Sanook! to take over eBay's site

The US-based worldwide e-marketing group eBay is to close its www.ebay.co.th website and hand over its Thailand businesses to Sanook.com.
In a joint announcement in Bangkok yesterday, eBay and Sanook! said the old website would cease operations when a new website, to be run and wholly owned by Sanook!, is up and running in the next five to seven months. Although the specific web address was not revealed, the new e-commerce website will be co-branded as Sanook!eBay, they said.
"We wouldn't categorise it [closing our website] as failure," said Dan Neary, eBay's regional vice president for emerging markets. "It's normal that we started it as a promotional site, but we realise that Sanook! understands the local market." Ebay.co.th was opened last year.
Sanook Online's chief executive Torboon Puangmaha said Sanook! would set up a wholly owned subsidiary to handle the new e-commerce business and would share revenue with eBay.
Through the Sanook!eBay site, Thai small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and village-level Otop enterprises will be able to sell their products to the world, he said.
Users who want to trade on eBay.com will be able to conduct their transactions on the Thai-language Sanook!eBay site which will automatically link orders to the global site.
However, Torboon said he still has to figure out how to avoid Thai sellers having to paying double fees on both sites. "However, users won't suffer," he said.
Both eBay.com and Sanook! will have links from their main pages to the Sanook!eBay website. Sanook will also cease its Auction page and redirect traffic to the new site.
Torboon said eBay was attracted to a deal with Sanook! because of the latter's web traffic, with more than one million visitors every day.
Sanook is wholly owned by MIH, a multimedia company headquartered in South Africa. However, the company is entirely managed by Thai staff.
Ebay's Neary said Thais are one of the most active selling groups on eBay, with items such as jewellery and cloth selling on the site every minute, thanks to Thailand's low production costs.
Torboon said Sanook!eBay would combine into one website its global trade, which is currently conducted on eBay, and domestic trade, which is currently undertaken on Sanook Auctions websites.
"Why separate the market? Why aren't those who are selling to the world, also selling to the Thai market? We will integrate both markets under a single platform, using the same tools," he said.
According to the global research firm IDC, Thailand has more than 16 million Internet users - a figure that is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25 per cent through 2009.
Pichaya Changsorn
The Nation

eBay Holds 20-Cent Listing Fee Promotion

eBay is holding a 20-cent listing fee promotion on Thursday, May 24, 2007, for auction listings only. Fixed Price listings are not eligible for the promotion. All other fees apply, see website for details and restrictions.

Hi everyone...This is Jamie Stark from eBay's Marketing team. Once again, I'm here to let all sellers know that you have a little over 24 hours to get ready for our next Auction-style listing promotion! On Thursday, May 24th, the insertion fees for Auction-style listings on http://www.ebay.com/ will only be 20ข.
The 20ข Insertion Fee Sale starts on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 00:00:01 Pacific time (12:00 a.m. plus one second) and ends that same day, Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 23:59:59 Pacific time (11:59 p.m. plus 59 seconds). Listings which were created prior to May 24, 2007 and scheduled to start during the promotional period will also be eligible for the special promotional rate. Please note: If you schedule a listing to start during the promotional period, the regular price will still be displayed during the listing process. However, you will only be charged the promotional price.
This promotion will not apply to the following types of listings: Fixed Price listings, all eBay Motors listings (including Parts & Accessories, Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, and Other Vehicles), as well as Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format, and Store Inventory listings. Some Business & Industrial categories will also be excluded – see our promotion page for full details.
Sincerely,
Jamie StarkeBay Marketing

