Ask HN: What would a viable eBay competitor look like?
What features would YOU like to see in an eBay competitor?
What features would YOU like to see in an eBay competitor?
A successful competitor to eBay would have completely disrupt eBay's current business model -- ie the level of disruption Craigslist has caused for the classifieds industry. That probably means some sort of free service - perhaps with only specialist categories requiring a listing fee/cut of final sale (in the same way CL only charges for jobs and a handful of other categories).
A successful competitor to eBay would have to have a very clever strategy to overcome the network effect eBay has. Look at how Zuckerberg launched Facebook in the face of MySpace and Friendster's network effect. He concentrated on a niche (just Harvard, than just students), owned it and then enlarged. I would therefore specialize in a niche area and then once you have pwned eBay in that area, expand out.
Surprisingly, it's clothing and accessories and yet most people associate them with collectibles. This is an opportunity.
I know it's obvious and trivial, but Ebay just looks bad.