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eBay's most ambitious undertaking right now is its drive to go international. It's a big enough priority that Omidyar has returned to his native France to help oversee the effort. eBay has always had a small percentage of overseas users logging into its U.S. site, but now it is aggressively moving into foreign markets. In June it purchased Alando.de--Germany's equivalent of eBay--and folded it into the eBay site. The company also has sites running for the U.K., Canada and Australia. eBay is far ahead in those countries but vulnerable in places where it is less well known--and where one of its rivals could take hold first. "The battle grounds are France, Italy and Japan--the biggest prize, the second largest Internet market in the world," says Whitman.
It's not just a push for market share. Omidyar and his colleagues are still driven by the company's original goal of creating a global market where everyone competes on an equal footing. One pet project is an effort to bring a Guatemalan village into the global economy by hooking it up to eBay. Consumers in the developed world could buy local handcrafts at lower prices, and eliminating layers of middlemen would allow villagers to keep more of the purchase price for themselves.
The global online marketplace will be here before we know it, and eBay's refrain "eBay everywhere" seems destined to become a reality. It's something the National Flea Market Association members are starting to accept. Several members of the association have begun moving online, working to put together virtual-flea-market sites like Fleamarket.com And even diehard thrift-shop mavens are becoming reconciled to the fact that the future belongs to eBay. "You can't stop the wheels from turning," sighs Hoff. "In fact, I have to confess: I just bought something on eBay this morning."
--With reporting by Michael Krantz/San Francisco