Yahoo Drops Auction Fees To Try To Attract Angry Ebay Users
from the now-there's-a-plan dept
In early 2001, Yahoo became the last of the big online auction sites to start charging listing fees. Now, it looks like they're the first to drop them as well. Coming just a few months after eBay faced widespread criticism for raising its fees and just a few days after eBay made a big splash by buying Shopping.com, Yahoo is clearly hoping to (1) remind people it exists as an online auction space and (2) attract some angry eBay users. The article makes it sound like Yahoo has decided to not just ditch the listing fee, but all the percentage take of any sale -- though, this second part would be surprising. If it's true, that would be impressive and could interest many sellers, but we wouldn't be surprised if it were just the listing fees that were dropped. Either way, Yahoo hopes to make up the revenue on increased listings and the paid search listings that will show up on the various auctions.
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