eBay's Half.com Adds Hundreds of New Product Categories in Its Initial Move
To Dramatically Expand Fixed-Price Offerings to Consumers
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- After soaring into the
Internet's top retail ranks last year, Half.com today introduced hundreds of
new categories for consumers and businesses to buy and sell new, overstocked,
remaindered and used products in four areas: consumer electronics, computer
equipment, sporting goods and trading cards. This move significantly expands
Half.com's popular marketplace in books, music, movies and video games, and is
a major step forward in eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) plans to add fixed-price
offerings to its vibrant trading community.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990423/EBAYLOGO )
With the addition of these new categories, Half.com's current item
listings increased to more than 15 million, up from 10 million items three
months ago. The product categories now offered on Half.com account for 47% of
all projected Internet sales in 2001, according to Jupiter Research. The
company will continue to add more categories throughout the year, expanding
its product offerings even further.
"This is a very important step for eBay," said Meg Whitman, eBay's
president and CEO. "Half.com is already a leader in its market and this move
should only increase Half's value to consumers. Fixed-price trading is
quickly becoming an important part of eBay's thriving global marketplace."
Through Half.com's expanded marketplace, consumers can find bargains on
hundreds of new products, such as laser printers, digital cameras, laptop
computers, monitors and baseball bats and gloves, and can make extra money
selling the products they no longer want or use. With this expansion,
Half.com also introduced features that both enhance the retail experience for
shoppers and streamline the selling process for sellers, including:
-- Power Shopper and Product Advisor, new search capabilities that help
shoppers find exactly what they want even faster;
-- Product Recommendations, offering shoppers more product selection and
purchasing options;
-- Buyer/Seller Communication, enabling shoppers to directly ask sellers
questions before they buy a product;
-- Direct Deposit, allowing sellers to receive their money faster through
electronic funds transfer; and
-- Expanded Buyer Protection Policies, accommodating the higher value of
many of the items sold in the new categories.
"We've always prided ourselves on how easy it is to shop on Half.com,"
said Joshua Kopelman, the company's president and founder. "The new
categories and products, plus our new features, make Half.com an even better,
more exciting place for people to find the products they want at a great
price. We look forward to providing even more product categories for our
buyers and sellers in the future."
About Half.com
The award-winning Half.com, an eBay company, is the largest fixed price
person-to-person marketplace on the Internet, where people can easily buy and
sell new and used products, combining the bargains of an auction with the ease
of purchasing from a retailer. Founded in July 1999, it is one of the most
visited shopping sites on the Internet, and through its ever-growing community
of sellers, offers more than 15 million items for sale in hundreds of product
categories. Half.com's phenomenal growth and complementary business model
drew the attention of eBay, the world's largest personal online trading
community, which acquired Half.com in July 2000. Half.com can be reached on
its web site at http://www.half.com.
About eBay Inc.
eBay (http://www.ebay.com) is the world's online trading community.
Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful marketplace for the sale of goods and
services by a passionate community of individuals and small businesses. On
any given day, there are millions of items listed on the site across thousands
of categories. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international
basis with local sites in 60 markets in the United States and country-specific
sites in the Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. With the
acquisition of Half.com in July 2000, eBay's community now benefits from a
marketplace combining traditional auction-style trading and Half.com's
set-price trading.
NOTE: Half.com is a trademark of Half.com Inc. Visit http://www.half.com
for all details. All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks
and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Editor's Note: Through Half.com's expanded marketplace, consumers will
find bargains on hundreds of products, and can easily make extra money selling
the products they no longer want or use. Examples of the savings consumers
can find today include:
Product Half.com Price Price range
for similar
product (online)*
TiVo Digital Video Recorder
- 30 Hour Unit
(Philips Model HDR312) $219.95 $330-$349
Panasonic Cordless
Phone (Model #kx-tg2550) $69.00 $99-$165
Coleman Arapaho Sleeping Bag $39.00 $49.95
Olympus Digital Camera
(Model #D-460-Z) $240.00 $258-$349
Compaq Presario Portable
Computer (Model #12XL300) $809.97 $835-$1,403
Rawlings Baseball Glove $30.52 $39.99
Philips DVD Player
(Model #DVD711) $149.95 $189-$199
Quantities, pricing and availability will vary due to supply and demand.
Prices and availability as of 4/19/01
*Source: MySimon.com
SOURCE eBay, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.ebay.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990423/EBAYLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/132722.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 132722
CONTACT:
Kristin Keyes of Half.com, Inc.,
610-680-4051, or Kkeyes@half.com; or Kevin Pursglove of eBay,
Inc., 408-588-7458, or Kevinp@ebay.com
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