Will there ever be an alternative to Ebay??

[collect247]

Surely in this day and age somewhere out there is a very smart person/s that can somehow create a new selling and buying

platform that can compete as well as ebay?

Ebay was created in the 90's so the technology now should make it easier to start another platform?

Or have Ebay recruited everyone that's creative enough to run their business and there's no one left?

Surely there is perhaps a disgruntled employee who knows the ins and outs and could jump ship and start some well needed competition?

And help all the poor souls that have been hard done by Ebay,myself included 

[imastawka]

Aw, c'mon.  

How many millions would it take to set up another one from scratch?

Bit naive to think you only need to be creative

[collect247]

I would gladly donate to have it up and running by being the first to register lol.

Seriously plenty of shareholders would jump on board ? wouldn't they?

What's a few million between friends.

I personally think that Ebay have a patent therefor not allowing any other competition a sniff at success.

[***super_nova*** · Accepted solution]

People tried and failed or remain insignificant sites.  eBay is too big to compete with.

[fo-trut]

Craigslist, Armslist, Amazon, iOffer,  DHgate, vendevor, Gazelle, Shopify, ,,, and many more.

People go with what they know, even if it's not as good. More buyers draws more sellers and in turn more sellers draws more buyers. eBay has worldwide online buying and selling locked down. A large automated site that is a success more because of the users rather than the creator/s. 7 billion people  know what eBay is, maybe a couple  million people know what Craigslist is. I doubt a thousand people have a clue what any of those others are.

[collect247]

Yes they are all alternatives but they don't compete with Ebay or even get close to it.

They don't offer the same structure as Ebay,if they did then there would be more customers heading their way.

There is another site that started at the same time as Ebay that also starts with E but it doesn't have the platform to

do as well as Ebay.

If only they changed their structure of their site maybe they would compete?

Maybe they are restricted into what they are allowed to do?

The power of Ebay not allowing other sites to compete is totally unfair.

If other sites were able(let) to compete then they would.

No one else is allowed to structure their site the way ebay have thus being inferior,which again is unfair.

[lotsamagsnbags]

I think facebook groups are becoming more and more popular... because there are no fees too

[bsal6160]

unfair or smart business sense? would you not do the same if you had a platform like ebay that makes millions of dollars?

[collect247]

Smart business sense?

Since when is a company allowed to block others from trying to achieve what Ebay has,this is exactely what Ebay is

doing in my opinion.

Otherwise there would have been a competitor already out there with the same or even better platform.

Others don't have the permission to start another site like Ebays otherwise there would be one.

There can be the same type of business if you have the knowledge and money to get it up and running but Ebay seems

to be the one that everyone else has been warned not to copy,just my own little theory.

[*tippy*toes*]

There was a new site started around 18 months ago. Plenty of people listed items for sale. Very similar format the eBay (auction, BIN, best offer). Unfortunately, while it attracted sellers, it didn't attract the buyers. I sold one thing and the remaining things have just been relisting over and over for the last 12 months. I was going to take them down, but deep down I kind of hope that buyers might find it one day. It's not costing me anything to have them there. Plenty of people look, but no one buys.

The site developers were going to run a big advertising campaign in the second half of last year, but I never saw anything out there. Even their Facebook page seems to have gone quiet, so maybe they've thrown the towel in. Shame, because it could have done well if they got the word out there. Much lower fees than eBay too.