THE eBAY ECONOMY

摘要

Maybe the folks at eBay Inc.'s annual analyst conference in late 2001 were simply too dazzled by the Web marketplace's blockbuster financial results. Or maybe they had heard one too many dot-com platitudes to heed yet another one. Whatever the reason, when Chief Executive Margaret C. Whitman had the audacity to describe eBay as a "dynamic self-regulating economy," no one in the room even blinked. This overgrown flea market―an economy? From its humble origins as a trading post for Beanie Babies, eBay is indeed morphing into something entirely new―and a lot bigger than most people realize. This year, at least 30 million people will buy and sell well over $20 billion in merchandise―more than the gross domestic product of all but 70 of the world's countries. More than 150,000 entrepreneurs will earn a full-time living selling everything from diet pills and Kate Spade handbags to $30,000 BMWs and hulking industrial lathes. More automobiles, of all things, sell on eBay than even No. 1 U. S. dealer AutoNation. So what does this add up to? "This is a whole new way of doing business," says Whitman. "We're creating something that didn't exist before."