Gmarket is an e-commerce website based in South Korea. The company was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Interpark and was acquired by eBay in 2009.
History
The predecessor of Gmarket was founded in 1999 by Young Bae Ku. At the time, it was part of the online auction company Interpark. In 2000, it spun off as its own website, known as Goodsdaq. In 2003, the website was renamed Gmarket and adopted a customer to customer e-commerce business model. In 2006, Gmarket became the first South Korean online company to be listed on the NASDAQ. That same year, it launched its global website with product listings in English. In 2009, eBay acquired Gmarket for approximately 1.2 billion USD after buying Gmarket shares from Interpark and Yahoo. Following the acquisition, Gmarket was delisted from the NASDAQ.
Items and services
s, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are products that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders, proving that if one has a big enough market, one will find someone willing to buy anything. It is fair to say that Gmarket has revolutionized the collectibles market by bringing together buyers and sellers internationally in a huge, never-ending "yard sale" and auction. Large international companies, such as LG and Samsung sell their newest products and offer services using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Regional searches of the database make shipping slightly more rapid or cheaper. Software developers can create applications that integrate with the marketplace through the Gmarket Service by joining the developers program. There are thousands of members in the Gmarket Developers Program, comprising a broad range companies creating software applications to support Gmarket buyers and sellers as well as Gmarket Affiliate Systems. There has also been controversy regarding items put up for bid that violate ethical standards. In late 2001, a man offered one of his kidneys for auction on Gmarket, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative market for transplantable human organs. On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke. Within a short time period, the company removes auctions that violate its terms of service agreement. The company's policy is to not pre-approve transactions. Gmarket is also an easy place for unscrupulous sellers to market counterfeit and credit merchandise, which can be difficult for novice buyers to distinguish without careful study of the auction description.
Profit and Transactions
Gmarket generates revenue from sellers, who pay a fee based on the selling price of each item and a fee based on the starting price, and from advertising. In 2005 it was announced that Gmarket would increase fees it charges to Gmarket Store sellers, which caused considerable enough controversy. The president of Gmarket then emailed all Gmarket users with news that other fees would be decreased. Gmarket does not handle the goods, nor does it transact the buyer-seller payments, except through its subsidiary shopping mall credit. Instead, much like newspaper want-ads, sellers rely on the buyers' good faith to make payment, and buyers rely on the sellers' good faith to actually deliver the goods intact. To encourage fidelity, Gmarket maintains, rates, and publicly displays the post-transaction feedback from all users, whether they buy or sell. The buyer is encouraged to examine the sellers' feedback profile before bidding to rate their trustworthiness. Sellers with high ratings generally have more bids and garner higher bids. However, it is possible for sellers to make their feedback private and just leave the numbered rating, which means that bidders and sellers cannot see the comments other users have left. Gmarket also has a significant affiliate program, and affiliates can place live Gmarket Shopping product images and links on their web sites.
