Miracle on eBay Street: Starring ... Entrepreneurs!

In The Financial Times

More on how eBay helps set loose the international entrepreneurial spirit. Here are the last two paragraphs from this wonderful commentary:

• The third explanation is perhaps the strongest: eBay has helped to unleash the entrepreneurial force of millions of small business people, giving instant access to bigger regional, national, or even international markets. The tie-seller from Michigan, for instance, has sold an average of three items a week online this year. That may not by itself provide a living, but it is typical of the millions of people who can supplement incomes, or create full-time businesses, thanks to the online marketplace.

• The simple but powerful ideas that have combined to make eBay an internet powerhouse could one day end up having a far broader effect on global commerce. eBay itself points to a potential market for online auctions of $3,000bn, eventually spanning things such as industrial equipment, wholesale goods and specialised business services. Such grandiose claims smack of internet hubris, circa 1999. But after the advances of the last few years, they are not so easily dismissed.

To read the entire editorial, visit: A miracle not just for Christmas