Auction software is application software, that can either be deployed on a desktop, on a web server[1][2] or as a smart contract[3] on a blockchain virtual machine. This software is used by auctioneers and participants of online auctions such as eBay. Smart contracts replace an auctioneer's server, if the auctioneer is not trusted.[4]

Online Auction companies have opened up their applications to third-party application developers to extend the capabilities and increase revenue. API interfaces were developed using XML which enable third-party developers to build applications that use the back-end of the online auction.

Economic experiments

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Economists use special software to study human behavior in auctions by running auctions in a lab. There are diverse software tools for laboratory economic experiments, which allow fast programming of auctions. For instance, z-Tree programming language allows programming an experimental double auction in less than a day.[5] This practise led to appearance of multiple scientific publications exposing results for generalized second price auctions, Dutch auctions, all-pay auctions and other auction types.[6][7][8]

Auction websites

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Auction websites reside in three categories according to the business model. These are B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Customer), and C2C (Customer to Customer).[9] eBay website serves all three business models.[10][11] SAP Ariba website is dedicated to B2B.[12][13][14] Ariba patented its auction software technology and won a case worth over $6M against Emptoris Inc. in 2009.[15]

Smart-contract based auction

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Blockchains with smart contract like Ethereum functionality allow definition, execution and enforcement of auctions between untrusted parties without the involvement of a trusted third party.[16] A smart contract is code that is executed on top of the blockchain. Blockchain auction ensure transparency and prevent cheating by auctioneers and collusion by bidders.[17]

Auction sniping software

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Auction sniping can be done by software on the bidder's computer,[18] or by an online sniping service.[19][20] eBay Germany banned automated sniping services in 2002,[21] but the ban was declared illegal by Berlin's County Court, and revoked.[22][23]

