Neha Patil (Editor)

Yahoo! Auctions

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Type of site
  
Auction

Owner
  
Yahoo!

Website
  
www.auctions.yahoo.com/ at the Wayback Machine (archived June 16, 2007)

Launched
  
September 14, 1998; 18 years ago (1998-09-14)

Yahoo! Auctions is a service set up by the online search giant Yahoo! in 1998 to compete against eBay.

Contents

There are currently only three localizations of the service active in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan; Yahoo! has already discontinued the service in United States, Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom and Ireland. The US and Canada sections of the site were closed on June 16, 2007. The Singapore section of the site was closed on September 22, 2008. The UK and Ireland service was closed on June 28, 2002. During the shutdown of the UK and Ireland service, Yahoo! took the unusual step of endorsing its main auctions rival, eBay, as their 'preferred' service.

Yahoo! Auctions was preferred by some sellers for its no-fee policy — all revenue was from advertising. Singaporean users chose to shy away from eBay after the closure of Yahoo! Auctions in Singapore, citing high fees and a cluttered website.

SOLD.com.au

In April 2001, Yahoo! acquired SOLD.com.au, a major competitor to eBay in Australia. SOLD.com.au was previously owned by John Fairfax Holdings' online interactive arm, F2. The site was given a new address within the yahoo.com domain. In August 2003, Yahoo! announced that the site would be shutting down and directed users to eBay.

Yahoo! Wallet

Yahoo! Wallet is a lesser-known competitor to PayPal. Wallet was designed for use at Yahoo! websites such as Yahoo! Music and Yahoo! Auctions. Likewise, new Auctions sellers were required to confirm their identity by entering in their credit card number into Wallet. The service is also stopped.

Yahoo! Kantan kessai (Yahoo!かんたん決済, Yafū kantan kessai) is a similar service for paying for Japanese auctions using either bank accounts at certain Japanese banks, or a credit card issued by a Japanese bank. In order to use a credit card, your bank must have registered how your name is written out in katakana, which effectively blocks the use of all non-Japanese cards.

References

Yahoo! Auctions Wikipedia