Ebay under attack over festival ticket sales

A government minister attacked internet auction site eBay today for failing to withdraw music festival tickets being traded on the website.
Music minister Shaun Woodward criticised the website owners after they refused to pull the free tickets for the BBC Big Weekend show which were being sold for about £50 each.
Mr Woodward has twice written to eBay calling for them to stop allowing the sales but the company has refused.
He said the firm was ignoring the terms and conditions laid down by the BBC by allowing the tickets to be resold.
Organisers introduced ID checks for festival-goers in a bid to combat touts but many sellers now offer fake identity paperwork to help buyers get through security.
A spokeswoman for Mr Woodward said: Not only is eBay ignoring the BBC's terms and conditions that these free tickets are not for resale, it is permitting people to engage in fraudulent activity by supplying and using ID to pass themselves off as someone else in order to gain entry to the Big Weekend."
Radio 1 held a ballot to give away 30,000 tickets to a huge two-day music festival to be held at Moor Park, Preston, this weekend.
Tens of thousands of fans applied for tickets during the one-week registration period.
Following eBay's decision Mr Woodward said he intended to meet representatives from the firm next week to negotiate an agreement over future ticket sales.
In a letters to the company, Mr Woodward said: "We strongly disagree with your decision not to suspend the listings for the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend event.
"We believe, given you are aware the BBC intends to impose strict ID requirements on entry to this event, consumers may well feel they have been misled if they buy tickets through eBay.
"This BBC event is free, funded by the licence fee. Many of the tickets are specifically intended to be available to people who live locally.

***Affiliate Program Opens to All Sellers, Plus eBay “Promote It” Sweepstakes for PowerSellers***

Hi everyone...this is Edurne Jorda with our Seller Development team, along with Dan Serpico from our eBay Affiliates team. We've got some great news for our sellers and PowerSellers.
Many eBay sellers already drive traffic to their eBay listings through marketing on their own websites and other off-eBay pages. We're pleased to let you know that we've recently expanded our Affiliate Program to allow all sellers to join the program and get rewarded for driving traffic to eBay.com - even if it's to your own items!
If you are marketing your eBay listings online, we hope you'll consider becoming an eBay Affiliate. For more details about this program, please visit our information page.
PowerSellers -- Join the eBay "Promote It" SweepstakesAs a special incentive for our PowerSellers, we've put together the eBay "Promote It" Sweepstakes. From May 15 through August 15, register as an eBay Affiliate and you'll have a chance to win one of 25 cash prizes up to $1,000 simply for using your off-eBay website, blog or online store to drive traffic back to your listings.
Here are the rules to be entered into our random drawing, to be held on August 20th, 2007:
You must be a registered eBay PowerSeller throughout the entry period.
You must be a registered eBay Affiliate throughout the entry period. (Not registered as an affiliate yet? Join Now!)
Integrate eBay onto your website! Use eBay Affiliate Tools or the API to create ads and links for your affiliate campaign.
Enter your site URL for a chance to win cash prizes – 25 sellers will be chosen to win! Here are the prizes:
1st prize – 10 winners will each receive $1,000 cash
2nd prize – 10 winners will each receive $750 cash
3rd prize – 5 winners will each receive $500 cash
For complete details and Official Rules, see our promotion page.
eBay is proud of our PowerSellers, who rank among the most successful eBay sellers in terms of both product sales volume and customer satisfaction. To learn more about the benefits of being a PowerSeller and how you can qualify, please visit our PowerSeller portal page.
Sincerely,
Edurne JordaSeller Development
Dan SerpicoeBay Affiliates Team

