unlikely.
"Well I mean that's not, this is not going to be a legislated outcome ... and the processes are there that will be run by the regulator, so it's not for me to be guaranteeing," she said.
"But my very firm view is that it would be unlikely to be capable of that sort of outcome with the safeguards that I have talked about."

Source: www.abc.net.au, May 23rd 2006

New online shopping site targets Aussies

2006-05-29T10:11:00.000+10:00

A new online shopping site from eBay is ready to take over the way Australians buy goods in cyberspace. And the company says it will dominate its competitors as it looks to pounce on the five and a half million Australian internet shoppers. The shopping.com website allows consumers to view more than half a million products from wine to digital cameras, from more than 200 retailers. Buyers can read reviews and compare prices before being directed to the retailer's web page to purchase products. The site was first launched in the United States in 1999, and local versions have since been introduced in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It has more than 40 million visitors a month globally.

Full Article: New online shopping site targets Aussies

PBL eyes bigger stake of Carsales

2006-05-23T10:40:00.000+10:00

PUBLISHING and Broadcasting Ltd is considering increasing its 41 per cent stake in online car ads business carsales.com.au, as James Packer continues his push into new media.
It is believed PBL has approached some shareholders, including John Fairfax Holdings (owner of The Age), which has a 7 per cent stake in carsales, with a view to getting financial control of the business. PBL also owns a quarter-stake in leading online job ads company Seek and is believed to be keen to develop a strategic partnership between the two businesses or potentially merge them.
Carsales is an unlisted public company with more than 50 shareholders, many of whom are car dealers. PBL took up its 41 per cent stake last October as part of a merger between its own online trading sites — including carpoint.com.au and boatpoint.com.au — with carsales. An independent expert's report by Grant Samuel valued the merged business at up to $184 million.
Carsales reported a 72 per cent jump in net profit after tax to $2.1 million in the December half, in line with expectations. Profit before tax more than doubled to just under $3 million, according to accounts filed with the corporate regulator. (Carsales reported a smaller rise in the bottom line because historical tax losses meant that no income tax expense was booked in the half-year to December 2004.)
PBL takes out three of the seats on the company's five-member board, giving it effective control. Its directors are PBL chief executive John Alexander, head of classified strategy and business development Gregg Haythorpe and Mr Packer.
Mr Haythorpe did not return calls.
Seek's joint chief executive, Andrew Bassat, last week denied there were any plans for a tie-up with carsales.
"Our focus is very much on the growth in employment and the growth in the learning, which is a new business for us" he said. "At some point, we might look outside that but not right now."
Carsales chief executive Greg Roeback told shareholders in a statement that in March its web site listed over 90,000 cars for sale.

Source: www.theage.com.au, May 22nd 2006

Ebay China and Taobao.com have started a war on a new battlefield.

2006-05-23T10:39:00.000+10:00

Ebay China and Taobao.com have expanded their intense competition from the customer-to-customer (C2C) market to the business-to-customer (B2C) market. Both have launched online stores in cooperation with dozens of premium brands. In China’s emerging e-commerce market, Ebay China, the Chinese unit of US online auction service eBay Inc, and Taobao.com, a unit of Alibaba.com, have been long-time rivals. In the latest survey available, Taobao.com had a 67.3 percent share of China’s C2C market in terms of user numbers by the end of March 2006. That was followed by Ebay China which had a 29.1 percent share of the market. Now the battlefield between these two arch rivals has been expanded to the B2C market. In early May, Taobao.com set up online shopping stores which have attracted companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Qingdao Haier, and Lenovo. As always, Taobao.com does not charge any fees to companies who want to set up shops on its website. Nor does it take commissions from any deals that have been successfully completed.

Full Article: Ebay China and Taobao.com have started a war on a new battlefield.

eBay launches Australian shopping

2006-05-23T10:20:00.000+10:00

ONLINE shopping is gaining pace: close to 6 million people now buy items ranging from cars to groceries on the internet. Today eBay, the world's largest online auction house, will launch an Australian version of its US online retail enterprise, shopping.com.
More than 200 merchants have signed up. They include Dick Smith, Apple Computer, Dell, Peter's of Kensington, Deals Direct and Strawberrynet. Lorrie Norrington, president and chief executive of shopping.com in the US, led the Australian launch. She said that while the Australian market looked small compared with the US, "there are heaps of opportunities here".
Shopping.com, founded in 1999, was originally called DealTime and focused on price comparison. In 2003, it merged with ePinions, which provided consumer reviews of products.
Its staff is mainly in San Francisco, with programmers in Israel and another in Britain, where it opened for business in 2001. In 2004 the company listed on the Nasdaq and last year it was bought by eBay and expanded into France and Germany. Australia is its fifth branch.
Ms Norrington said the company began researching Australia last year and discovered higher than average interest in online shopping.
"As broadband grows we expect internet adoption to grow more," she said. "There are 12 million internet users in Australia and 7.5 million online shoppers, of whom 5.5 million shop frequently.
"In addition, 87 per cent of all Australian internet users have bought something online, which is well above the (developed country) average of 77 per cent.
"Fifty-three per cent of those people say they have bought something in the last month. So we see the velocity increasing in the Australian market."
Shopping.com Australia manager Sean Cornelius said the online shopping population in Australia was growing by more than 40 per cent a year.
"We know that retailers are increasingly looking to add this additional sales channel to their business," he said. "They understand how the buyer is looking to transact online as well as offline."
He said trust was a vital ingredient in the transaction. "We provide transparency of information," he said. "Customers can rate their experience with online retailers and their views are shown on the site, so retailers are focused on building their online reputation."
Mr Cornelius said the company would keep an eye on customer reviews and would remove untrustworthy retailers.

Source: www.theage.com.au, May 23rd 2006

Fix 'embarrassing' broadband, says PBL

2006-05-23T10:18:00.000+10:00

Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd chairman James Packer has called on the government to provide regulatory certainty to fix Australia's "embarrassing" broadband position.
Mr Packer said Australia's low broadband penetration rate compared to the rest of the world would only be improved if the government provided a clear set of regulatory boundaries.
He said Australia's online advertising revenue had grown considerably in the last 12 months.
"Broadband penetration is a key driver of this growth," Mr Packer told a ninemsn digital market summit.
"But Australia's position in this area is embarrassing.
"We need faster broadband to stay competitive with the rest of the world."
Late last year an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey on broadband subscriber rates ranked Australia 17th out of 30 countries.
The data showed that Australia had an average of 10.9 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, compared to an OECD average of 11.8.
Korea maintained its lead with 25.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
Number one telco Telstra has locked horns with the competition watchdog over the rollout of its proposed $3 billion fibre broadband network, saying it needs regulatory certainty before its investment can proceed.

Full Article: Fix 'embarrassing' broadband, says PBL

Ninemsn CEO Martin Hoffman quits

2006-05-22T10:55:00.000+10:00

Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd's internet portal Ninemsn announced its chief executive Martin Hoffman had resigned after more than three years in the job.
Mr Hoffman will continue as chief executive of Ninemsn during a transition period to ensure a smooth handover for clients and staff, Ninemsn said in a statement.
Mr Hoffman has been at the helm of Ninemsn since January 2003 and he is currently considering opportunities, including some at PBL and Microsoft.
"During my time at Ninemsn I have led the business through a period of tremendous growth and success and built a strong leadership team," Mr Hoffman said.
"Ongoing developments in the media and technology industries mean now is the right time to seek new opportunities to use my strengths of hands-on leadership in building businesses.
"Both PBL and Microsoft are supporting me in my career aspirations."
PBL executive chairman James Packer said Mr Hoffman's vision and leadership had been essential to Ninemsn's position as the leading new media company in Australia.

Full Article: Ninemsn CEO Martin Hoffman quits

Seek and destroy - Trade Me

2006-05-22T10:51:00.000+10:00

Trade Me plans to shake up the online recruitment market by undercutting the listing fees of market leader Seek by 70-80 per cent when it introduces a jobs category on its website later this year. Founder Sam Morgan says moving into recruitment advertising is the web business' "No 1 priority". But he says Trade Me is also fomenting plans to help people buy new goods such as music and consumer electronics online once it has the second-hand and classifieds market wrapped up.
"Catalogue-based shopping for new goods is something that is on the medium-to-long term horizon." Mr Morgan expects Trade Me will begin advertising jobs online early in the second half of the year. ASX-listed Seek charges $150 per job listing in New Zealand and Mr Morgan says Trade Me will probably come in at "20-30 per cent of their cost".
He says Trade Me will examine what extra features and functionality it can provide, but says its main competitive advantage will be the volume of traffic to its website. "The nearest competitor in the market is Seek and Trade Me has 10-15 times their number of visitors."
Mr Morgan says Trade Me's revenues and sales jumped 20 per cent from February to March in the wake of its $700 million purchase by Australian newspaper publisher Fairfax. Sales "flattened out" in April but Trade Me is on track to grow another 10 per cent this month, he says. Mr Morgan attributes the March jump to interest generated by the Fairfax purchase and seasonal factors. Melbourne-based Seek chief executive Paul Bassat is confident the company can fend off competition from Trade Me without dropping its listing prices. "People associate Trade Me with buying, selling and trading, and Kiwis associate Seek with finding a job," he says.
Seek has a market capitalisation of A$1.34 billion, having seen its share price double since its successful listing a year ago.
"At the end of the day, the reason people advertise is because of the outcomes, rather than the price," says Mr Bassat. "Compared to print advertising, our prices are very competitive and we are not expecting our prices will come down."
Mr Bassat says Seek is developing a new search engine that will make it easier to search for jobs on its site. However, Mr Morgan is confident advertisers will turn to Trade Me in time. "The advantage we have is being a diverse business we have the ability to run a job category and have it make no revenue for an unlimited period of time if we so decide. "We have got the ability to grow that space by doing whatever it takes and we will continue with our philosophy of doing no marketing whatsoever because we don't need to. If all we did was jobs, we would have to approach it slightly differently."
Mr Morgan says that once the jobs category is ticked off, Trade Me will have "pretty much done all the newspaper classified sections". The business is then likely to target "convenience-driven e-commerce shopping". About 40 per cent of goods on sale on Trade Me are new goods, more than a third of sales are made using the "Buy now" feature and the trend is toward people dispensing with the auction process, he says. Trade Me would not sell goods itself and manage fulfillment, as Amazon does in the US, but would let shoppers search for specific items and choose whether to purchase second-hand or direct from retail partners, he says. It would likely partner with smaller retailers, rather than the likes of "Noel Leeming", he says.
"The Amazon model is illustrative of what can be done, but I think their back-end is something we wouldn't look to replicate."
Mr Morgan is relaxed about emerging potential competition from community-based sites offering local content and free classifieds, such as the recently-launched iworldpeople.
"We don't focus too much on the competition, but what the trends are."
Trade Me has recognised a "big trend" for people to trade with others in their immediate vicinity and is likely to respond, he says. "A huge proportion of our sales are now local sales – people in Wellington selling to people in Wellington, for example. When you are dealing with items such as coffee tables and fridges, it is uneconomic to ship things.
"The internet space is changing really rapidly and we are continuing to hire people in their 20s who can try to inform us about what is happening on the Web. We have got 50-60 people who spend all day sitting here trying to improve things."

Source: www.stuff.co.nz, May 22nd 2006

Ninemsn chief shuffled

2006-05-22T10:47:00.000+10:00

THE chief executive of Ninemsn, James Packer's internet joint venture with Microsoft, has been cast aside.It is understood that Martin Hoffman, who has been running Ninemsn since February 2003, was told this week he would be reassigned to another job within Mr Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd.
Mr Hoffman has helped cement Ninemsn as Australia's most visited internet news site, but Mr Packer is thought to believe the portal needs new leadership in the face of greater competition.
Mr Hoffman, who moved to PBL from John Fairfax Holdings, where his jobs included running auction website sold.com.au, was asked to continue in his Ninemsn role until a new chief takes over.
A successor is believed to be close to being named.

