The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

IT big hitters to out-eBay eBay

Combined mini-auction sites ready to roll

  • print
  • alert

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

eBay looks set to loose its monopoly on auctioning macabre items such as babies, kidneys, and the etchings of serial killers. A gaggle of IT companies including Microsoft, Dell, Lycos and Excite@Home are to attempt to compete with the giant online auction house by launching of a network of different tat-for-cash sites. It's believed this is the only viable way to compete with the dominance of eBay. To create a new single site to compete with the brand domination of eBay would simply be too costly with no guarantee of success, say industry watchers. Harnessing the strengths of individual sites by sharing sale items and buyers, on the other hand, is thought to be the way forward. In real terms it means that the complete works of folk rock legend Jethro Tull put up for sale on Dell's auction site, for example, would be also available to anyone accessing Excite@Home. According to the WSJthe company behind this bold initiative, Massachusetts-based FairMarket, will receive a flat fee for providing the service plus a one per cent cut of each transaction. "The only way to survive in the auction business is to be networked and to start something much bigger," Scott Randall, FairMarket's founder and chief executive told the WSJ. A full announcement about the new project is expected on Monday. ®

Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider

More from The Register

Thanks, NSA: Amazon sales of Orwell's 1984 rise 9,500%
Citizens of Oceania bone up on the new reality
 breaking news
BBC lied to Parliament about doomed £100m IT monster, thunder MPs
Axed DMI ballooned and burst while watchdogs sang Kumbaya
Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
 breaking news
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news