Americans Spent a Record $556 Million in On-Line Auctions, Jumping 149 Percent in Past Year, According to Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Information Superhighways Newsletter, July, 2001

Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive reported that auction sites grossed record revenues of $556 million in May 2001, as eBay.com took the lead with 64.3 percent of all auction revenues.

Findings from the Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive eCommercePulse, collected from a May 2001 on-line survey of 35,000 Web users, found that auction spending in May 2001 spiked 149 percent to $556 million from $223 million in May 2000. Auction revenue accounted for more than 10 percent of total e-commerce spending in May 2001, rising from eight percent the previous year.

More than 6.2 million suffers made on-line purchases at auction sites in May 200l, jumping 22 percent from 5.1 million in May 2000, positioning auctions as the third largest e-commerce category in number of purchases behind books and apparel.

Total e-commerce spending for May 2001 increased 104 percent to nearly $5.4 billion, as compared to $2.6 billion the previous year.