Full Article: Ninemsn chief shuffled

PBL wants full control of Carsales website

2006-05-22T10:03:00.000+10:00

PUBLISHING and Broadcasting Ltd is looking at increasing its 41 per cent stake in online car ads business Carsales.com.au as James Packer continues his push into new media.
It is understood PBL has approached some shareholders, including John Fairfax Holdings, the publisher of this newspaper and owner of a 7 per cent stake in Carsales, with a view to getting financial control of the business.
PBL also owns a quarter stake in leading online job ads company Seek and is believed to be keen to develop a strategic partnership between the two businesses or merge them.
Carsales is an unlisted public company with more than 50 shareholders, many of whom are car dealers.
PBL took up its 41 per cent stake in October last year as part of a merger between its own online trading sites, which include carpoint.com.au and boatpoint.com.au, and Carsales.
An independent expert's report by Grant Samuel valued the merged business at up to $184 million.
Fairfax had held more than 11 per cent of Carsales but its stake was diluted as part of the deal.
Carsales reported a 72 per cent jump in net profit after tax to $2.1 million in the December half, in line with expectations. Profit before tax more than doubled to just under $3 million, according to accounts filed with the corporate regulator.
Carsales reported a smaller increase in the bottom line because historical tax losses meant that no income tax expense was booked in the half-year to December 31, 2004.
PBL has three of the five seats on the company's board, giving it effective control. Its directors are PBL chief executive John Alexander, head of classified strategy and business development Gregg Haythorpe and Mr Packer. Mr Haythorpe did not return calls.
Seek's joint chief executive, Andrew Bassat, last week denied there were any plans for a tie-up with Carsales.
"Our focus is very much on the growth in employment and the growth in the learning, which is a new business for us," Mr Bassat said. "That's keeping us pretty busy. At some point, we might look outside that but not right now."
Carsales chief executive Greg Roeback told shareholders in a statement that its website served more than 2.7 million user sessions in March and listed more than 90,000 cars for sale. He said the site was benefiting from its merger with PBL's online trading sites.
"Our competitors have previously had an advantage of multiple sites in their network to drive traffic to their various classified sites. Today, with a larger network we are delivering traffic to all of our sites from all of our sites. Stay tuned for even more additions to the network."
Seek recently upgraded its own earnings guidance for the year to June 30 as it continues to dominate the online job ads market.
It expects to report earnings of up to $47 million pretax and more than $27 million after tax.

Source: www.smh.com.au, May 22nd 2006

Indeed Officially Launches PPC Job Listings

2006-05-18T15:02:00.000+10:00

Job classifieds search site Indeed has formally launched pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The sponsored listings are sold directly by Indeed to employment advertisers and listings publishers.
Until now, most job advertising has been offered as pay-per-listing, or as Indeed CEO Paul Forster put it, "the legacy model that was ported on to the Web." Now, continued Forster, "We've seen the success of pay-for-performance advertising on general search engines…and there's no reason why this shouldn't be the end model for classified advertising."
The company has allowed advertisers with listings in its network, mainly publishers such as NYTimes.com and job classifieds sites like BuilderJobs, to bid for sponsored listings like they would for keyword advertising on a search engine. Sponsored listings appear above and below natural search results. Advertisers don't need to submit ad copy or choose keywords as the job listings themselves enable that. PPC advertisers can also specify maximum bids or set daily or monthly budgets through the system.
The system has been in testing since last year. During that time, classifieds publishers including NYTimes.com, ApartmentCareers.com and BAJobs.com, a San Francisco Bay Area site have used the PPC service. Indeed supplements NYTimes.com's classified ads, and provides all classifieds in About.com's job search. Indeed's PPC listings also appear in customized search results displays, called Jobrolls, on small sites and blogs within its affiliate network. Advertisers using the PPC offering can disable the feature to stick within their ad budgets.

Full Article: Indeed Officially Launches PPC Job Listings

Ebay China to launch online stores with 70 premium brands

2006-05-18T14:24:00.000+10:00

BEIJING (AFX) - Ebay China said it will launch online stores in cooperation with 70 premium brands in China. The selected brands will include Phillips, Epson, Disney, TCL and Adidas, Ebay China said in a statement. The online stores will focus on consumer electronics, communications products, fashion-related products, and home furnishings. 'Brand enhancing and international trade will be our focus over the next few years,' Ebay China's chief executive, Wu Shixiong said. Ebay's chief rival in China, Taobao.com, last week launched a similar service, with companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Qingdao Haier and Lenovo agreeing to sell their products on Taobao.

Source: www.forbes.com, May 15th 2006

eBay Motors Begins Test of 'Local' 2.0 Feature

2006-05-18T14:06:00.000+10:00

eBay Motors has begun testing a new feature that will make it easier for buyers to find vehicles being sold locally. Buyers located in four select markets (Chicago, Miami, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) will see a new section at the end of their search results called "Additional vehicles near [your ZIP code]," where listings from local eBay Motors dealers will be displayed. eBay had previewed the feature, which it is calling "eBay Motors 2.0," at its Analyst Day last week.

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, May 12th 2006

eBay Eachnet Also Enters China's B2C Auction Market

2006-05-18T13:33:00.000+10:00

week after its competitor Taobao.com announced its entry into the B2C market, Chinese online auction website eBay Eachnet has now launched its own B2C business. Martin Wu, CEO of eBay Eachnet, says the B2C business of his company is different from the existing B2C websites in that it does not handle any logistics. According to Wu, the 70 brand agents and dealers who have signed contracts with eBay Eachnet will be responsible for their own goods supply, goods delivery and after-sales service. In addition, a representative from eBay Eachnet says that all the sellers in this new area called Brand Flagship Special Zone will follow the Chinese government's after-sales regulations on repairing, exchanging and returning of goods. Wu also says this special zone should not impact the smaller sellers already selling on eBay Eachnet.

Source: www.chinatechnews.com, May 17th 2006

Joint survey shows readers rate newspaper inserts

2006-05-18T13:25:00.000+10:00

RIVAL newspaper publishers News Limited and John Fairfax Holdings have joined forces to hit back at magazine industry claims that newspaper magazines fail to build strong relationships with their readers.
A survey commissioned by Fairfax and News, publisher of The Australian, found newspaper magazines absorb readers more deeply than newsstand rivals and build up greater trust and loyalty.
Phil Barker, managing director of News Magazines, News's magazine arm, said the survey of 700 readers also found there was room for growth in the newspaper magazine segment.
Four new newspaper magazines have been launched in Australia over the past 12 months, swelling the ranks to 16.
The survey, conducted by Hemisphere Group and Ipsos in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, found newspaper magazines scored higher marks among readers for value, credibility, relevance and inspiration, the newspaper publishers said.
Mr Barker said the results dispelled claims by the Magazine Publishers of Australia that newspaper magazines had a weaker relationship with readers than traditional magazines.

Full Article: Joint survey shows readers rate newspaper inserts

National strategy to boost audiences

2006-05-18T13:22:00.000+10:00

NEWS Limited has flagged an aggressive cross-platform marketing and development drive aimed at helping the company to achieve double-digit revenue growth by finding new audiences for its editorial content. Spearheading the push is editorial marketing manager Jeni O'Dowd, who until Saturday edited The Sunday Telegraph. O'Dowd was famously given a Porsche Boxter by former News Limited chairman Lachlan Murdoch for widening the newspaper's circulation lead over rival The Sun-Herald to more than 200,000 copies in 2004. The new role represents the first time the company has taken a group-wide strategic approach to reusing News Limited and News Corporation information and entertainment content.
"We don't accept the conventional view and nor does New York that News Limited is a mature business," corporate affairs director Greg Baxter said. "We would see realistic targets around double-digit growth year on year well into the future. "The implications are that we are going to be doing a bunch of new things."

Full Article: National strategy to boost audiences

eBay earns patent victory in U.S. high court

2006-05-18T13:19:00.000+10:00

The US Supreme court on Monday set aside a patent injunction against online auctioneer eBay Inc, ruling that a company found liable for patent infringement should not necessarily be forced to stop using the patented technology.
The high court unanimously vacated a federal court ruling in favor of MercExchange, a developer of e-commerce technology that sued eBay for patent infringement with its "Buy It Now" feature.
The case goes back to a trial judge to decide on the appropriate remedy for eBay's patent infringement. Though an injunction still is possible, the decision is considered a victory for big tech companies, which said they are under siege from small patent owners who use the threat of court orders to seek high licensing fees.

Full Article: eBay earns patent victory in U.S. high court

FAST Drives Powersearch Capabilities for AutoTrader.com

2006-05-10T12:00:00.000+10:00

Fast Search & Transfer(TM) (FAST(TM)), the leading developer of enterprise search technologies and solutions, today announced that AutoTrader.com, the Internet's leading auto classifieds marketplace, has deployed FAST Enterprise Search Platform (FAST ESP(TM)) to power the search across AutoTrader.com. AutoTrader.com's mission is to be a consumer's ultimate online solution for buying and selling new, used and certified pre-owned cars and trucks. With more than 11 million qualified shoppers each month and three million vehicles listed for sale by private owners, dealers and manufacturers, AutoTrader.com is simply the smarter place to buy and sell a car.
FAST ESP enables AutoTrader.com's PowerSearch feature to provide site visitors a more flexible and powerful way to find a car on the site. Starting with broad parameters and little input, potential car buyers can perform a single search that compares new, used and certified pre-owned vehicles. PowerSearch also allows AutoTrader.com visitors to shop by body style, color preference, by up to three makes and models and by mileage. Through the use of new car aggregate listings, new car buyers can see entire inventories across over 40,000 dealerships. From one initially displayed ad, users can click to view the rest. No other automotive Web site offers this enhanced selection feature.

Full Article: FAST Drives Powersearch Capabilities for AutoTrader.com

Online Ads: Upping the Ante Down Under

2006-05-10T11:53:00.000+10:00

Australian advertisers are catching up online.
Quoted in the Wiliam Reading Room blog, from Sydney, MediaCom CEO Anne Parsons predicted recently that total ad spending in Australia will rise by as much as 4% in 2006, with newspaper and free-to-air television growing by no more than 3%.
Commenting on these last two categories, Ms. Parsons said "Compared to pay TV and the Internet, they are not happening things."
As in the US and worldwide, advertising spending in Australia is moving away from television and newspapers and onto the Internet.
Merrill Lynch forecast in November last year that the Internet will be Australia's fastest-growing growing channel, with a 35% increase in advertising revenues this year.
As of the end of 2005, the Audit Bureau of Verification Services (ABVS) reported that spending on online advertising in Australia reached A$620 million (US$473 million).
Full Article: Online Ads: Upping the Ante Down Under

eBay Rings in Skype Technology

2006-05-10T11:50:00.000+10:00

eBay CEO Meg Whitman announced last week at the company’s Analyst Day that the popular auction site will begin to incorporate Skype’s internet voice technology. Skype’s services will both facilitate easier communication between buyers and sellers on the site and generate new revenue streams with a pay-per-call advertising system.
This move has been anticipated since eBay bought Skype last year for $2.6 billion, with an additional $1.5 billion on the line if the company meets its financial goals by 2008. The company followed a similar template of acquisition and integration with secure monetary services provider PayPal in 2003.

Full Article: eBay Rings in Skype Technology

Kijiji Schedules New Online Classifieds Services

2006-05-10T11:48:00.000+10:00

After a year's run in the Chinese online market, eBay's (EBAY) Kijiji.com will now shift its focus to new services. Wang Jianshuo, CEO of Kijiji, tells local media that the website has formulated four business strategies for 2006. These include devoting efforts to such classifieds areas as car service, part-time job information and regional activities; emphasizing better message flow; enhancing user-to-user communication; and building an online credibility system. Wang says that based on the four strategies, Kijiji will launch a batch of products for the Chinese Internet market next month and begin sending email advertisements to subscribers' inboxes. Kijiji was launched in March 2005, but seems to be not as successful as expected. Starting last month, Kijiji began to combine the its classified ads platforms and with its community content and has launched functions that can enhance inter-personal communications.

