Compito_inglese_7_dic_2008

eBay's rise to world fame

If we want to imagine what companies of the future will be like, we have to look at how eBay works: no factory plant, limited human resources, total globalisation.

The minimum number of staff with the maximum amount of profit.

eBay is the fastest growing e-company in the American market. Over the last seven years, its revenue has risen from $5.7 million to $ 4.55 billion. Not even Microsoft, Dell, Yahoo or Cisco have grown as rapidly.

eBay was launched by Pierre Omydyar on 4^th September 1995 and it appeared under the more prosaic title of “Auction Web”. This software engineer living in California wanted to create a new kind of online trading system. The idea was to attract visitors to its auction site where they could offer their own items for sale and bid for items on offer.

The opening day was not a success. In fact the site attracted no visitors at all in its first 24 hours. Within a few weeks, however, about 50 items were already on sale, including a warehouse in Idaho and a 1937 Rolls-Royce. By the end of 1995, several thousand auctions, attracting more than 10,000 bids, had taken place.

Today eBay has more than 157 million users in 34 different countries. The company has 11,600 employees and a further 430,000 people earn their income by trading on the site. In addition to the auction site, eBay also opened an e-commerce site in 2006, ebay express , where companies could sell their new products for a fixed price. The site was open to all companies and allows small and medium companies to compete with leading retailers and sell their products to a huge market of people throughout the world. In early 2008 eBay express closed since so many featueres from eBay express have been integrated and improved onto the original eBay.com.

(source: BBC News)

Answer the following questions

1. Why is eBay considered to represent the future for business enterprises?

2. Was eBay launched under this title?

3. Was it an immediate success? Why?

4. What was the difference between eBay.com and eBay express?

5. What advantages do companies or sellers who sell online on eBay have?

6. Can you translate the title of the article into Italian?

La scalata di Ebay al successo

Se noi volessimo immaginare come saranno le aziende del futuro, dobbiamo quardare coma lavora eba: nessun azienda, limitate risorse umane, globalizzazione mondiale.
Il minimo di personale col massimo profitto.
Ebay è la compagnia di e-commerce con la più veloce crescita in America. Negli ultimi sette anni, il suo guadagno è passato da 5,7 milioni a 4,55 miliardi di dollari. Nessuno di Microsoft, Dell, Yahoo o Cisco sono cresciuti più rapidamente. [continua]

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