News Network, the online arm of News Corp’s UK operations, and insurance company CGU Plc are the latest companies to launch business-to-consumer auction web sites in the UK. Their respective FiredUp.com and BlueCycle.com both launched on Sunday.
FiredUp will be News Corp’s entertainment-based consumer auction, and has the potential to become a thorn in the side of QXL.com Plc and eBay, the current market leading auction sites in the UK. It uses software licensed from FairMarket Inc, the Woburn, Massachuetts-based start-up that in September launched a US auction network with co-operation with Microsoft Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Lycos Inc and Excite@Home Corp. FiredUp is FairMarket’s first step toward creating an equivalent UK network.
At first, the site will be business to consumer only, with consumer to consumer auctions launching in the new year. The site takes an event-driven approach, and the company will leverage the powerful brands of its offline sisters such as the Sun newspaper and Sky television to draw people to the site. COO Chris Lloyd reckons this is why the company can compete with QXL which, while one of the largest, has nowhere near the dominance eBay Inc has in the US.
CGU’s launch will be rather lower key. BlueCycle seems to be aimed at the shrewder bargain hunter. It will auction discontinued retail goods, specialist items, and stolen goods recovered by the police and insurance companies. Not wanting to be seen to make a profit from crime, the company will give 1% of the sale value of each item sold to an independent trust fund dedicated to reconnecting marginalized citizens, and particularly young people.