Source: www.chinatechnews.com, May 9th 2006

Jobs growth 'to moderate'

2006-05-10T11:35:00.000+10:00

JOBS growth is tipped to moderate over 2006/07 as the labour market responds to weaker gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the near term.Employment is tipped to grow by 1 per cent in 2006/07, in line with the forecast in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook and below an expected 2-per-cent growth rate in 2005/06.
"Employment growth is expected to moderate to one per cent in 2006/07, in line with the lagged effects of slower GDP growth in 2004/05 and 2005/06," the Budget papers said.
"Following a record high in mid-2005, labour force participation is expected to decline gradually over the forecast horizon."
The Government expects the unemployment rate to rise to 5.25 per cent in 2006/07 from an estimated 5.25 per cent this year, and 5 per cent when the Australian Bureau of Statistics last reported the figure.

Full Article: Jobs growth 'to moderate'

What's the next thing: Classified Advertising is being Transformed

2006-05-10T11:23:00.000+10:00

Call it the coming revolution in classified advertising. It began when Craigslist began offering classified advertisements free online, but that's not where this revolution will end. The category is now moving to the next stage, one in which free classified ads will serve as content opposite targeted, paid-for display ads, much like any other form of content, such as news or feature stories, according to a new report from Jupiter Research. In the process, major national sites will emerge to dominate classifieds using this new model, sapping them away from traditional local classified vehicles, such as daily newspapers, predicts the study. “New competitors will use networked classifieds to do to classified advertising what the web did to content,” says the report.And as these new competitors, which will include the likes of Microsoft and Google, wrestle for control of the classified marketplace, it will have an enormous impact on local papers.

Full Article: What's the next thing: Classified Advertising is being Transformed

eBay Inc. Outlines Global Business Strategy at 2006 Analyst Conference

2006-05-08T11:35:00.000+10:00

SAN JOSE, CA, May 4 /CNW/ - eBay Inc., (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com),today held its annual financial analyst conference in San Jose, California,during which the company highlighted the fundamental strength of its threebusinesses: Marketplaces, Payments, and Communications. The company alsodescribed its expanded vision of the future, outlining a multi-brand strategyto accelerate growth in its current businesses and gain share in newaddressable markets. Executives demonstrated how the continued focus on innovation enableseach of the company's flagship brands - eBay, PayPal, and Skype - to grow asstandalone businesses, participate in larger markets, and create entirely newones. Management also described how these three businesses are complementingand reinforcing one another, which is leading to entirely new opportunitiesand monetization models. As examples of this "Power of Three," company leadersreferenced how the integration of PayPal on eBay increased adoption of thepayments service, which made it possible for PayPal to successfully servemerchants selling outside the eBay marketplace. In addition, they cited howeBay and Skype, working together, can accelerate both businesses and also leadto the creation of new ecommerce formats and businesses. Similarly,integration of PayPal and Skype can result in accelerated usage of bothofferings. "Across all of our businesses, we see greater opportunities for futuregrowth than ever before," said Meg Whitman, President and CEO, eBay Inc. "Eachof our brands is the global leader in its space and well positioned to pursuenew opportunities and accelerate growth. Together, they're working to turbocharge one another. Our multi-brand strategy is opening up entirely new vistasof opportunity for the company."

Full Article: eBay Inc. Outlines Global Business Strategy at 2006 Analyst Conference

eBay eyes faster growth

2006-05-08T11:33:00.000+10:00

EBay chief executive Meg Whitman has promised investors that faster growth and market share gains lay ahead, but left the company's 2006 revenue view unchanged as international sales have slowed.Speaking to investors at eBay's annual analysts' meeting in San Jose, California, Ms Whitman reiterated a full-year revenue view of $US5.7 billion ($7.4 billion) to $US5.9 billion, or an annual growth rate of about 31 per cent.
The company had affirmed that forecast when it reported earnings on April 19, sending its shares down nearly 9 per cent the next day.
"We plan to grow our revenues even faster and gain share in our addressable markets," Ms Whitman said.
She said there was an opportunity for growth in the company's three core businesses -- its auction marketplace, PayPal online payments systems and Skype web telephone service - drive traffic to each other.

Full Article: eBay eyes faster growth

WAN expects solid profit growth

2006-05-08T11:32:00.000+10:00

West Australian Newspapers has posted a 40 per cent fall in earnings for the first nine months of this financial year, due to slow trading conditions in the March quarter.
But the publisher is confident of solid profit growth for the full year, as advertising revenues remain solid.
WAN chairman Warwick Kent said after a slow start to the calendar year trading conditions had improved.
"The outlook for advertising revenues is solid without being buoyant," Mr Kent said.
"The company is confident its diversity of revenues will record solid growth in pre-abnormals profit again in 2005/06."
The Perth-based company's net profit for the nine months ended March 31 was $43.2 million, down from $72 million in the same period last year.

Full Article: WAN expects solid profit growth

Real Estate Driving Ad Revenue: Fairfax

2006-05-08T11:28:00.000+10:00

Fairfax Holdings Ltd chief executive David Kirk says zone-specific real estate inserts are continuing to drive advertising revenue growth for the company. Mr Kirk said the mid-week real estate inserts in Fairfax newspapers were attracting strong interest from advertisers.
"We are putting together things like zone Domain which is offering a lower price for advertisers and it is attracting quite a lot of volume from real estate agents," he told the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. The midweek Sydney Morning Herald Domain Inner West, East and North inserts, for example, have recently been added to support the Fairfax newspapers weekend Domain real estate section. Fairfax says the newspaper and online ads reached 2.2 million readers in NSW and 1.1 million in Victoria. Mr Kirk added that Fairfax's online revenue continues to grow through its jobs classified section. He said newspaper jobs had attracted around 20,000 advertisements, compared to around 60,000 jobs on Fairfax Digital websites, the company's online division. "Our online revenue is growing very strongly," Mr Kirk said.

Source: www.theage.com.au, May 5th 2006

eBay Integrating Skype, PayPal; to Launch Online Advertising Service

2006-05-08T11:26:00.000+10:00

eBay plans to integrate its Skype voice over IP service into the auction marketplace to facilitate communication between buyers and sellers, reports AuctionBytes.com, quoting CEO Meg Whitman speaking at Thursday's eBay's Analyst Day, the theme of which was "The Power of Three": eBay, PayPal and Skype. She also said eBay plans to enter the online advertising fray with a pay-per-lead service. Whitman said eBay would create new ecommerce markets and showed a prototype of a "pay-per-lead" enabled web page using Skype.

Full Article: eBay Integrating Skype, PayPal; to Launch Online Advertising Service

Consumers Unsure of Mobile Phone as Payment Device

2006-05-08T11:23:00.000+10:00

Mobile phones have become a fixture in the lives of just about every age group, but more than half of the young consumers who took part in the 2006 Generation X and Y payment and technology panel study conducted by Market Platform Dynamics feel the ability to use their mobile phones as a payment device is unnecessary.
Contactless payment, a credit or debit transaction through the use of a fob or technology-enabled device using radio frequency, infrared, carrier-based mobile or Bluetooth technologies, is not being immediately adopted. Thirty-eight percent of respondents claim using their phone as a payment method isn't valuable to them, saying they don't use their phones enough to make it worthwhile. Phone data usage has been slow to take off, but subscribers are beginning to use the Web for search and applications other than voice communications.
Generations X and Y behave similarly in terms of attitudes toward trying new technologies. The exceptions are youngest and oldest in the 16 to 43 year old age group. Those age 16 to 19 are more interested in trying new payment methods including mobile phones as a payment device. The older age bracket, 40 to 43, are less inclined to try Internet-based activities such as online shopping and online banking, making it less likely that group will adapt to payment via their cell phones. Online banking is taking hold among consumers, as is bill payment when implemented with the appropriate communication.

Full Article: Consumers Unsure of Mobile Phone as Payment Device

Windows Live Product Search: For Sellers & Buyers

2006-05-08T11:21:00.000+10:00

Microsoft announced the launch of Windows Live Product Search. From the looks of it, the service seems a lot like Google Base and eBay. The description from the announcement says that this service allows people "to find products available on the internet for sale." So it is not exactly like Windows Live Shopping, which launched May 1st, which only includes products from select merchants (who submit products to them). As an FYI, Google's Froogle also crawls the Web for products, but they also enable merchants to submit products via feed. We may have more on this next week.
Source: blog.searchenginewatch.com, May 5th 2006

China is Skype’s biggest market – eBay execs

2006-05-08T10:46:00.000+10:00

May 5, 2006 (China Knowledge) – EBay executives consider China to be the biggest market for popular Internet-based phone service, Skype, reported financial news website Marketwatch.
According to the report, Skype President and former eBay CFO Rajiv Dutta said in a speech at eBay's San Jose, California headquarters that Skype has 13 million users in China .
Comparatively, the number of Chinese users is as nearly as big as that from the U.S., Germany and the U.K. combined, according to Dutta. The service has 6 million U.S. users, 3 million in the U.K. and 5 million in Germany.
Skype, which was acquired by eBay last year with US$4 billion in cash and stock, has seen explosive growth and is “a huge hit in China," said Matt Bannick, president of eBay's international operations. It currently generates all of its sales from Skype Out, a service that lets Skype users call a regular phone from a computer.

Source: www.chinaknowledge.com, May 8th 2006

Seek lifts earnings outlook as more ads go online

2006-05-04T16:49:00.000+10:00

LEADING online jobs advertiser Seek lifted its annual earnings guidance yesterday on the back of a strong jobs market and the continuing drift of revenue from classified job ads from newspapers to the internet.
Seek, 25 per cent owned by James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $46 million to $47 million for 2005-06, up from a previous guidance of $43 million and a prospectus forecast of $40 million. But it did not alter its net profit after tax forecast, although chief operating officer John Armstrong said the figure would exceed the prospectus forecast of $27.1 million.
Seek joint-founder Paul Bassat told The Australian he expected the online share of employment classified revenue to grow from 16 per cent in 2004-05 to 20 per cent by the end of 2005-06.
He said Seek would capture about 70 per cent of the growth.
"I think the trend has quickened and will continue to," he said. "Within five years, the bulk of jobs classifieds will be online."

Full Article: Seek lifts earnings outlook as more ads go online

Buyers, sellers and renters to feel the strain

2006-05-04T16:47:00.000+10:00

THE REAL estate industry has attacked the Reserve Bank's decision to raise interest rates, predicting a fall in house prices and more rental market strain.
The president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW, Cristine Castle, said the rate rise would "wreak havoc" on the state's already weakened residential market.
"It's certainly not going to assist those trying to get into the property market or those trying to sell," she said. "The dollars will have to be stretched further."
Sydney's house prices could also be affected, with values falling as much as 5 per cent this year, according to Louis Christopher, head of research at Home Price Guide, a property information service part owned by the Herald.

Full Article: Buyers, sellers and renters to feel the strain

Fairfax Launches Media Brand

2006-05-04T16:44:00.000+10:00

Publishing company Fairfax New Zealand is adopting the corporate name Fairfax Media as it develops a digital business to complement its newspaper and magazine stable.
Fairfax New Zealand chief executive Joan Withers made the announcement at the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association's Thrive Auckland conference yesterday.
Ms Withers said adopting the Fairfax Media brand name signalled the company, which publishes Stuff.co.nz, was evolving to meet the challenges of the changing communications market.
Fairfax New Zealand will remain the company's legal name.
"Providing cost effective, targeted advertising solutions across media, including digital options, is the new battleground," Ms Withers said. "Fairfax holds first mover advantage, and we intend to drive this competitive advantage home."
Fairfax bought online auction site Trade Me, based in New Zealand, for $700 million in March.

Full Article: Fairfax Launches Media Brand

Inbound tourism value set to soar

2006-05-04T16:42:00.000+10:00

INDIA and China would fuel an inbound tourism boom with the value of the sector set to almost double within a decade, the Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) said today.
TFC chairman Bernard Salt said the sector's outlook was positive. Led by India and China, the TFC has forecast growth of 7.1 per cent a year, boosting the value of the inbound sector from $18.5 billion last year to $35.6 billion in 2015.
In the same period, international visitor arrivals were expected to grow 5.5 per cent annually to about 9.2 million visitors.
"The broad outlook for Australian tourism is positive over the next decade and the new forecasts provide a good indication of the growth opportunities that exist within the tourism sector," Mr Salt said.