Winning eBay bid for "Dukes Of Hazzard" car likely a hoax

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A nearly $10 million eBay bid for a car made famous by "The Dukes of Hazzard" seems to have vanished faster than the Duke boys escaping from the sheriff. The General Lee's owner — actor John Schneider, who played the blond heartthrob Bo Duke in the 1980s television series — is upset that the $9,900,500 winning bid appears to be a hoax. The bid set an eBay record last week.
Schneider plans to list his 1969 Dodge Charger with a bricks-and-mortar auction firm that strictly screens buyers, and may file a lawsuit against the bidder, said Allen Stockman, who runs the star's Agoura Hills estate and has sold scripts, memorabilia and other items on eBay for three years.
"If this guy was just doing it as a prank or to ruin someone else's chances, he deserves to be hit in the pocketbook," said Stockman, who gave the winning bidder a negative rating in eBay's feedback forum.
Schneider, 47, was at a promotion in Las Vegas and could not be reached for comment.
The winning bidder — identified on his eBay home page as William Fisher, or "fishbashr1" — did not return e-mails and did not answer the phone listed for his house in Laguna Hills.
Schneider's plight is the most
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recent fraudulent bidding episode at eBay.
In December, a Montreal man listed a 40-year-old acetate of "The Velvet Underground & Nico" by Andy Warhol. Bidding began at 99 cents, but after 10 days, 253 bids and numerous articles about the item in the media, the winning bid was $155,401. Within hours, the bid was determined to be a hoax and the item was relisted.
In March, bids on a gas grill said to be owned by Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez reached $99,999,999, the highest bid the Web site was technically capable of listing. EBay pulled the listing after the company couldn't verify the grill was owned by Ramirez.
EBay spokeswoman Catherine England said the company doesn't keep track of how many winning bidders renege.
"There are all sorts of reasons a transaction may fall through, and we have a claims process for both buyer and seller," England said.
When bidding escalated on the General Lee, a customer service agent called Stockman and recommended that he only accept pre-qualified bidders who could prove that they had secured financing. But Stockman said he didn't have the time for credit or background checks.

Several Cross-Promotion Features to be Removed

Hi everyone ... I'm Diana Baraniewicz with eBay's Finding team. As we focus on ways to make it easier for you to find the items you're looking for, we're also taking a fresh look at some of our existing tools and assessing their effectiveness. Tools that have not performed well for our members are being removed.
There are a few Cross-Promotion options that sellers have had access to that we'll be retiring soon. These options simply haven't been as effective as eBay's default logic in driving bids and purchases.
Item Cross-Promotion Rules Using our seller cross-promotion tool, sellers have been able to create rules for what types of their own items should appear in the cross-promotion display area on Bid/Buy It Now Confirmation pages, and at the bottom of Stores sellers' item pages. When a seller does not specify cross-promotion rules, eBay's default logic populates the space with relevant items, choosing additional items from the seller based on the buyer's search.
We'll be removing the item-level Cross-Promotion options in the next few weeks. These rules have had low adoption by our sellers, and have not had a positive track record in increasing bids/purchases among buyers. Please note that sellers will still be able to create Keyword to Keyword, Category to Category, and Store Category to Store Category rules.
Both sellers and buyers should experience better results by letting eBay's logic do the work.
Cross-Promotion Connections & Personalized Picks Also, in June we'll be removing the Cross-Promotion Connections feature, which allowed sellers to promote other selected sellers' listings on their item pages, as well as the Personalized Picks page in My eBay that makes recommendations for future purchases based on your buying history. These features have also seen very low usage. By removing features like these that under-perform, we help simplify the site and free up available resources that can be better utilized elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Diana Baraniewicz Finding Team

GiddyGiddy eBay

It’s easy to forget the ever-plodding eBay with all the noise made by the more lithe and lively Web 2.0 companies.
But the online marketplace powerhouse shows a little more leg in its deal-in-the-making to pay way too much for a trendy Internet Web page discovery and recommendation service called, wait for it, StumbleUpon. Several stories, including one earlier this week in The Wall Street Journal, report that eBay has been in deep discussions to buy the San Francisco-based company for $75 million, which is less than it forked over for online ticketer StubHub in February. That deal cost $292 million.
While that purchase made obvious sense because it is a pure retail play, StumbleUpon also makes some sense because it could help get users more information about eBay’s zillions of auction pages.
A word you will hear more and more, “surfacing,” means the ability of Web sites to bring forth interesting and popular content. That is presumably what StumbleUpon could help eBay accomplish.
Other companies, including Google and Yahoo, have eyed the company, but have not moved to buy it. (”StumbleUpon?,” said one top Google executive to me at a party a few months ago. “I hear it talked about so much that I am now officially tired of it.”)
But I am more delighted, for completely superficial reasons, in eBay’s minority investment in early May in the Turkish online marketplace called GittiGidiyor.com. The Istanbul-based company says it has 17 million users in a country known for trading, and it represents the 37th country eBay has landed in. But I am just liking the peppy name, which means “Going, Going, Gone” in Turkish.