eBay clone

The Cannibal

This falls under research since I can't afford to run it without investment.

I have a concept that follows the eBay structure but is fairly different at the same time.

My question is, what ball park figure would someone be looking at to do a site that replicates all of eBays features?

jmcc

The Cannibal wrote: »

This falls under research since I can't afford to run it without investment.

I have a concept that follows the eBay structure but is fairly different at the same time.

My question is, what ball park figure would someone be looking at to do a site that replicates all of eBays features?

Without being disrespectful, if you have to ask, then you can't afford it. And unless you can get serious backing, it could be a waste of money.

For a start Ebay is a global operation.
Ebay also has its own financial system.
Ebay has a serious technological infrastructure.
Ebay has a business structure.
And most importantly, Ebay has a major market share.

You should first be able to describe your market.
Then you should set about coming up with the solution.
Trying to emulate the market leader is not the best way of doing things.

Regards...jmcc

The Cannibal

I already said I can't afford it off my own back but I need to educate myself. I'm submitting it to a firm that finances things such as this and helps get people started but I want to be able to give them ball park figures when I do submit it. I have confidence I can get funding with the idea I have.

I do have a market in mind and the idea is very different from eBays but I'm not willing to discuss it in depth because then it goes into the public domain and it can't be patented. Why I use eBay as an example is because the way content on the site would come across would be similar to an auction and would have need of a lot of features that eBay employs.

If it is financed, it will have a staff and everything to do this but for the pitch I'm just looking for a ball park figure to set up a domestic eBay modeled site with most of it's features. Never mind their market share or other things of that nature, I know it will not be a direct competitor.

PixelTrawler

Probably quite a long time to do properly...

Myself and one of the guys here did an internal site where people could bid for tickets for films to a film festival...

It had no payment system since it was an internal company thing. The actual bidding system we built was quite nice, and the ticket selection and item preview was pretty neat.

Its the basic building block of a bidding site. The db design is quite neat too with many checks and constraints built in

This most basic of bidding sites took myself and the sql guy 2 days each to write....

You could spend months building a fully features system... depends on the complexity you want....

You could probably expand out what we did to tie into a payment system (maybe paypal for simplicity) and bolt on some admin features, user profile pages and have the nuts and bolts of a system done in a few weeks - but it would be the bare bones system only....

You could have a phase I version to bring to market with quite a decent set of features in 3 months or so - to allow for testing etc. Thats with a small team of 2 or so developers and you might want another one to concentrate on look and feel / ui layouts etc -

Its the kind of thing though you could develop for ever!

(All the above is pie in the sky of course - the real answer is how long is a piece of string:))

Evil Phil

How long is a piece of string? You need to write up a Business Requirements Document. This will outline what the site is meant to achieve and give an rough idea of how it will achieve it. From there you'll be in a much better position to estimate costs - it will also help with your proposal to potential investors. You'll probably need a marketing strategy and a profit model as well. It would probably be a good idea to hire somebody who knows about the technical side of things, if only as a consultant initially.

However, if you were to hold a gun to my head I would say high 6 figures at least.

forbairt

Evil Phil wrote: »

However, if you were to hold a gun to my head I would say high 6 figures at least.

On a guesstimate this morning I'd put the figure well about this with marketing campaigns / marketing staff / business development staff a number of developers project management / GUI people / Useability testing / Testing / hardware / security / building rental and so on

Really though it depends on your product / idea ... (whether you are adding something like paypal or just using paypal)

This could potentially be done by one good developer over a number of months as joe said they put together something rather basic pretty quickly but as is nearly always said so many times when it comes to these style questions "How long is a piece of string?"

Do up your exact spec of your requirements and approach a developement company with an NDA (though I'd be extremely careful who you approach)

AARRRGH

Getting the site made is the easy part. Getting people to use it...

Owen

Well, we all remember ebid.ie dying a death, and I was involved in an auction site a long time ago that was being run in a software building based in Cork that also died a similar death. Ebay is a Juggernaut, and has worldwide brand recognition. It's pretty much the same as Google, and the only thing that will ever change that is if Ebay becomes riddled with scammers, or prices itself out of the market.

AARRRGH

ned78 wrote: »

Well, we all remember ebid.ie dying a death

I remember the owner of ebid on the late late show looking awfully smug saying the site is worth over 20 million a few weeks after it was launched.

:rolleyes:

fintan

Talk about making life hard for yourself.

There are any amount of ebay / auction web site clones out there that you can buy and customise for a few hundred dollars.

I googled "ebay software clone" and got among others this:

http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/52227.html

Don't get me wrong, building your own is a preferable route. However, starting small proving the concept making money and then building your own makes far more sense.

Either way, best of luck!

Cheers

Fintan

Owen

dublindude wrote: »

I remember the owner of ebid on the late late show looking awfully smug saying the site is worth over 20 million a few weeks after it was launched.

Indeed. I remember having a geocities page way back when, and having an online site value my single html page for thousands.

jmcc

ned78 wrote: »

Well, we all remember ebid.ie dying a death,

The problem with ebid.ie was that the principals hadn't a clue about what made Ebay a success. It was a dot.bomb me-too idea. It was the classic story of people jumping on a bandwagon and finding out that their's had no wheels.

What made Ebay a success was its community. It had a very active set of forums and reputation rating is an integral part of the system. That combined with its own financial system (Paypal) helped it take the bulk of the market share. One of the best books on how Ebay did it is "The Perfect Store: Inside Ebay". It explains a lot of the background.

and I was involved in an auction site a long time ago that was being run in a software building based in Cork that also died a similar death.

There were a few - Yellowhammer, Auctions.ie are the ones that I can immediately remember.

Ebay is a Juggernaut, and has worldwide brand recognition. It's pretty much the same as Google, and the only thing that will ever change that is if Ebay becomes riddled with scammers, or prices itself out of the market.

That brand recognition is the most effective killer of any opposition. The ease with which someone can set up a store and access the Ebay market also makes getting into the online auction market difficult.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

dublindude wrote: »

I remember the owner of ebid on the late late show looking awfully smug saying the site is worth over 20 million a few weeks after it was launched.

:rolleyes:

From the Ebid.ie site:

eBid auction classified site

Browse our live local marketpace of online classifieds. Visit our online classified auction site containing internet auctions in the areas of car, property from uk and irish companies. You can search our Classified ad listings for great deals.

Site Under re-developent, More to come!

This site is not related to Ebid LTD.

It seems that Ebid.ie is no longer owned by Ebid Limited. I remember that Late Late Show - they interviewed what they thought were the shining stars of the Irish intarweb. Some of them are still around but most, I think, burned up on re-entry. Others never even got off the launch pad.

Regards...jmcc