Hard to believe Google which is now the world’s largest single online marketplace came on the scene only a little more than 8 years ago, back in the days when Amazon and Ebay reigned supreme. So how did Google become the world’s single largest marketplace?
Well, the short answer is “the Semantic Web” (whatever that is – more in a moment). While Amazon and Ebay continue to have average quarterly profits of $1 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively, and are successes by any measure, the $17 billion per annum Google Marketplace is clearly the most impressive success story of what used to be called, pre-crash, “The New Economy.”
Amazon and Ebay both worked as virtual marketplaces: they outsourced as much inventory as possible (in Ebay’s case, of course, that was all the inventory, but Amazon also kept as little stock on hand as it could). Then, through a variety of methods, each brought together buyers and sellers, taking a cut of every transaction.