Communities - News and Blog

uBid, the US-based online marketplace for discounted products, is preparing to enter the UK in the coming months following a reorganisation of its business.

The company joins rival Overstock in targeting Europe for the first time this year as US merchants look to get their hands on more foreign currency. It will also provide more competition for the likes of eBay and Amazon in the battle to attract buyers of cheap goods.

uBid CEO Jeffrey D. Hoffman told E-consultancy: “We are looking to acquire both buyers and sellers in European markets and are setting up an office in Europe. It will likely be in the UK.”

US-based consumer electronics retailer Dyscern is a great case study of how to make serious money on online marketplaces like eBay.

The company, which started up only five years ago, is now sixth in Inc. Magazine’s list of America's fastest growing retailers and is reportedly the most rapidly expanding eBay Powerseller on the other side of the pond.

We spoke to Dyscern COO Bill Frischling about the pros and cons of eBay as an e-commerce channel for merchants, and how the firm is looking to ramp up its European sales.

Crowdsourcing has been touted by some as a revolution.

Popularized by Web 2.0 and the concept of "the wisdom of crowds," the idea that businesses and organizations can leverage a "crowd" (often for free or at minimal cost) to perform all sorts of tasks that would have otherwise been done by employees or contractors is one that is naturally appealing.

Micro-blogging service Twitter launched back in March of 2006 and was thought by many to have 'tipped' at last year's SXSW tech conference in Austin, Texas.

But a slew of recent articles, including one in today's Guardian, suggests that it might be about to tip again. And this is why you should care.

Craigslist is more than just a popular online classifieds service. The bare-bones site created by Craig Newmark represents, to some, the epitome of the New Internet.

It is fueled by a dedicated community and Craig has eschewed the temptation to fully exploit its commercial potential for his personal gain, even going so far as to state "my exit strategy is death".

Kate Burns was recently appointed UK MD of video sharing site Dailymotion as the French start-up looks to expand internationally.

We asked the former Google exec about the challenges of monetising user generated content and how she is planning to build up the site's appeal to users and brands.

Doritos, the tortilla corn crisp brand owned by PepsiCo, has launched a new online campaign to engage users with an interactive website, user generated content and strong links to social networking sites.

Historically, FMCG brands have been slow to embrace online marketing as they have struggled to deliver a compelling creative message and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.

When one looks at the landscape of the social networking market, it's apparent that most of the major internet companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc.) have been left behind in one way or another.

Despite the fact that they have a presence in the market, all have played catch-up more than they've led and none has been able to fully cash in on one of the most hyped internet trends ever.

When it comes to how much credibility I think a publication has, it only takes one colossal lapse in journalistic integrity for me to lose all trust.

Facebook’s platform boss Ben Ling was speaking at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst last week and had some interesting stuff to say about the social network’s e-commerce strategy.

One thing that stood out was that it has seemingly not given up on the 'Beacon' ads for online retailers that caused such a furore last year.