QXL.com Plc, the London-listed pan-European auction site operator, is to open its next site in Spain, ComputerWire has learned, following Tuesday’s announcement of a new site in the Netherlands. CEO Jim Rose said yesterday that the company had an office opening in Madrid, and a QXL spokesperson confirmed that the new office is in development. QXL is already live in the UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, will face competition from not only Yahoo! Inc’s Spanish site, but Eurobid.com Inc and local players OhDomino.com, Ozu.es and a number of South America-based Spanish language sites. The Spanish market is still relatively immature, with only 2% of internet users purchasing online, according to market researcher Datamonitor Plc, compared to 6.3% of Germans and 5.9% of the British.
