介紹—Introduction

對于“創新”一詞的定義有很多說法，從其最簡單的形式來說，創新就是創造新的產品、有創意的想法和解決方案。創新是以創造性方式利用企業資源來引入新產品的生產方法,能夠給客戶帶來新產品價值。因此創新的核心內容是管理的所有進程，包括技術開發、創意構思、生產制造新產品或改進產品，以及所有過程。

EBay是最成功的在線購物網站，或者說是由在線購物、在線拍賣各種商品、提供多元化服務的大型市場組成的一個網絡企業。Ebay成立于1995年，是全球最大的網絡市場,全球注冊成員的人數超過1億人。買賣的物品分為不同的種類,如古董、家用品、電子產品、二手車、衣服、書籍，市場上有的商品在Ebay上都有。EBay再次對在線拍賣規則進行了修改,物品可以固定價格被賣出，這稱作是立即購買。EBay的業務已擴張到30多個國家，成為一個擁有數百萬美元的大型業務。EBay網絡已在下列國家落實，澳大利亞、奧地利、比利時、加拿大、法國、德國、英國、新加坡，甚至會有更多的國家。

介紹—Introduction

Innovation has been described in many different ways. On its simplest form innovation is creating new product, ideas and a novel solution. Innovation is the way of utilising the enterprises resources in a creative way resulting in the introduction of new product, new methods of production which gives an ability to provide a new value to the consumers. Thus the central meaning of innovation is the management of all processes involved in technological development, idea generation and manufacturing of a new or improved product or the process.

EBay is the most successful online or web based enterprises which consist of a huge market place where online shopping, online auctions of a broad variety of goods and services from a diverse community of people and businesses takes place. Founded in 1995, EBay is World largest online marketplace with more than 100 million registered members from around the globe. Buying and selling of thousands of items from different categories such as antiques, housewares, electronic products, used cars, clothing, books takes place in the market place. Within time EBay has made changes to its online auction format where items can be purchased at a fixed price through the feature called Buy it now. EBay has now become a multimillion dollar business with its expansion over thirty countries. EBay has local sites that serve Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, united kingdom, Singapore and many more other countries.

商業模型—Business Model

Business model is the plan implemented by the company to describe the means and methods a firm employs to generate revenue projected in its plan and to make a profit from operations. Business model basically includes the operations of business including the components, functions and the revenues and expense generated by the business. In today's rapidly changing world business model is becoming an important part of the organisation in achieving success because it defines the core function of an organisation which gives the competitive advantage which helps to set the organisation apart from others making it the best and it as well explains how a business creates value for its clients, shareholders and stakeholders. A good business model often creates a difference between surviving or not, between truly transformational or simply incremental. Demonstration of precision, simplicity and focus in business models can be communicated in just a few words such as#p#分頁標題#e#

EBay's automated online auctioning model which has pioneered and internationalized person to person auctioning in order to innovatively and instantaneously match consumers i.e. buyers and sellers. An online marketplace enables buyers and sellers to list an item for sale within minutes of registering. Browsing and bidding on auctions is free but the charge was applied for the right to sell the goods on EBay which was when an item is listed on EBay, non-refundable insertion fee is charged based on the seller's opening bid and the other one is when the auction is completed a final value fee is charged which ranges from 1.25 per cent to 5 per cent of the sale value. Once completed an email notification is sent to the buyer and payment is collected independent of payment and shipment. The important factor in EBay's success is its technology which is user friendly i.e. fundamentally simple to use and its registration process allows anyone to register and have an auction running within the same day. EBay is purely internet only creation without which EBay's business model could not exist. Huge spread of internet over the time also helps in the success of EBay. The fact that EBay requires almost zero capital investment in inventory also gives it an edge over other ecommerce businesses. EBay being the huge market place with online shopping for bargains, huge collection of numerous items created an irresistible attractive force which constantly dragged buyers and sellers to take advantage of the market. EBay gave buyers and sellers plenty of reasons to stay for a longer period within which lot of transaction were completed which became the key element in the success of EBay. EBay created the environment for users to interact creating the community of users rather than just finding ways to make money. Within this process the users could post feedback which encouraged users to post their feedbacks. The users could even talk to each other in message boards which gave users platform to talk about their common interest. The other was postsecondary information where users could create about me pages to tell people about themselves. Sellers could open EBay stores and could get personally involved.

