Swoopo: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal

That is pretty seriously evil. Although, with a little modification it could be made less evil. Such as if they started all auctions at .0001 the normal price of the item. And if they had enough users, so that any one user only bid a couple of times before the price of the item reached a point where people weren't willing to chase it any more. But it doesn't sound like thats the case here, in which case, definitely evil.

This is dated-- they aren't profitable[1]. As far as the ethical parts of this article, it's not different than gambling sites. And I bet just like Vegas, it will become profitable when people feel comfortable wasting money again

[1]http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_34/b41920406...

For more info than you ever needed on how a penny auction site works see this course project: http://home.kevinchampion.com/portfolio/course_work/si_618/

I hope that student got a great grade. While I think some of his conclusions are not correct. It's obvious the work that was put in is way above what I have ever seen as the average for coursework.

Just to be clear, it's not my work.

Swoopo works for the same reason slot machines are enormously popular, even though the house always wins.