Full Article: Inbound tourism value set to soar

Fairfax Adopts Media Company Branding

2006-05-03T14:42:00.000+10:00

Fairfax Adopts Media Company Branding
Statement made by Joan Withers, Chief Executive Officer, Fairfax New Zealand Limited
In order to reinforce its position as a media company rather than predominantly a print publisher, Fairfax in New Zealand is rebranding itself as Fairfax Media.
In today’s 24/7 information age, the public obtains its news, information and entertainment from a variety of media sources.
This is driving convergence of what were previously quite separate sectors such as journalism, advertising, telecommunications and technology.
In response to these developments, Fairfax is building an outstanding digital business to complement its strong capabilities in the more traditional media of newspapers and magazines.
This will give the company the capability to be a relevant distributor of news and advertising through a wide variety of platforms including market-leading newspapers and magazines.
There is already a strong base from which to build a digital platform in the Fairfax group, in the form of Stuff and Trade Me.
Trade Me has a preeminent online commercial position in classified advertising and auctions. Stuff, consistently voted by the public and industry experts as New Zealand’s best media/news site, will continue to be developed as a news and information provider. Fairfax newspaper online sites will be progressively enhanced.
Adopting a new brand that more accurately describes the business is a way of reinforcing externally to those that use Fairfax’s media companies for information or for advertising that Fairfax is a group of linked businesses.
Internally, it will reinforce to staff that through its various newspaper mastheads, magazine publishing titles, online brands and other printed products, Fairfax is New Zealand’s largest media company. This combination of media outlets has the potential to reach virtually all New Zealanders.
Fairfax Media ranks among New Zealand’s major business enterprises, employing more than 2700 people and with operating revenues of around $600 million.

Source: Fairfax Adopts Media Company Branding

Higher earnings eyed as APN goes searching

2006-05-03T10:25:00.000+10:00

TRANS-TASMAN media group APN News & Media expects to lift earnings by more than 5 per cent this year, but has shied away from predicting a fifth year of double-digit growth.
It also outlined plans to move into the local online search business in New Zealand and regional Australia.
Chief executive Brendan Hopkins said at APN's annual meeting that its UBD business directory, with 130,000 New Zealand business listings, would be combined with its Wises mapping service to create a "highly localised" online product.
The local search business has become extremely competitive - News Ltd and Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd recently launched services against market leader Sensis. Following John Fairfax Holdings's $625 million acquisition of online auction site TradeMe in March, APN is moving to strengthen its online classifieds and news sites.
Mr Hopkins said the group's Search4Jobs site was expected to become the biggest online employment site by year's end.
The NZ online advertising market had been "much slower to grow" than in Australia, but it would almost certainly catch up. The company expects to attract about $10 million from online businesses this year.
Mr Hopkins said APN - which owns newspapers and radio stations and sells outdoor advertising - supported media reforms but was "keen to see more definitive guidance" from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au, May 3rd 2006

Australians dump domestic travel because of petrol prices - survey

2006-05-02T10:38:00.000+10:00

Almost 40 per cent of Australians say they are abandoning travel plans because of the high cost of petrol in a major blow to the domestic tourism industry, the first major survey on the issue has revealed.
The survey, involving more than 2000 respondents and conducted by leading destination site totaltravel.com, found four out five respondents (81 per cent) said petrol prices had affected their travel plans.
The survey was carried out during April and included the crucial Easter school holiday period.
Paul Fisher, spokesman for totaltravel.com - ranked the number one site for Australian’s seeking information about destinations - said the survey result underlined the damaging impact high petrol prices were having on the domestic tourism industry.
“When you have almost 40 per cent of those surveyed saying they have abandoned travel plans because of petrol prices, that means there is a crisis out there,” Mr Fisher said.

Full Article: Australians dump domestic travel because of petrol prices - survey

Skype the backbone of eBay offensive

2006-05-02T10:35:00.000+10:00

SKYPE has confirmed it is considering opening an office in Australia to support parent company eBay's growing client base with integration of call-back technology into the auction giant's local offering.The announcement follows several tentative steps into the Australian market by the internet telephony brand, which has introduced local currency billing for off-network calls and Australian phone numbers for its Skype In service.
Skype's $US2.6 billion ($3.4 billion) acquisition last September by eBay has provided the impetus the company needs to build a presence in Australia.
EBay would not reveal Australian subscriber numbers, but it said Australia was "one of the largest markets in the world for Skype by subscribers".
"EBay has a presence here, and we'll work with them in the medium term and look at adding more people," corporate development vice-president Geoffrey Prentice said.

Full Article: Skype the backbone of eBay offensive

Virtual visions of real estate

2006-05-02T10:33:00.000+10:00

Several Australian online real-estate sites admit plans to add Zillow-like map functions to their sites this year.
Sam Plowman, general manager of Fairfax Digital's domain.com.au, says more and better maps will be an essential part of the online real-estate product.
He says his site will have "comprehensive mapping technology" within 12 months.
Sam Emerson, chief executive of realestateview.com.au, says his company is "moving towards that sort of platform" but won't indicate a launch date for a Zillow-type product.
"But this is a necessary space to be in for any property portal in the future," Mr Emerson says.

Full Article: Virtual visions of real estate

Auto Buyers Speed to Dealer Sites

2006-05-02T10:29:00.000+10:00

Would you buy a car from this website?
According to new data from Friedman-Swift, an automotive marketing research firm, the number of new car buyers visiting dealership websites has increased by more than 70% over the past four years.
The firm found that, when shopping for a new car, 30% of buyers visited dealers' websites in 2005, compared to 35% who looked at dealers' advertising in local newspapers. Friedman-Swift research shows the number of people using dealers' websites is rapidly climbing, while the number who use newspapers to help choose a dealership has declined slightly.
"Three years ago, the number of car buyers who consulted local newspapers before they bought their car was 37%," said Judy George of Friedman-Swift.
"Newspapers have to be concerned," added Ms. George. "Five years ago, dealerships centered their advertising strategy on big ads in local newspapers. Now, more car buyers use dealers' websites which, in some markets, are less expensive than the cost of a single newspaper ad."
In 2001, only 17% of new car buyers went to their dealer's website before they bought a car. Now many people see the Internet as the quickest source of information about a specific car or dealership.
These findings confirm those from research released earlier this year by Harris Interactive. This showed that 58% of auto shoppers visited auto manufacturers' websites, 41% went to other sites with auto reviews, such as Autobytel and Edmund, and only 25% went to their daily newspaper.

Source: www.emarketer.com, May 1st 2006

Analysts Believe eBay's Express Launched to Compete in Auction, Shopping Space

2006-05-02T10:18:00.000+10:00

eBay's quiet launch of its first fixed price shopping site earlier this week will help it better compete with online shopping sites and new players in the space such as Google Base, ecommerce analysts told DMNews.
eBay, San Jose, said eBay Express allows shoppers to buy products at fixed prices from qualified eBay merchants. "eBay Express is for buyers who prefer a more conventional online shopping experience," said Bill Cobb, president, eBay North America.
The site will be in a "preview" phase for several weeks while the company gathers feedback and makes changes to the service.
Analysts say eBay is debuting Express to fend off growing competition from new players in the auction space, particularly Goggle’s online classifieds service, Google Base, and existing shopping sites like Amazon.
"It comes at a time when eBay is having difficulty growing its revenue...and when Google Base is moving into its space," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst, online marketing research firm eMarketer, New York.

Full Article: Analysts Believe eBay's Express Launched to Compete in Auction, Shopping Space

eBay Vendors Ready Tools for Express Marketplace

2006-05-01T15:16:00.000+10:00

Companies that provide services to eBay sellers have prepared their tools for the new eBay Express marketplace, which launched in preview mode on April 21, 2006.
Sellathon, an analytics service for tracking traffic to eBay listings, said it redesigned its ViewTracker application to provide full support for sellers on eBay Express. Standard data points will be available to eBay Express sellers, such as how the visitor found an item, the search terms a visitor used, how much time the visitor spent browsing, the visitor's geographical location. In addition, new information will be provided to take into account eBay Express' shopping cart feature.
Sellathon President Wayne Yeager said Viewtracker will make available some of the shopping-cart data to ViewTracker subscribers. "For instance, ViewTracker subscribers can monitor whether a visitor adds or removes the seller's item from his or her shopping cart. Shopping cart abandonment is a serious issue for e-tailers, and it's rare for sellers on third-party platforms to have this kind of feedback loop. Sellers can now do their own testing to see what causes items to get added to a shopping cart and what causes items to get dropped."
Yeager said that the eBay Express enhancements to ViewTracker are available to subscribers at no additional cost (http://www.sellathon.com).
In addition, auction-management services such as ChannelAdvisor, Vendio, Marketworks and Kyozou have issued press releases stating their tools are enabled for eBay Express.

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, Apr 28th 2006

Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising Surge Ahead

2006-04-27T09:58:00.000+10:00

Not long ago online advertising was the "alternative" choice but now there are alternatives to it.
According to the "Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising Outlook," from PQ Media, combined spending on the three new advertising channels rose by 198% in 2005 to a total of $20.4 million. Spending is expected to grow by another 145% in 2006 to reach nearly $50 million. "Blog, podcast and RSS advertising are being driven by some of the same factors boosting the growth of the overall alternative media sector: continued audience fragmentation, the perceived ineffectiveness of traditional advertising, and the elusive but coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic," said Patrick Quinn, president of PQ Media. "[They] have demonstrated an ability to reach younger demographics as well as influentials."
Looking at the component parts, PQ Media reports that blog advertising totaled $16.6 million in 2005, 81% of the total spent on the three alternatives. Podcast advertising reached a total of $3.1 million in 2005, according to the report, with RSS advertising, non-existent until mid-2005, generating $650,000 during the year.

Full Article: Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising Surge Ahead

JobStreet launches SMS job application

2006-04-26T14:40:00.000+10:00

Online recruitment company JobStreet Corp Bhd has launched JobStreet SMS Apply, its latest product in its Career Enhancer series.
The service, costing 30 sen per SMS, enables its members to email their JobStreet resumes to any job vacancy’s email address in newspapers, classifieds or other forms of advertisement media.This allows job-seekers to respond quickly to vacancies anytime and anywhere by sending an SMS, JobStreet's technology vice-president Albert Wong said in a statement.“Many job-seekers realise that they may not have immediate access to the Internet but are eager to apply quickly to vacancies that they see in the print media,” he said.

Source: www.btimes.com.my, Apr 24th 2006

eBay Acquires Sweden's Tradera.com

2006-04-26T14:37:00.000+10:00

SAN JOSE, Calif. & STOCKHOLM, Sweden --(Business Wire)-- April 24, 2006 -- eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) today announced that it has acquired Tradera.com, the leading online auction-style marketplace in Sweden. Together, the companies plan to expand online trading in Sweden and bring more opportunities to Swedish buyers and sellers. Launched in 1999, Tradera.com enables auction-style trading for buyers and sellers throughout Sweden. Tradera.com has more than 750,000 listings at any given time and offers a venue where buyers and sellers can trade across an array of categories, from collectibles and home decor to antiques and electronics. eBay Sweden, focused on both auction-style and fixed-price trading, launched in April 2005. "Tradera.com has built an impressive business in Sweden," said Philipp Justus, senior vice president and general manager of eBay Europe. "An e-commerce pioneer with a strong community focus, Tradera is a natural fit with eBay."

