eBay 2002 Annual Report Download - page 5

process easier and more eÇcient. Whether provided by us or our commercial partners, services such as our
trust and safety programs, user veriÑcation, buyer protection and assurance programs, vehicle inspections,
escrow, authentication and appraisal are all intended to create a safer trading environment.
Our Community
Our community of users is the largest and one of the most loyal online trading communities on the
Web. We have aggregated a signiÑcant number of buyers, sellers and items listed for sale, which in turn
has resulted in an extremely vibrant trading environment. Our sellers enjoy generally high conversion rates
and buyers enjoy an extensive selection of broadly priced goods and services. Key components of our
community philosophy are maintaining an honest and open marketplace and treating individual users with
respect. We seek to maintain the satisfaction and loyalty of our frequent buyers and sellers by oÅering a
variety of community and support features such as announcement and bulletin boards, customer support
boards and personal pages as well as other topical or category-speciÑc information exchanges. By ensuring
that all users are subject to the same rules and fees, we have created a level playing Ñeld enabling
individuals and businesses of all types and sizes to access broad markets and compete equally.
Our Value Proposition
Our marketplace makes ineÇcient markets more eÇcient.
Traditional oÉine marketplaces can be ineÇcient because:
‚ They are fragmented and regional in nature making it diÇcult and expensive for buyers and sellers
to meet, exchange information and complete transactions;
‚ They oÅer a limited variety and breadth of goods;
‚ They often have high transaction costs due to intermediaries; and
‚ They are information ineÇcient, as buyers and sellers lack a reliable and convenient means of
setting prices.
We make these ineÇcient marketplaces more eÇcient because:
‚ Our global community of users can easily and inexpensively communicate, exchange information
and complete transactions;
‚ Our marketplace includes tens of millions of items creating a very wide variety and selection of
goods;
‚ We bring buyers and sellers together for a fee much lower than those of traditional intermediaries;
and
‚ Our marketplace provides for eÇcient information exchange.
In particular, large markets with broad buyer and seller bases, wide product ranges, and moderate
shipping costs have been successful on eBay. Our marketplace is most eÅective, relative to available
alternatives, at addressing markets of new and scarce goods, end-of-life products, and used and vintage
items.
Our Strategy
We intend to achieve our mission of becoming the world's most eÇcient and abundant marketplace
by creating marketplace conditions that enable our users' success. By continuing to foster the vibrancy of
the world's largest network of buyers and sellers and by making the online trading experience faster, easier
and safer, we better enable the success of our user community.
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