General game playing

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General game playing was also proposed for trading agents in supply chain management thereunder price negotiation in online auctions from 2003 on.[24][25][26][27] Hereby, an auction can be described in a game description language.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Bichler, Martin; Kalagnanam, Jayant R. (1 December 2006). "Software frameworks for advanced procurement auction markets". Communications of the ACM. 49 (12): 104–108. doi:10.1145/1183236.1183239. ISSN 0001-0782. S2CID 10470218.
  2. ^ Teodorović, Dušan; Triantis, Konstantinos; Edara, Praveen; Zhao, Yueqin; Mladenović, Snežana (1 August 2008). "Auction-Based Congestion Pricing". Transportation Planning and Technology. 31 (4): 399–416. doi:10.1080/03081060802335042. ISSN 0308-1060. S2CID 153866759.
  3. ^ Braghin, Chiara; Cimato, Stelvio; Damiani, Ernesto; Baronchelli, Michael (2020). "Designing Smart-Contract Based Auctions". Security with Intelligent Computing and Big-data Services. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Vol. 895. Springer International Publishing. pp. 54–64. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-16946-6_5. ISBN 978-3-030-16945-9. S2CID 181930669. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  4. ^ Wang, Jiaqi; Lu, Ning; Cheng, Qingfeng; Zhou, Lu; Shi, Wenbo (10 July 2020). "A secure spectrum auction scheme without the trusted party based on the smart contract". Digital Communications and Networks. 7 (2): 223–234. doi:10.1016/j.dcan.2020.06.004. ISSN 2352-8648.
  5. ^ Fischbacher, Urs (1999). "z-Tree - Zurich Toolbox for Readymade Economic Experiments - Experimenter's Manual". Working Paper Series / Institute for Empirical Research in Economics (21). University of Zurich. doi:10.5167/uzh-51836. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  6. ^ Bae, Jinsoo; Kagel, John H. (1 October 2019). "A dataset collected in a lab experiment for the Generalized Second Price auction". Data in Brief. 26 104469. Bibcode:2019DIB....2604469B. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104469. ISSN 2352-3409. PMC 6811966. PMID 31667236.
  7. ^ Katok, Elena; Kwasnica, Anthony M. (1 December 2008). "Time is money: The effect of clock speed on seller's revenue in Dutch auctions". Experimental Economics. 11 (4): 344–357. doi:10.1007/s10683-007-9169-x. hdl:10.1007/s10683-007-9169-x. ISSN 1573-6938. S2CID 17613279.
  8. ^ Lugovskyy, Volodymyr; Puzzello, Daniela; Tucker, Steven (1 November 2010). "An experimental investigation of overdissipation in the all pay auction". European Economic Review. 54 (8): 974–997. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2010.02.006. ISSN 0014-2921.
  9. ^ Wu, Yu-Lung; Tao, Yu-Hui; Wang, Tien-Chin (2007). "Critical Success Factors for Online C2C Auction Websites–A Consumer's Perspective". Proceedings of the 6th Conference on WSEAS International Conference on Applied Computer Science - Volume 6 Zhou, China Pages: 54-58 Year of Publication: 2007.
  10. ^ Intelligence, Business Insider. "eBay boosts its B2B business". Business Insider. Retrieved 15 December 2020. {{cite news}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  11. ^ Paletta, Giuseppe. "Ebay startet B2B-Marktplatz Ebay Business Supply". www.onlinehaendler-news.de (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  12. ^ "SAP Ariba Celebrates Two Decades of Procurement Innovation". www.businesswire.com. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Corona-Krise: SAP öffnet das Ariba-Netzwerk für Einkäufer und Lieferanten". Computerworld.ch (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  14. ^ Brooks, Steve (30 November 2020). "News from week beginning 23rd November -". Enterprise Times. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Ariba Awarded $6M In Online Auction Patent Case - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  16. ^ Braghin, Chiara; Cimato, Stelvio; Damiani, Ernesto; Baronchelli, Michael (2020). "Designing Smart-Contract Based Auctions". Security with Intelligent Computing and Big-data Services. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Vol. 895. Springer International Publishing. pp. 54–64. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-16946-6_5. ISBN 978-3-030-16945-9. S2CID 181930669.
  17. ^ Wu, S.; Chen, Y.; Wang, Q.; Li, M.; Wang, C.; Luo, X. (July 2019). "CReam: A Smart Contract Enabled Collusion-Resistant e-Auction". IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. 14 (7): 1687–1701. Bibcode:2019ITIF...14.1687W. doi:10.1109/TIFS.2018.2883275. ISSN 1556-6021. S2CID 69771532.
  18. ^ Baer, Adam (5 September 2002). "How to Outbid the Fanatics: Software That Never Sleeps". The New York Times.
  19. ^ Roth, Alvin; Ockenfels, Axel (25 June 2006). "On eBay, it pays to snipe". USA Today. Interviewed by Interviewed by Dan Vergano. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  20. ^ Glasner, Joanna (23 September 2002). "eBay Bidders Sold on Sniping". Wired. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  21. ^ Steiner, David (25 October 2002). "eBay Germany Bans 'Sniping' Services". EcommerceBytes-NewsFlash at EcommerceBytes.com. ISSN 1539-5065. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  22. ^ Kurzidim, Michael (25 September 2003). "Sniper Software doch legal" [Sniper software legal after all]. heise.de (in German). Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  23. ^ "Auction software". pringo.com. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
  24. ^ McMillen, Colin (2003). "Toward the Development of an Intelligent Agent for the Supply Chain Management Game of the 2003 Trading Agent Competition" [2003 Trading Agent Competition]. Master's Thesis. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. S2CID 167336006. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  25. ^ Zhang, Dongmo (2009). From general game descriptions to a market specification language for general trading agents [Agent-mediated electronic commerce. Designing trading strategies and mechanisms for electronic markets.]. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 259–274. Bibcode:2010aecd.book..259T. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.467.4629.
  26. ^ "AGAPE - An Auction LanGuage for GenerAl Auction PlayErs". AGAPE (in French). 8 March 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  27. ^ Michael, Friedrich; Ignatov, Dmitry (2019). "General Game Playing B-to-B Price Negotiations" (PDF). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. -2479: 89–99. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  28. ^ Tagiew, Rustam (4 January 2020). "Business Negotiation Definition Language". arXiv:2001.10799 [cs.AI].
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