Full Article: eBay Acquires Sweden's Tradera.com

New eBay On The Way

2006-04-26T14:32:00.000+10:00

Auction goliath eBay has launched a new site that focuses only on new goods at a fixed price.
A preivew of the new ecommerce site, has a far cleaner layout than the company's auction site. The new site is reserved only for Power eBay sellers and is designed to spread the eBay brand to a broader market segment.
The company hopes to attract buyers who are unlikely to buy used goods, or goods at auction. eBay Express will also allow shoppers to buy from multiple sellers with one transaction.
The new site features a shopping cart set-up which can handle the separate purchases from different sellers including shipping. Payments are then made in one hit using PayPal or a credit card. Sellers still deliver the good separately.
All the items on the new ecommerce site are new and listed as Buy It Now, which caters to the immediacy demands of shoppers not willing to wait until the end of an auction listing.
The listings are on eBay Express are a sub-set of the eBay listings rather than a separate business. Sellers with 100 or more feedback points (at least 98% positive) automatically get their Fixed Price or Store Inventory items listed under eBay Express if they are registered for the service.
Sellers must also be able to accept PayPal payments by signing up to the service as a Premier or Business PayPal account holder.
Source: www.smartofficenews.com.au, Apr 24th 2006

More buy papers - and net seems less of a threat

2006-04-26T14:23:00.000+10:00

THIS week's audited newspaper circulation figures are little short of astonishing, and probably require another think about what the internet means for the media industry.
Put simply, newspapers have stopped declining - or at least John Fairfax's have. The Age Monday to Friday is up 2.5 per cent, The Sunday Age an astounding 5.2 per cent and the weekday The Sydney Morning Herald 0.5 per cent. The News Corporation papers, especially the monopoly ones in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin, are still sliding; The Daily Telegraph in Sydney is up 1.8 per cent.
Even the classified-dominated Saturday editions of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are increasing sales, despite the shift of classifieds to the internet, with Fairfax's sites in second place.

Full Article: More buy papers - and net seems less of a threat

eBay Wants To Team Up With Yahoo And/Or Microsoft To Compete Against Google?

2006-04-26T12:23:00.000+10:00

A Wall Street Journal article reports that eBay is in talks with both Yahoo and Microsoft to see which one (or possibly both) is a "worthy ally" to compete against the all-mighty Google. Currently eBay spends a ton on Google AdWords, pretty much any search you do on Google, you get an ad for eBay in the sponsored results. Google also is a heavy indexer of eBay content in the organic results. This all leads to tons of referrals to eBay's content from Google. The issue is, Google is now competing with eBay on several fronts, including a PayPal alternative, online auction service and Google's other services such as Froogle and Base together lead to a huge competing e-commerce portal. Hence the need for eBay to make some changes in the future. The article at the WSJ has a nice write up with the details here.

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com, Apr 21st 2006

Fairfax's channels open as media changes loom

2006-04-26T12:01:00.000+10:00

VIDEO on broadband, not free-to-air television was the bedrock of Fairfax Digital's future, John Fairfax Holdings chief executive David Kirk said yesterday.
Fairfax, owner of The Age and publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, will keep open the possibility of bidding to operate the two new digital TV channels, planned as part of Communications Minister Helen Coonan's media reforms.
In its submission to Senator Coonan, Fairfax called on the Government to reserve the two licences for new electronic players, excluding existing free-to-air and pay TV operators.
In a wide-ranging speech on the outlook for the media to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Melbourne, Mr Kirk warned that if government regulations were too restrictive, as they were in 2000, digital TV would be stillborn.
The licences could support up to 30 channels.

Full Article: Fairfax's channels open as media changes loom

Fairfax still looking for cost savings: Kirk

2006-04-26T11:46:00.000+10:00

John Fairfax Holdings boss David Kirk says the media company will continue to look for ways to cut costs across its business.
Fairfax has run a program of voluntary redundancies and, in the first half of the financial year, booked $13.3 million in redundancy costs for 135 employees.Mr Kirk today said the number of redundancies had been set carefully to ensure there was no impact on the quality of the company's newspapers.He told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia function in Melbourne today that the company remained focused on keeping its cost base under control. "Fairfax has achieved significant cost reductions over the past three years and this will continue via business process simplification and streamlining, which we will continue to undertake," he said.

Full Article: Fairfax still looking for cost savings: Kirk

Fairfax need not look back

2006-04-26T11:45:00.000+10:00

The new CEO's biggest challenge is to align culture with strategy - create entrepreneurialism and move forward, fast.
Many chief executives keep a low profile when they are five months into a new job, especially when they come from a different industry. If they do give detailed presentations to the media and analysts, they often try to play up the challenges facing their company and dampen expectations. Not so David Kirk, the new chief executive of John Fairfax Holdings, owner of BRW. Kirk, with chairman Ron Walker by his side, is bullish.
In this week's Cover Story by chief business commentator Adele Ferguson, Kirk says: "There is no doubt in my mind that Fairfax has one of the strongest positions, in print and online, among our peers in the world." So far, the sales pitch is not exciting investors; Fairfax shares are still flat in a booming market.

Full Article: Fairfax need not look back

Auction it Today on eBay Introduces Store-in-Store

2006-04-26T11:39:00.000+10:00

Brighton, MI, USA, April 19, 2006 (XTVWorld.Com) -- The fast-growing and highly successful online-auction franchise, Auction it Today®, www.auctionittoday.com, announced its new, kiosk service today. Auction it Today is the definitive originator of the kiosk concept with the first, stand-alone kiosk and the only eBay drop-off-store franchise currently using this kiosk service. With very low overhead and limited space, now small business owners can have an additional revenue stream, offer customers new, online-auction services and increase traffic flow in less than 30 days. Business owners receive personalized training, software and equipment from Auction it Today. And in less than two weeks, they can use the kiosk service to sell merchandise on eBay that is currently in their retail store, wholesale products and drop-off items from the public. "As the leading kiosk drop-off-store franchise, we have already sold over fifty kiosks," states John Hoose, Auction it Today Founder and President. "The kiosk service enables every kind of business, even in the most remote areas, to quickly and easily bring in new revenues on an international basis, without having to purchase inventory. Business owners currently pay rent and other utilities, so this store-in-a-store concept of the Auction it Today kiosk is a simple way to liquidate stale inventory and increase existing cash flow, especially during off-seasons." With the unique Auction it Today kiosk system, business owners receive all the tools necessary to be successful, including: - Access to State-of-the-Art Software and Initial Set-up - Auction it Today Brand Recognition- Equipment Package- Franchise Support- Marketing and Advertising Strategies- Personalized Training- Special Sales Program- The Kiosk Structure and much more!"We have been extremely happy with the service, support and ease of the Auction It Today franchise," states Wendi Mohl, P.A.S.S. Inc. Vice President and Auction it Today kiosk owner. "With their guidance we have seen a dramatic increase in our eBay sales, which in turn has increased the quality of our listings for our customers."

About Auction it Today on eBay:Founded in 2004 in Brighton, Michigan, Auction it Today (www.auctionittoday.com) is a full-service, eBay drop-off store that handles the entire, eBay-selling process. Auction it Today sells just about anything from small items, such as antiques and collectibles, to large items, such as airplanes and real estate. They also offer franchisees and small business owners the opportunity to run a global business on a local level with minimal overhead and maximum franchise-support and training. For more information, visit www.auctionittoday.com.

Source: http://press.xtvworld.com, Apr 19th 2006

Online growth maps a future

2006-04-26T11:37:00.000+10:00

A MASHUP is what happens when: a) two cars collide, b) a potato truck collides with a milk truck, or c) Heath Ledger is at Sydney's Bronte beach and bumps into a fan, who sends the location, time and a photo of the actor in his Speedos to WeloveHeath.com, to be plotted on a map of global Ledger sightings.
If you guessed c), you've had a glimpse of the way the mashup phenomenon, driven by new technology such as Google Maps and Google Earth, is opening up a new frontier of internet publishing.
Mashups combine information from different websites into an integrated experience. Map-based mashups, which are being created across the world at more than 10 per day, layer information over online maps to create a visual, navigable picture of a particular event or phenomenon - mostly to satisfy a particular not-for-profit interest or community group.
Australia has been slow to join the mashup revolution, but the launch of local mapping technology and growing consumer interest has sparked some mashup momentum, potentially creating a new revenue and information stream for internet publishers and some useful tools for consumers.

Full Article: Online growth maps a future

Online Advertising Still Growing Strong

2006-04-26T11:20:00.000+10:00

Good news! A pair of new reports indicate that online advertising continued to grow in the first quarter of 2006.
According to new Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance tracking data, marketers bought 185 billion display ad impressions in the month of March. That is nearly twice as many as the 97 billion that were bought in March 2005 and 31% more than February's 141 billion. Confirming this trend, the results of a survey from Deutsche Bank and MediaPost, and conducted by InsightExpress, found that, of the media executives interviewed for the survey, 72% said their clients spent more on Internet advertising in the first quarter — and 41 % of them saw increases of more than 10%. Only 6% reported a spending decline, while 18% saw no change in spending.
The survey showed that online ad prices are rising, too.
A majority of responents to the survey (55%) said that the cost-per-thousand impressions for premium inventory was more in 2006, and 15% reported increases higher than 10%. Half the respondents also said pricing for run-of-network inventory had increased, with 9% reporting price increases of more than 10%.
The unsurprising conclusion? Advertisers are spending more on online ads — and online ads are costing more.

Source: www.emarketer.com, Apr 19th 2006

Tradepoint.ca to Launch Video Classifieds

2006-04-24T14:19:00.000+10:00

Toronto, Canada, April 19, 2006 --(PR.COM)-- Cars, furniture, real estate and jobs are just the start, as Canadian free online classified site Tradepoint.ca continues it’s mission to become the most feature rich and comprehensive online classified site in the marketplace by introducing Video Classifeds. As audio and video technology becomes increasingly economical, portable, and embedded in everyday electronics such as cell phones, the ability for people to use an assortment of media formats to sell their product has never been easier. That’s why Tradepoint.ca is the first to add audio and video to their already comprehensive list of features. Now, along with thorough product descriptions and up to 5 pictures, users can show off their product even further. The audio/video feature allows all registered members to upload clips of audio and/or video from their computer, which can then be streamed online by other users who are interested in viewing an item or contacting a seller. The goal is to provide the seller an opportunity to give a rich verbal and/or 360° description of their product, showing it from every angle, showcasing the product in use – telling that special story behind the item and helping to make it stand out amongst the rest. These features are absolutely free and easy to use, providing yet another means to help connect buyers and sellers.

Full Article: Tradepoint.ca to Launch Video Classifieds

ABC teaming together with eBay for 'Make It Happen' reality show

2006-04-24T14:16:00.000+10:00

ABC refused to confirm casting is already under way with a summer start date eyed for "Make It Happen," Daily Variety reported.
The show will reportedly help families put their "hidden treasures" up for sale on eBay, and money raised by the auctions will translate their "wild dreams" into "reality," ABC said on its Web site. One of the ideas being tossed around is to run the show twice a week, first showing the auction of the items and the second showing the outcome of the bidding.

Source: www.realitytvworld.com, Apr 21st 2006

Redundancies part of big Fairfax cost drive

2006-04-24T10:29:00.000+10:00

JOHN Fairfax Holdings chief executive David Kirk says the media company will continue to look for ways to cut costs across its business.
Fairfax has run a program of voluntary redundancies and in the first half of the financial year booked $13.3 million in redundancy costs for 135 employees.
Mr Kirk said yesterday the number of redundancies had been set carefully to ensure there was no effect on the quality of the company's newspapers.
He told a Committee for the Economic Development of Australia function in Melbourne yesterday that the company remained focused on keeping its cost base under control.
"Fairfax has achieved significant cost reductions over the past three years and this will continue via business process simplification and streamlining which we will continue to undertake," he said. Fairfax had now lodged its submission to Communications Minister Helen Coonan on proposed changes to digital TV and media-ownership rules, he said.
In its submission, Fairfax has called on the Government to put policies in place to drive the take-up of broadband.
It is also calling for the two new digital channels to be reserved for new electronic players, with existing free-to-air and pay-TV operators excluded from owning them.
Mr Kirk said it was not yet clear what form the new digital services would take, but Fairfax could get involved if it made business sense.

Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au Apr 21st 2006

eBay looking for allies against Google

2006-04-24T10:25:00.000+10:00

A report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription only) today talks about how eBay is looking for partners to defend against the growing threat of Google. Specifically, Google Base and the payment system in the works in Mountain View are seen as possible dangers to eBay's auctions and PayPal payment operations, says the report. Google Talk just throws some salt in the wounds by looking for a toehold in Skype's turf.
"After years of working closely with the search giant, eBay last year became alarmed as Google started assaulting its turf in multiple ways," the report said.
The multitude of ways to infringe on eBay's core business makes Google look dangerous. With an ally like Yahoo! or Microsoft, eBay hopes to stave off the threat and prevent Google from making any significant inroads to the auction and private payment markets. eBay may be doing the right thing if it hitches its wagon to someone other than big G, though it remains to be seen how much damage Google could inflict on Meg Whitman's crew. eBay has an impressive lead in mindshare and expertise when it comes to selling people's old trinkets online.
Whether it's Yahoo! or MSN, the WSJ reports that advertising through the chosen partner could be boosted significantly, and in return for favorable advertising rates, eBay could provide access to consumer data collected over the years. But it won't be easy to make a major change.

Full Article: eBay looking for allies against Google

AUSTRALIA: Fairfax's channels open as media changes loom

2006-04-24T10:03:00.000+10:00

Video on broadband, not free-to-air television was the bedrock of Fairfax Digital's future, John Fairfax Holdings chief executive David Kirk said yesterday.
Fairfax, owner of The Age and publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, will keep open the possibility of bidding to operate the two new digital TV channels, planned as part of Communications Minister Helen Coonan's media reforms.
In its submission to Senator Coonan, Fairfax called on the Government to reserve the two licences for new electronic players, excluding existing free-to-air and pay TV operators.
In a wide-ranging speech on the outlook for the media to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Melbourne, Mr Kirk warned that if government regulations were too restrictive, as they were in 2000, digital TV would be stillborn.
The licences could support up to 30 channels.
The submission called for the deregulation of foreign and cross ownership and for all reforms to be in place by 2007.

Full Article: AUSTRALIA: Fairfax's channels open as media changes loom

Yahoo Integrates Auctions with Yahoo Maps

2006-04-18T15:06:00.000+10:00

Yahoo has integrated Yahoo Auctions with Yahoo Maps, it announced to users on Sunday. When visitors to Yahoo Auctions use the "Near Me" feature to locate items within a certain distance of their zip code, the search results will include a "View Map" link. Clicking on View Map brings up a page containing a Yahoo Map with a red balloon indicating the location of the item. Auction sites have rolled out features like Yahoo Auctions "Near Me" and eBay's "Items near me" and "sort by distance" to help buyers find items close to them. This can be especially useful in certain categories where items may be hard to ship, and where auction sites are competing with online classifieds sites and search engines like Craigslist, LiveDeal and Oodle, as well as newspaper classifieds.
The maps feature may raise concerns among sellers, however, as an item's location is in most cases the same address as the seller, many of whom operate home-based businesses. In 2004 when eBay rolled out a distance-search feature that allowed shoppers to see an item's zip code location, some sellers objected fearing a loss of privacy, particularly in small towns with low populations (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m12/i20/s02).

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, Apr 17th 2006

Microsoft To Compete With Google And Yahoo With Upcoming Search Services

2006-04-18T13:59:00.000+10:00

In an attempt to catch up with Google's and Yahoo's search services and establish a better competitive position, Microsoft is enhancing its Windows Live portfolio with two more customer-oriented search services: Product Search and Academic Search. Similar to Google's Froogle and Yahoo's Shopping service, Microsoft Live Product Search will allow the user to search for various products taking into consideration extra criteria such as category, brand, seller or other specific keywords, also offering a price comparison possibility."It is also rumored that as well as including expert or user-provided buying guides, Product Search will also provide access to discussions on products from articles and blog posts, something Froogle does not yet do," wrote Chris Overd, one of the authors posting on LiveSide blog.The other new service, Academic Search, will be a direct competitor to Google Scholar. It basically allows users to search for books in libraries located near them or for articles from academic journals.More specifically, according to the LiveSide blog, it will have features which will allow users to: view an abstract for an academic article in a search preview pane; view the complete article, as long as it is not being hosted on a Web site that requires a subscription or is restricted-access; view a complete article as long as they have a valid subscription to do so; and purchase an article electronically using the British Library.According to Microsoft, a beta versions for Academic Search will be available before late September. No further details were disclosed about Product Search, although the company said that they will be forthcoming.

Source: www.playfuls.com, Apr 10th 2006

Microsoft Launches Windows Live Academic Search

2006-04-18T13:45:00.000+10:00

Microsoft has rolled out Windows Live Academic Search, a targeted search service focused connecting students and researchers with peer-reviewed scholarly information.
Although available to anyone, Windows Live Academic Search is designed to help students, researchers and university faculty conduct research using academic and scholarly journals. Although search results are free, users must either have a subscription to a journal or pay on a per-article basis to access the full text of journal articles appearing in search results.
Unlike Google Scholar, which crawls the web for academic content, Windows Live Academic Search works closely with publishers and uses structured feeds to build its index. As such, all content accessed through the service comes directly from a trusted source—namely, the publisher of a scholarly journal.
The new service addresses two needs of the academic community that have traditionally been under-served, according to Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Windows Live Premium Search. Academic users want tools to help them fine tune search results, and are interested in getting more information on a search result before clicking off to specific article.

Full Article: Microsoft Launches Windows Live Academic Search

Email scam targets Trade Me users

2006-04-18T13:42:00.000+10:00

Trade Me has warned users of an email scam targeting their log-on details. An email is circulating, purporting to be from Trade Me, asking members to confirm their details. "It directs you to a site that looks like Trade Me and asks you to log in," the site said. "This is not from Trade Me. "If you have already responded to the email please change your password immediately." Internet observers said the emails appeared to be a "phishing" campaign. However, Keith Ng, in his On Point blog at the Public Address site, questioned why anyone would want Trade Me passwords that did not lead to bank account numbers. "Given that there is no obvious financial gain, I can only guess that this is an attack on Trade Me itself," he said. "It's more than an act of whimsy. The perpetrator was skilled, had access to an email server, and, most importantly, had some kind of spam list." The internet auction site was recently acquired for $700 million by Fairfax.

Source: www.nzherald.co.nz, Apr 13th 2006

As Google Base Builds, Local Advertisers and Vertical Sites Get on Board

2006-04-18T11:53:00.000+10:00

Matthew Scherg used to post job ads on Monster.com, but the leads were lacking and the price became too high for SITE Staffing, his Wisconsin-based job placement firm. On Monday, the skilled staffing coordinator began posting free ads on Google Base in hope of finding candidates to fill roles as manual lathe machinists and sheet metal fabricators.
Scherg knows the Google name, and uses the site for Web searches, so "it just made sense as something to try out," he explained. Scherg figures he'll post anywhere from 30 to 50 jobs on the new free local classifieds site in the next month, and go back daily to update his listings.
Sherg is just one of many advertisers testing the performance of Google Base, the search company's free structured data entry system that has the potential to challenge online classifieds players. As Google works to drive more traffic to Google Base listings, just last week beginning to feature them more prominently on Google.com search results pages, ClickZ sought out advertisers to learn their reasons for trying Google Base, and determine how it is performing thus far.

Full Article: As Google Base Builds, Local Advertisers and Vertical Sites Get on Board

eBay's Skype Unit Acquires Sonorit for $27 Million in Stock

2006-04-18T09:31:00.000+10:00

eBay's Internet telephony company Skype has acquired Sonorit Holding AS and its US subsidiary Camino Networks, Inc., a provider of voice technology for the Internet. eBay said the acquisition will allow Skype to add some of the leading experts in online voice engineering to its own team of technologists to help design and develop Skype for the future. "We're excited about bringing the talented Camino Networks team to Skype," said Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO and co-founder. "They will add considerable expertise to our own world-class technology team."
"Camino Networks is focused on innovating for next-generation voice services," said Jonathan Christensen, President and CEO of Camino Networks, Inc. "Joining Skype gives us access to the best platform for bringing our technology to users."
Skype will be on hand at the eBay Developers Conference in Las Vegas in June. eBay will devote a technical track to Skype development, including a session called "Using Skype to improve Buyer/Seller communication." Skype will also hold two hands-on training labs: "Getting started building Skype applications" and "Using the App2App messaging API."
eBay acquired Skype last Fall for $2.5 billion plus potential performance-based consideration comprised of $1.3 billion in cash and the value of 32.8 million shares of eBay stock.
Skype has agreed to acquire all outstanding securities of Sonorit for approximately 700,000 shares of eBay stock. Based on the stock price as of April 10, 2006, the transaction is valued at approximately $27 million.

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, Apr 11th 2006

Microsoft to Offer Froogle Competitor

2006-04-12T13:54:00.000+10:00

As part of its Windows Live Shopping initiative, Microsoft is testing out Live Product Search, a service similar to Google's Froogle that offers price comparisons. According to LiveSide.net, users will be able to refine a search by category, brand, seller or specific keywords.
A slider will show and hide product metadata in real-time like Windows Live Search. Unlike Froogle, Windows Live Product Search will also link to external articles and reviews of products. Microsoft may include user-provided buying guides as well, sources tell LiveSide. However, the Redmond company has not yet said how it intends to roll out the service.

Source: www.betanews.com, Apr 11th 2006

Vendio Offers Full Support for eBay Express

2006-04-12T13:52:00.000+10:00

Vendio announced that its Sales Manager Inventory Edition technology, winner of the eBay Star Developer Award in 2005, fully supports eBay Express in anticipation of its Spring release. Vendio CEO Rodrigo Sales said, "We are pleased to have received confirmation from eBay that our sellers' items are already flagged properly for inclusion in eBay Express." eBay Express is a new eBay shopping site that will contain Store and fixed-price listings from U.S.-based sellers on eBay.com that can be purchased right away. Vendio's Sales Manager Inventory Edition helps online merchants sell items on eBay, eBay Motors, eBay Stores and Vendio Stores.

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, Apr 11th 2006

Microsoft to launch two search products

2006-04-12T13:44:00.000+10:00

Microsoft Corporation will launch two search engine products in an attempt to challenge the leadership of Google Inc.
A report of Chief Information Office magazine said Microsoft is to offer product search and academic search. The product search, akin to Google's Froogle, provides Performance-to-price ratio for products. Users will be able to perform accurate search by setting the product types, brands and manufacturers.
Microsoft academic search will help users to find academic articles, and view the abstract of the articles in search preview. Pay users of academic search will gain access to references in the British Library too.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn, Apr 11th 2006

New boss joins Fairfax Digital division from Japan

2006-04-12T13:41:00.000+10:00

FAIRFAX Holdings has appointed a former Liberty Media pay television executive Jack Matthews as managing director of its Fairfax Digital division.
Mr Matthews' experience is mainly in pay television in Japan and Australia, but includes broadband services and software development. He was chief operating officer and executive vice-president of Japan's Jupiter Programming, a joint venture between John Malone's Liberty Media and Sumitomo Corporation. It provides pay TV channels to 24 million subscribers.
Mr Matthews, who was born in the United States and has New Zealand citizenship, also worked for Premium Movie Partnership, which operates Showtime and Encore movie channels. He was chief executive of TelstraSaturn, a joint venture between Austar and Telstra from 1995 to 2001. Early in his career he worked for Playboy Video Enterprises, according to Fairfax.

Full Article: New boss joins Fairfax Digital division from Japan

E-Tailers Focus on Shifting Merchandise

2006-04-12T13:34:00.000+10:00

"Show me the money!" Or, at least, the sales.
As the online channel continues to account for an increasing share of all business, retailers continue to shift their focus. The web is no longer viewed as a mere marketing tool, used to drive shoppers to catalogues and stores. E-Commerce is becoming an important, stand-alone sales channel and websites are increasingly seen as revenue generators and important profit centers.
According to the e-tailing group's "5th Annual Merchant Survey," for many merchants online is growing at a faster rate than either catalog or store channels.
As a result, increasing the online share of revenue is something on which e-tailers are concentrating very hard. There is still much work to be done, conversion rates are definitely improving overall, but e-tailers still see conversions at a relatively low rate.

