Ebay's Evil Twin Swoopo

[Kristijntje]

I have never expected much out of a Silicon Valley startup with a name that sounds like a baby word, but Swoopo is a rare exception. It's an online auction site with a dastardly twist.

When you bid on products at Swoopo, you don't specify a price. You pay 75 cents for the bid, and that bid increases the price of the item by 15 cents, while extending the auction for around 20 seconds. When the clock runs out, the auction is over. By this mechanism, the winning bidder can buy, for example, a brand new Nintendo DS game system for around $30, when the item is valued at well over $100...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/02/..._startrup/