TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Yahoo Ditches Fees on U.S. Web Auctions

Yahoo Ditches Fees on U.S. Web Auctions

Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:27:18 -0500

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. will quit
charging fees for auctions on its U.S. site in an effort to encourage
more people to sell their wares, the company said on Sunday.

Rob Solomon, general manager and vice president of Yahoo Shopping,
denied the move was a defensive response to top online auctioneer eBay
Inc.'s announcement on Wednesday it had agreed to buy shopping.com a
provider of online comparison shopping and consumer reviews, for $620
million.

"It's taken us six months for us to work on this. The timing of this
(and eBay's acquisition announcement) is purely coincidental," he
said.

Yahoo has no plans to end the fees it charges users on its other
auction sites, including the one for Japan, the company's top auction
site. The company also runs auction sites in Canada, Singapore, Taiwan
and Hong Kong.

Yahoo said it will generate revenue from its U.S. auctions by
continuing to have paid search listings by its Yahoo Search Marketing
division. Paid search ads are triggered by keywords related to their
product or brand.

Previously, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo has charged users of its
U.S. auction site 5 cents to 75 cents to post an item, depending on
the starting price of the item.

If an item sells, the user then has had to pay a 2 percent final value
fee that can vary depending on the closing price of the item
sold. More expensive items carried additional fees that could total up
to 1.5 percent of the final price of the item in addition to the 2
percent fee.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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