Full Article: E-Tailers Focus on Shifting Merchandise

Sellers have high expectations for eBay Express

2006-04-12T11:55:00.000+10:00

Expectations for eBay Express are running high among experienced eBay sellers, who view the upcoming specialty site as a potentially significant new channel and have their fingers crossed that the company will build and market it properly.
EBay Express, due during the second quarter, will feature only fixed-price items, most of them new, from experienced sellers with outstanding track records. On eBay.com, many items are used and sold via auction, and many sellers are novices.
The new site will offer a shopping experience that is much simpler and quicker than eBay.com's main marketplace. With eBay Express, the company hopes to attract buyers who either shop little or not at all on the main site, and deliver them to its best sellers, accomplishing two important goals: broaden its shopper base and keep its star sellers happy.

Full Article: Sellers have high expectations for eBay Express

Fairfax eyes digital TV fast lane

2006-04-10T10:31:00.000+10:00

FAIRFAX may bid to operate the two new digital channels that are planned as part of Australia's media reform, as long as there are no content restrictions.
Fairfax Holdings chief executive David Kirk confirmed speculation that the company, the owner of The Age, is interested in the new channels in a speech in Sydney yesterday. But media analysts have questioned the commercial viability of bidding for the digital channels.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan announced two digital channels on existing spectrums would be allocated in 2007 as part of her discussion paper on media reform released last month. The channels will be auctioned off.
Mr Kirk warned Senator Coonan to ensure the uses for the channels were not "neutered" by making restrictive rules on content. Fairfax got "burned" in 2000 from genre restrictions on datacasting, which ensured it could not compete with free-to-air television. "It would be a shame if that mistake was repeated this year," Mr Kirk said.

Full Article: Fairfax eyes digital TV fast lane

Microsoft readies search services to rival Google

2006-04-10T10:28:00.000+10:00

Microsoft Corp. is quietly adding services to its Windows Live portfolio to compete with services Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. already have in place. Microsoft confirmed through its Waggener Edstrom Inc. public relations firm Friday that it is readying two new searches -- Windows Live Product Search and Windows Live Academic Search -- that will be a part of Windows Live Search.
The LiveSide blog (http://www.liveside.net/), written by Microsoft-dedicated beta testers and Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), previously reported on the new search offerings. MVP is an award Microsoft gives people who are active and helpful in communities for Microsoft's different product groups.

Full Article: www.itworld.com, Apr 7th 2006

Windows Live to get Product Search

2006-04-10T10:20:00.000+10:00

After posting about Windows Live Academic Search last week, yet another new search product has entered our radar. This time it's Windows Live Product Search, and like its cousins Image Search and Feed Search, it too will be integrated into the standard Windows Live Search service.In a manner similar to Froogle, Product Search performs price comparison on products and allows the user to refine the search results by category, brand, seller or specific keywords. Maintaining the same feel as the other Windows Live Search services, Product Search also includes the richness slider, allowing users to show or hide metadata relating to the products. It is also rumoured that as well as including expert or user-provided buying guides, Product Search will also provide access to discussions on products from articles and blog posts, something Froogle does not yet do. There are some interesting scenarios available for Product Search. Adding it to live.com via a gadget, for example, would allow users to track price movements for particular products from their peronsalised homepage. Another possibility would be using Windows Live Alerts to notify the user that the price has dropped below a pre-specified amount, giving a link to the relevant seller so they can purchase it direct from their mobile device. Whatever Microsoft decides to do with Product Search, you can be sure that Windows Live Shopping and Expo will have some part to play.

Source: www.liveside.net, Apr 7th 2006

Google, Craigslist Change Real Estate Advertising

2006-04-10T10:12:00.000+10:00

While their real estate ventures are small, sites like Google and Craigslist are reshaping how real estate professionals reach potential buyers and sellers. Listings of real estate for sale on Craigslist, which features free classified ads, rose to 335,126 in March, triple the level a year earlier. Google is testing a tool that helps users sort through the proliferation of real estate sites, including Trulia.com, Oodle.com, and Propsmart.com. Google had 89 million visitors in February. Observers say that the biggest change will be the increasing availability of real estate information. Unlike other online-driven retail, buying and selling property is complex so people will continue to need help. But the increasing ease with which the availability of property can be advertised may encourage buyers and sellers to use real estate professionals differently and more selectively, which would have an impact on commissions, says Abdullah Yavas, a professor of real estate at Pennsylvania State University.

Source: http://rismedia.com, Apr 7th 2006

Google, Craigslist expand into real estate

2006-04-07T16:33:00.000+10:00

Craigslist.com and Google.com, two Web sites that have fundamentally altered the way consumers buy a broad range of products, are emerging as places to shop for residential real estate, a development that in the long term could weaken Realtors' hold on home selling.
Listings of real estate for sale on Craigslist, a popular Web site featuring free classified ads, rose to 335,126 in March, more than triple the level of a year earlier. Google Inc., meanwhile, is testing a tool to help users sort through listings of homes for sale. Several more specialized sites launched in the past year -- including Trulia.com, Oodle.com and Propsmart.com -- offer free access to substantial numbers of listings.
While their real-estate ventures are still relatively small, sites like Google and Craigslist have begun reshaping the advertising world as they offer a potent alternative to ad spending on traditional media such as newspapers and TV. Craigslist in particular has become a popular place to post classified listings for rental apartments, child care, jobs, furniture and personals. With household brand names and huge numbers of users -- Google had 89 million visitors in February, according to research firm NetRatings Inc. -- Google and Craigslist have the potential to draw large numbers of home-sale listings.

Full Article: Google, Craigslist expand into real estate

eBay's PayPal Service Launches Mobile Payments

2006-04-07T16:31:00.000+10:00

eBay's online payment service PayPal has officially introduced PayPal Mobile, a text message-based service allowing consumers in the US and Canada to send using their mobile telephones. The announcement came at the CTIA Wireless 2006 show in Las Vegas on Thursday, where PayPal President Jeff Jordan is scheduled to demonstrate it during the opening keynote address at 9:30 a.m. The MobileCrunch blog first broke news of PayPal's mobile service in mid-March (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m03/i23/s01).
Using PayPal Mobile's Text to Buy service, consumers can buy items by sending product codes via text message. Bravo, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, MTV, and the NBA Store are offering items for purchase with Text to Buy. PayPal Mobile also enables users to Text to Give to charities such as Amnesty International, Starlight Starbright and UNICEF.
PayPal's Jordan said in a press statement, "With the overwhelming popularity of mobile phones, the time has never been better for the merging of ecommerce and wireless devices. PayPal already has more than 100 million accounts worldwide, and our customers have already entrusted their personal and financial information to PayPal."
To use PayPal Mobile, customers first activate their telephones by logging into their PayPal accounts at https://www.paypal.com/mobile. After registering their mobile telephone numbers, users choose a secure Personal Identification Number (PIN).
PayPal Mobile users make payments by sending a text message to PayPal. PayPal calls the user back to confirm the mobile payment, and then sends the money to the recipient. In the case of a Text to Buy purchase, after the merchant receives the payment, the item is shipped to the address already saved in the user's PayPal account.
PayPal said every PayPal Mobile payment is PIN-protected and backed by PayPal's state-of-the-art fraud prevention system. With PayPal Mobile, financial information is never shared with the recipient. Each user's financial information is stored on PayPal's secure servers, not on the mobile telephone, so even if the telephone is lost or stolen, the user's PayPal account remains secure.
The Wall Street Journal reports that about 70% of PayPal's revenue is generated through eBay transactions. PayPal is exhibiting at booth #1665 at CTIA Wireless 2006 this week.
https://www.paypal.com/mobile

Source: www.auctionbytes.com, Apr 6th 2006

Google Base Traffic Flatlines

2006-04-07T16:25:00.000+10:00

The line graph of Google Base's market share over the winter looks much like a mitten-clad hand waving "bye-bye" or "stop." A month after it launched, Google Base hit its lowest point, and according to Hitwise, March wasn't any better. It took a week in mid-November for traffic to Google Base to plummet continuously for a solid month. Just before Christmas, things seemed to be turning around as the holiday spike led into an employment and training search peak in mid-January. Since that high-point however, Google Base's collection of data base mountain climbers began tumbling down the other side, bumping heads at every data point on the graph. At the conclusion of Hitwise's measurement April 1st, Google Base had bottomed out, matching its all-time low in mid November. "Since Google Base launched last November, many have speculated on the threat it poses to eBay, Craigslist and other classifieds sites," writes Hitswise' LeeAnn Prescott, who was trying to figure out Google Base's niche in her blog post. If the trend continues, the measure of that speculated threat may be apparent.

Source: www.webpronews.com, Apr 5th 2006

Australia's Fairfax in Internet push

2006-04-07T16:18:00.000+10:00

SYDNEY, April 5 (Reuters) - David Kirk, the new chief executive of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. (FXJ.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), makes clear the Internet, not newspapers, will drive future growth at Australia's second-biggest newspaper publisher.
Kirk, a former captain of New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team, has purchased three online businesses since he was appointed head of Sydney-based Fairfax in August last year.
He is confident they will help drive the Internet's contribution to group earnings from around 4 percent at present to 20 percent over the next 18 months to two years.
"This is what analysts have calculated. It's a number that's out there and we're not arguing with it," Kirk told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Kirk said about 50 percent of that projected growth would come from Trade Me, New Zealand's largest auction Web site which the publisher purchased for $467 million last month.
"If we could find another business of that scale and quality I would only be too happy to make the acquisition," he said.
Revenues at Fairfax Digital, the publisher's online arm, jumped 66.6 percent to A$42.6 million in the first-half ended Dec. 31, 2005.

Full Article: Australia's Fairfax in Internet push

Yahoo, ninemsn tackle telco turf

2006-04-07T16:16:00.000+10:00

LOCAL internet joint ventures Yahoo!7 and ninemsn are gearing up to inflict more pain on the ailing $33 billion telco sector, with the launch of cut-price internet-based voice services (VOIP) in Australia later this year.The two groups join eBay's ground-breaking Skype service as the latest threat to fixed-line revenues that last year earned Telstra $8 billion.
Yahoo launched the service in the US last month charging customers $US2.99 a week, or $US29.90 ($41.75) a year and as little as US2c a minute to make calls.
"We're not just a media company - we're a communications company," Yahoo!7 interim chief executive Rohan Lund told The Australian yesterday.
"Mail, messenger, 360 (social networking), mobile platforms to go, VOIP - they're actually all different communication tools.
"Personal computer to phone capability is a logical extension. We'll be doing something in the coming months." Ninemsn chief executive Martin Hoffmann said that MSN was now trialling VOIP in the US and the service would be launched in Australia later this year.
Macquarie Equities said in a recent report that the emerging internet VOIP players were changing the model for fixed-line voice services.
"The significance of Skype's charging model is that we expect Telstra and Telecom New Zealand's pricing strategy to increasingly head in a similar direction: that is, a flat price regardless of volume, with additional services - including additional quality of service - costing extra.
"It will be a tiered-pricing structure in many ways resembling a pay-TV slate. Telstra indicated at its strategy briefing in November that it would introduce subscription pricing in the next 6-12 months."
Yahoo!7, which was launched in January and attracted more than 500,000 unique users last month, is also pushing its content on to third-generation mobile phones by way of a global deal with Nokia which will see email and messenger software pre-loaded on to phones. Nokia spokesman Jon Manning said: "The intention is that this service will be made available in the Asia-Pacific region shortly as a software download off the internet or, in some circumstances, pre-loaded on devices depending on operators."
Telstra and Optus declined to comment on emerging VOIP threats to their business.
In a further online development, ninemsn yesterday unveiled its plans for a push into the booming local search market with its My Local services.
The group joins the recently launched News Corporation (publisher of NEWS.com.au) site truelocal.com.au in a bid for Telstra's Yellow Pages $1.5 billion a year sales.
Mr Hoffman and Mr Lund said they expected to see 60 per cent growth in online branded advertising this year.
"We're tracking ahead of plans and feel confident about the outlook - the (advertising) market is quite buoyant," Mr Lund said.