新型服務和創新理念的開發—Development of new services/Innovation Concept

For the growth and development of any organisation innovation is the key aspect. Innovation creates growth, increases productivity and economic wealth. With innovation the old strategies gets replicated and consequently, margins get squeezed, the alternative of better goods and services at a cheaper price can be obtained. Within the past years EBay has embarked new innovations through. EBay has always developed new services for the growth of the organisation. Innovation has been one of the key for the success of EBay.

With the growth of the organisation, between 2000 and 2005, EBay expanded internationally. EBay now have country specific sites in 32 countries such as UK, japan, Germany, Australia and many other countries with more than 130 million registered users. With the global development of EBay, users can even sell the item to the targeted overseas market and the tools for language translation has also been added by EBay such as Alta Vista's Babel Fish, a free utility that allow the translation of text blocks and entire Web pages of language. EBay provides currency conversion from dollars to the currency of the market in which the ad appears for cross-border sales, though buyers must pay in the currency you specify.#p#分頁標題#e#

In 2002 EBay made its largest investment purchasing the world's largest online payment system known as PayPal phasing out its own competing service, EBay payments by Billpoint. Most of the PayPal's revenues were generated on EBay i.e. about 60 per cent. Having the bulk of PayPal's business generating from EBay, there was a natural association between the two firms. PayPal helped in expansion of EBay's core auction services. Together EBay and PayPal can enhance the internet's potential by reducing number of steps for buyers accelerating the transaction, thus improving revenues.

In 2004 the concept of EBay shops was launched where the commercial sellers could create a shop on the site. This could enable the sellers to direct other users or consumers to view more of their collection of merchandise. This move has proved popular for the large sellers.

In October 2005 EBay purchased Skype, which is internet telephone service that enables users to talk to each other for free over the internet. This creates an opportunity for EBay to add voice calling feature to its ingoing online network and would allow it to charge fee to merchants for generating sales leads with merchants paying whenever customer clicks on a link in an online listing to initiate a voice call. With the use of Skype the users could direct details and similarly automate information content such as initiating a video call to watch the product. Similarly the calls coming into an auction will have caller ID of potential buyers which could provide the background, feedback and more information or details of the other auctions.

With development of all the above new services EBay has been able to become successful. With the constant innovation EBay has maintained its success throughout the year.

從EBay中學習如何開發新互聯網業務—Lesson to a new internet business from EBay

The tale of EBay's growth directs to some important lessons for any business trying to operate via web, which in today's world in one way or other resembles to most of the firms. The commercial opportunities created by expanding global web see almost limitless. But as the change is rapid and so is ferocity of competition, a firm needs agility, an open mind, constant level of innovation or the ability to reinvent them repeatedly. And most importantly listening carefully to their customers, paying close attention to what they do and what they want. Such qualities would always be valuable in any kind of business but for online firms these qualities are necessary for the survival in this competitive world. The internet is not only growing but changing rapidly which, in turn, changes the rules and limitations the barriers to enter the online market, which means that just keeping track of the rivals is not enough. Along with all the above, the behaviour of most of the customers constantly changes, as individuals discover new ways to shop with each other via web so keeping updated with customers' needs is always a vital part. EBay has given the lesson that to flourish the company it has to remake the business strategy over and over again for example EBay is no longer solely an auctioneer. New features and new strategies are always being embraced so as to survive and grow in the e-business. The profit which can be obtained by the internet are dazzling by any measure, but only those who can satisfy the rapid changing taste of consumers, the internet's true sovereigns, will survive to enjoy them.#p#分頁標題#e#

總結—Conclusion

At present, we can say that eBay is the leader in the online auction business world; however, it is essential for the company not to lose view of its objectives and opportunities. The company must give continuity to update and reinforce its strategy, improve upon its flaws, and take advantage of its opportunities. EBay must also compare its position in the industry by utilizing a strategic group map and competitive strength evaluation to see that it is still at the top. Finally, by considering the previously stated recommendations, eBay will have the capability to maintain its position as the industry leader as well as the financial backing to consider new horizons.