The evolution of online auctions

James Surowiecki has written an interesting article in Wired titled: “Going, Going, Gone: Who Killed the Internet Auction?” that deserves a comment.

Me and my business partner Vegard Kjelseth are starting a company in the auction industry so I read the article with great interest.

I agree that online auctions has become a niche service and that Social Shopping companies like Grupon and LivingSocial have taken the evolution of online shopping  further, but I will argue (and bet the success of my future company) that there are a strong auction niche that Surowiecki has forgotten or is unaware of.

In the last few years there has been a rise of a new auction format defined as “Entertainment Shopping” which  has in its nature a way of increasing the entertainment value of auctions.

The are many different types of concepts and I personally differ between ”Falling prices” and “Penny auctions”. In the “Falling prices” category I think ToVieFor has great potential.

The ”Penny auctions” category is bigger and more developed. BigDeal appears to be the one that offers the best deal for the customer.

What do you think, does the “Entertainment Shopping industry have the potential to reinitiate the online auction? And what will be the key elements for its success?

To find out what segment in this new auction industry we are starting in -keep following the blog.