Source: http://finance.news.com.au, Apr 4th 2006

Ninemsn joins local search battle

2006-04-07T16:15:00.000+10:00

THE heavyweight battle in Australia's internet industry for local business searches has been joined by a new entrant, with Packer-Microsoft joint venture ninemsn launching the beta version of its MyLocal service.Ninemsn managing director Martin Hoffman said the service listed the details of around 800,000 businesses. Data management agency Acxiom produced the data used to operate the service.
Acxiom was currently contacting businesses to verify contact details and using its systems to "improve the quality of the data", ninemsn said in a statement.
Mr Hoffman said the ninemsn service would offer advertisers greater market reach than its rivals, which include New Ltd's Truelocal.com, launched in January and the online versions of Telstra's traditional White and Yellow Pages directories, operated by its Sensis arm.
Mr Hoffman said the service would meet a "genuine need" for Australian audiences.
Other major online players such as Google and Yahoo are also expected to unveil similar local business search services for the Australian market.

Source: http://australianit.news.com.au, Apr 3rd 2006

Fairfax completes Trade Me purchase

2006-04-07T16:12:00.000+10:00

Media company John Fairfax Holdings said today it had completed its acquisition of Internet trading site Trade Me.
Fairfax said the $700 million deal was completed after approval was granted from New Zealand's Office of Overseas Investment, and all other conditions of the purchase were satisfied.
An additional $50 million will be paid if the company meets certain earnings targets over the next two years.
Trade Me's founder and chief executive Sam Morgan will continue to run the business.
The company did not seek Commerce Commission clearance for the purchase.
A spokeswoman for the Commerce Commission would not comment specifically on the deal but said the commission generally looked at all major transactions and could still act if it considered a completed acquisition might have contravened the Commerce Act.
It could for example apply to the High Court to seek a declaration that a breach had occurred and seek injunctive relief, penalties and divestment.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz. Apr 3rd 2006

Ebay to introduce Ebay Express for corporate clients

2006-04-07T16:10:00.000+10:00

FRANKFURT (AFX) - Ebay Inc plans to introduce a new Ebay Express service that will allow corporations to sell goods via the Ebay sales platform, WirtschaftsWoche reported citing the head of its German operations, Stefan Gross-Selbeck. Ebay Express differs from the standard Ebay service because all the products it will offer for sale come from the original manufacturer. The online auction house will launch the service within the coming weeks in the US. Ebay's German operations will launch Ebay Express this autumn. 'This new marketplace is an important step in Ebay's expansion as an Internet sales platform,' Gross-Selbeck told the magazine. Unlike the standard Ebay service, Ebay Express customers will also be able to receive full refunds from sellers.

Source: www.forbes.com, Apr 2nd 2006

Online drives media ad growth

2006-04-07T16:06:00.000+10:00

Online advertising is now driving ad growth across all media in the UK, having grown by almost two thirds in 2005, figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau show.
Online ad spend was up 65.6% to £1.4bn last year and the market is now more than twice the size of radio and almost three-quarters the size of national newspaper advertising, which the IAB was worth £1.9bn last year.The study claims that the market now has a 7.8% market share and Guy Phillipson, IAB chief executive, claimed that online advertising could be bigger than national press within a year.Spend across all other media combined fell by almost £200m year-on-year, but the online growth helped to grow the wider market by 2.5%.Paid-for search marketing spend was up 79% online, classifieds by 62%, driven largely by the automotive and recruitment sectors, and display by 44%, driven by increased broadband penetration.The increased investment in online display advertising was far greater than any other display medium.Press display fell by 1% year on year, whilst TV grew by a modest 3.6%, outdoor grew by 5.8% and cinema fell 2.1%.The growth of online classifieds is making a significant dent in traditional press classified expenditure where revenues fell by 5.1% year on year. Entertainment and media was the biggest sector for ad spend, followed by travel and transport, technology and telecoms.

Source: www.mediaweek.co.uk, Mar 29th 2006

Dodge Looks Online to Reach Young Buyers

2006-04-07T16:04:00.000+10:00

Dodge is taking to the Web to market its new Caliber model compact car, targeting young, hip professionals.
"We're trying to connect with young people, who are early adopters of technology. When you look at the youth group, you see their consumption patterns are online, in gaming, social networking, and video. We want to be where they are," Mark Spencer, senior manager of Dodge communications for the Chrysler Group, told ClickZ News.
DaimlerChrysler is hoping that the Caliber, a compact car with unusual features like a built-in beverage cooler, electroluminescent blue console lights, and a high-end sound system that's iPod-ready, will help it reach college-educated, single 25 to 35-year-olds with a $45,000 median income. That's a demographic that presents unique challengers to the automaker.
"In fact, this target demographic is extremely influential and equally difficult to reach," said George Murphy, senior VP of global marketing at Chrysler Group. "They prefer brands that are perceived as hip and popular, but not too commercial; they respond best to messages that are available where they congregate, both on- and off-line. For Dodge Caliber, one of our keys to success will be connecting with consumers on their terms using their technology."

Full Article: Dodge Looks Online to Reach Young Buyers

Patent Office Rules In eBay's Favor

2006-04-07T15:52:00.000+10:00

eBay said it learned this week that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had upheld an earlier decision in a case with involving eBay's "Buy it Now" feature. The court ruled that a MercExchange patent central to the case should not have been issued because it was "obvious," eBay said.
In the meantime, the U. S. Supreme Court continued its deliberations Thursday over the patent case involving eBay and MercExchange,
The patent, No. 5,845,265, and another are key to the "Buy it Now" feature on eBay's auction site, which is the issue before the court. While Supreme Court members seem to have looked favorably on MercExchange's position, the case is considered by many to be another example of questionable patent claims being held against dominant firms by firms that are not in business.
Citing the Patent Office decision, eBay said: "This ruling is significant since it responds to -- and dismisses -- the arguments MercExchange raised in its 100-page response to the Patent Office's previous rejection of all of MercExchange's claims." eBay noted that MercExchange will be permitted to respond to the latest Patent office ruling.
MercExchange has argued that it is not a patent trolling company that had no plans of building a business, but had spent years attempting to build a business around its intellectual property. A jury ruled in favor of MercExchange and the issue of injunctive relief for MercExchange is before the country's highest court.
The justices have indicated they will rule on the issue in June.

Source: www.informationweek.com, Mar 31st 2006

News Corp. high on MySpace deal

2006-03-31T10:12:00.000+11:00

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In the eight months since News Corp. acquired MySpace.com, the social networking site has become the second most popular on the Internet in terms of page views.
The purchase price for the three-year-old company was $580 million. A bargain, says News Corp.'s (NWS) Peter Chernin, chief operating officer. "It looks like the best acquisition we've made in a long, long time," he told Fortune magazine. "MySpace is the single biggest growth opportunity this company has."
There's been a lot of growth already. MySpace.com has nearly 66 million members, and adds a quarter million a day. The site is notoriously strong with Web users under the age of 20, which has led to concerns about its accessibility by young people and sexual predators.
Chernin said almost a third of MySpace's 280 employees work on online safety issues. He told Fortune the company is also experimenting with software aimed at identifying uploaded pictures with a high proportion of bare skin. "We need to be in a leadership position about protecting minors," Chernin said.

Source: www.marketwatch.com, Mar 31st 2006

EBay strikes deal to target China's online millions

2006-03-31T10:07:00.000+11:00

Online auction site eBay has formed an alliance with one of China's largest retailers in a bid to boost confidence in internet shopping in the country.
Under the terms of the deal, China Paradise Electronics Retail (CPER) will set up a shop on eBay to sell mobile phones, with further products being added at a later date.
CPER is one of China's biggest sellers of consumer electronics, and has a strong brand presence.
EBay hopes that the move will convince worried Chinese consumers that online shopping is secure and that the quality of products is as high as in regular shops.
A spokeswoman for eBay China said that this was the first time the company had attracted a business of this size onto its site.

Full Article: EBay strikes deal to target China's online millions

EBay Court Decision Could Have Long-Term Impact

2006-03-31T10:04:00.000+11:00

Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck maintained a "peer perform" rating on eBay amid today's Supreme Court hearing on the company's patent dispute with MercExchange.
The e-commerce giant will present its argument against a permanent injunction of its "Buy It Now" function, which technology firm MercExchange claimed violated a patent it holds.
A federal appeals court has already ruled in favor of a permanent injunction and awarded MercExchange $25 million in damages in 2003.
MercExchange is now also seeking damages that translate into 0.75% of the gross merchandise value that eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) generated from the "Buy It Now" business.
"We believe the decision of the Court will be important to watch for as fixed-price trading now represents 30% of eBay’s business," wrote the Bear Stearns analyst in a research report today. "A potential precedent created by a decision could be broadly felt for years."
In its 2005 10K, eBay stated that it had "modified certain functionality of our websites and business practices in a manner which we believe would avoid any further infringement."
"We think eBay may have revised its processes enough to minimize its liability," said Peck. "However, at minimum, eBay would be liable for the original $25 million."

Source: www.forbes.com, Mar 29th 2006

eBay Patent War: Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios

2006-03-30T10:05:00.000+11:00

Although eBay lost a patent lawsuit in 2003, it's been business as usual at the global online auction site. Sellers are selling and buyers are buying. But the ramifications from that 2003 verdict may be on the way. Today, the Supreme Court reviews eBay's argument that there should be no injunction against its Buy It Now features (See background at URL). Its decision will have a major impact on what comes next.
Let's take a look at two possible outcomes, a best case and a worst case scenario for eBay and its buyers and sellers.

Full Article: eBay Patent War: Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios

Debit card use and online spending rise

2006-03-29T17:27:00.000+11:00

Australians' love affair with credit cards could be dwindling as increasing numbers turn to debit cards and the internet to buy and sell.
Card company Visa said on Tuesday the amount of money transacted through its Visa debit cards in Australia grew 12.7 per cent to $13.5 billion in the last year.
But spending on credit grew by only 3.1 per cent to $86.5 billion in the same period.
Visa general manager of Australia and New Zealand Bruce Mansfield said the use of debit cards, which link to a savings account, is rising as more consumers shop online.

Full Article: Debit card use and online spending rise

Trade Me To Raise Some Fees

2006-03-29T17:22:00.000+11:00

New Zealand's largest online trading site is to increase some of its fees. When Trade Me was sold to Fairfax earlier this month assurances were given that no changes would be made to the website. However, people holding large numbers of auctions will see charges go up from Wednesday. John Fairfax Holdings announced on March 6 that it had bought Trade Me for $NZ700 million plus a further $50 million over the next two years if earning targets were reached. Fairfax chief executive, David Kirk, said there were no current plans to change the website, or how the company works. Irate messages from traders are now appearing on the site, warning there will be a backlash. Trade Me business manager Mike O'Donnell says the change is designed to ensure that people who list large amounts on the site, are listing items at realistic prices. Mr O'Donnell says the change affects only a small percentage of the site's 1.2 million trading users.

Source: www.newswire.co.nz, Mar 28th 2006

PayPal Security Flaw Makes eBay and PayPal Users Vulnerable to Phishers

2006-03-29T17:21:00.000+11:00

A flaw on PayPal's website could help scammers who send out "phishing" emails by allowing them to determine a PayPal member's full name and include it in hoax emails, giving them an air of legitimacy.
AuctionBytes discovered the URL with the vulnerability on Friday evening when it was sent in by an anonymous user. Adding a PayPal member's email address to the end of that specific PayPal URL causes a box to appear with that member's full name. Entering an email address of a non-member brings up an error message. There is no need to log into PayPal to access that URL, and it isn't clear what the page is designed to accomplish.

Full Article: PayPal Security Flaw Makes eBay and PayPal Users Vulnerable to Phishers