Today, it was announced that the new zealand online auction site 'trademe' sold for the absolutly insane sum of $700 million dollars down, + $50 million if certain financial targets are met. This is new zealand dollars, which equals roughly half a billion USD.
What makes this perticuarly amazing, is that trademe caters only for new zealand. A population of 4 million people. That said, there is usually 50,000 people online, half a million items for sale, and the site accounts for about half +/- of *all* our internet traffic.
The reason I post this, is because I can only really see one reason to pay such a large amount... That being that the new owners plan to make trademe international. Ie, compete with ebay. Ebay, however, started out here about the same time as trademe, yet has seen considerably less success. They only have around 10k items for sale, most of which are duplicates or ship from overseas.
I would also wonder if the company, being australian, plans to open up an australian version. Considering that trademe.com.au currently redirects to the new zealand site would suggest that...
On a global scale I feel this is pretty dammed spectacular. Consider ebay, the countries it operates in; assuming it shares similar sucess to trademe, would make this the equivalent of possibly quater a trillion dollar sale...?
One thing is sure, the 30 year old company founder is now on the rich list.
link.
trademe.
What makes this perticuarly amazing, is that trademe caters only for new zealand. A population of 4 million people. That said, there is usually 50,000 people online, half a million items for sale, and the site accounts for about half +/- of *all* our internet traffic.
The reason I post this, is because I can only really see one reason to pay such a large amount... That being that the new owners plan to make trademe international. Ie, compete with ebay. Ebay, however, started out here about the same time as trademe, yet has seen considerably less success. They only have around 10k items for sale, most of which are duplicates or ship from overseas.
I would also wonder if the company, being australian, plans to open up an australian version. Considering that trademe.com.au currently redirects to the new zealand site would suggest that...
On a global scale I feel this is pretty dammed spectacular. Consider ebay, the countries it operates in; assuming it shares similar sucess to trademe, would make this the equivalent of possibly quater a trillion dollar sale...?
One thing is sure, the 30 year old company founder is now on the rich list.
link.
trademe.
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