Shopping.com

Shopping.com, an entity within eBay, operates as a prominent price comparison service with a significant history in the e-commerce landscape. Founded in Israel in 1998 by Dr. Nahum Sharfman and Amir Ashkenazi, the company initially launched under the name DealTime.com. The original concept was a downloadable client that tracked product prices and alerted users when they reached a predetermined level. This model quickly evolved into a purely web-based service.

The company's journey involved rapid expansion, including an alliance with Bertelsmann and the acquisition of product advisory site Digital Jones. Financial difficulties in the early 2000s prompted significant restructuring, leading to profitability by 2003. A key milestone was the April 2003 acquisition of the consumer product review site Epinions.com. Following this, the merged entities rebranded and relaunched as Shopping.com in September 2003, using a web address purchased from Alta Vista. This strategic move, coupled with advertising efforts, positioned Shopping.com as a top-three most-visited consumer website in 2004, after eBay and Amazon.

The business operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where merchants bid for higher placement in the price comparison results and pay a fee for each click. This allows online retailers to showcase their products to a wide audience across various categories like electronics, clothing, and home appliances. The platform serves consumers by providing price comparisons, product reviews, and a comprehensive shopping experience. In June 2005, eBay acquired Shopping.com for approximately $634 million, recognizing the value in its comparison technology and its user base. Following the acquisition, Shopping.com continued to operate as a semi-autonomous division, eventually rebranding to the eBay Commerce Network to better reflect its role in connecting merchants with buyers across eBay's platform and the broader web.

Keywords: price comparison, online shopping, e-commerce, DealTime, Nahum Sharfman, Amir Ashkenazi, eBay, Epinions, pay-per-click, CPC bidding, online retail, product comparison engine, digital marketplace, consumer reviews, online advertising, merchant services, shopping feed, cross-border e-commerce, web-based service, online deals