eBay
Each team must answer the following questions in its case report. The length of the report should not
exceed four pages. You need not include separate sections on Executive Summary or
Recommendations. Send your answer by email to Anindya Ghose <aghose@andrew.cmu.edu>, not to
the Instructor.
eBay is the world’s largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet.
Founded in 1995, eBay has pioneered on line person-to-person trading by developing a Web based
community in which buyers and sellers come together in an efficient and entertaining auction format to
buy and sell personal items. The eBay service permits the sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid on
items of interest and all eBay users to browse through all listed items. The eBay auction facility is open to
the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Use the guidelines for preparing case reports to address the following major issues.
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What role do the Internet and Web play in eBay’s value chain? (20%)
What value does eBay provide to sellers and buyers as an intermediary? (20%)
What makes eBay a successful e-Commerce company? What are its strengths and
weaknesses? (30%)
How did eBay attain the dominant position in the P2P auction market? What did its
competitors lack? (30%)