In June, Yahoo will give up competing with eBay and other auction sites in the US and Canada by shuttering Yahoo Auctions.
Yahoo and eBay have been working together on projects since May 2006. Their most recent deal brought PayPal to Yahoo as a payment mechanism for Yahoo’s online retailer clients.
Although it is not stated as such in the official announcement, the end of Yahoo Auctions in the US and Canada in June removes them from the online auction competition with eBay.
One of Yahoo’s deals with eBay has it placing advertising on eBay’s domestic pages. Although Yahoo is one of the most heavily trafficked domains on the Internet, that has never translated into online auction success; we have to think the ad deal is performing much better for Yahoo.
June 16 will be the last day to bid or buy anything on Yahoo Auctions. Listings can be placed on the site up to June 3. Current listings will not auto-resubmit after June 3. Yahoo wants to redirect its customers to other properties like its Shopping, Autos, or Classifieds services.
Andy Beal noted that overseas Yahoo Auction sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan are not closing. He’s suggested that the Auctions and the Yahoo Photos closings hew to the business wisdom of legendary ex-GE CEO Jack Welch, in getting out of businesses where Yahoo doesn’t rank 1 or 2.
A look at figures from Hitwise for auction traffic market share from US visitors in April 2007 showed eBay dominating the category, while Yahoo Auctions eked out a tenth-place spot:
Source: Hitwise
Shopping and Classifieds – Auctions Monthly Market Share of US Visits Rankings
For the month of April, 2007
Rank
Name
Domain
Market Share
1
eBay
www.ebay.com
79.01%
2
eBay Motors
www.ebaymotors.com
14.77%
3
GunBroker.com
www.gunbroker.com
0.57%
4
Copart
www.copart.com
0.41%
5
Amazon.com Auctions
auctions.amazon.com
0.30%
6
Bidz.com
www.bidz.com
0.29%
7
uBid.com
www.ubid.com
0.27%
8
eBay UK
www.ebay.co.uk
0.23%
9
eBay Canada
www.ebay.ca
0.20%
10
Yahoo! Auctions
auctions.yahoo.com
0.19%
