eBay and Sotheby's Develop Online Auction Platform

EBay and Sotheby's announced on the 14th that they will collaborate on a highly innovative online platform to make it easier for users worldwide to discover, browse and bid for top art, antiques and collectibles. eBay is the world's online shopping giant, while Sotheby's is an internationally renowned palace art auction house, the industry said the move marks the joint cooperation of the two industry leaders.

Sotheby's and eBay will focus on developing categories that cover the purchasing power of both client groups, including jewelery, watches, printmaking, wine, photography and 20th century design.

eBay and Sotheby's did not reveal the financial details of the partnership. Bruno Vinciguerra, chief operating officer at Sotheby's, said the partnership will give people across the globe the opportunity to buy artwork and collections for auction.

Provide global real-time bidding

It is understood that the program took the lead in Sotheby's global headquarters in New York, more than a selection of auction will provide a new real-time bidding services. eBay plans to launch a newly designed online platform in the short term. This will not only provide tailor-made services for guests collecting rare artworks and collectibles, but also take full account of new buyers who are bidding for the first time. Sotheby's auction will be at the forefront of eBay's new online marketplace, giving users access to the newly designed real-time bidding feature to compete in real-time via the Internet anywhere in the world.

The auction will cover 18 collection categories. Both parties will also explore the feasibility of special theme auctions and time-limited auctions and will explore ways to extend the service to other Sotheby's auction locations around the world. The evening auction will not be included in the plan yet.

Each auction house online business expansion

In fact, Sotheby's peer rival Christie's broke the record of its transaction through the online auction business as early as 2013. Christie's launched its own online auction site that specializes in the sale of certain collections. According to them, 45% of their online customers are new customers. With the advancement of technology and the popularization of mobile commerce, collectors are increasingly purchasing a lot of high-end collections online. Whether it is eBay or Sotheby's are concerned about this market, they also hope that people will focus more and more, such as jewelry, watches, calligraphy and painting, wine, photography and 20th century design work and so on.

Over the past two years, Sotheby's online business has exploded dramatically, with online sales in 2013 up 36% from the previous year. In 2014, nearly a quarter of Sotheby's traffic also came from mobile clients. At the Sotheby's auction ended on June 21, the total turnover was as high as $ 1.7 million, with 40% of the collections being taken online.

In eBay, the total GMV for collections in 2013 was nearly $ 8 billion, with a total of 36 million active buyers owning over 3,500 auctions on eBay each day.

In the meantime, HIHEY Art Network, the investment e-commerce platform of Minsheng Bank, the largest privately-owned bank in China, became the first case of the e-commerce platform for the financial system. It is learned that the livelihood strategy shares HIHEY Art Network, will be in the e-commerce mobile technology and online and offline channels, art financial innovation, art banks and other aspects of full cooperation, which indicates that under the thinking of an Internet art and financial cross-border Will move toward a new realm.

Internet auction openness to facilitate supervision

For more than a decade, both overseas eBay, domestic eBay, Taobao have carried out art auction, but all belong to the "hit small" type, the real heavyweight auctions have not appeared, after Sotheby's and eBay Also announced cooperation, the final progress is not smooth. The industry believes that the reason, in addition to the Internet market is not mature, more importantly, the art market did not fully accept this model, this situation began in 2011, there have been significant changes.

From the Christie's auction statistics, more suitable for online auction types include painting, sculpture, wine, watches and jewelry. Buyers can get details of these auctions online, and the auctioneer guarantees the authenticity of the information. As a result, when buyers see artwork online, the information they receive will help him decide whether to buy it. The openness of online auction can inhibit the malicious collusion in the auction, accurately record the whole process of auction activities, more transparency, but also to facilitate supervision, and all the premises are the prestige of the auction house itself.