Registry Detail

727

Interpretation

10/03/2000 18:25:00

Where should companies hosting online auctions on the Internet be classified in ISIC?

Original e-mail request (together with #719): A company is set in which the web site shall be placed and the farmers will be charged a transaction fee for trading on the web site. This is an auction web site that has been established to allow producers to market export produce directly via internet.There are also ancilllary services that are offered such as logistics tracing to link freight forwarders, payment administrators and shipping lines.

This is probably one of the "really new" activities that have emerged over the last few years. While, for instance, most retailing activities using the internet are still considered Retail trade (albeit using different technology for parts of the whole process), the online web-auctions do not seem to be a mere extension of the traditional auctioning services as covered in ISIC 7499 (Other business activities n.e.c.) and in other classes for specialized auctions such as automobiles (5010), tobacco (5011) etc.). The traditional activity of the auctioneer to bring together sellers and potential buyers has been replaced by a computer system that allows these groups to interact. The main activity of the "auctioneer" is not to regulate or organize this process, but rather the setup and maintenance of the computer system, without active involvement in the auction process. While the accessible content of the computer system at the auction site is database driven, we do not feel that a classification in ISIC 7240 (Data base activities) would be an appropriate reflection of the activity. It is not the distribution of the database content, but the interactive aspect of using this database that is crucial for the online-auction. Our recommendation is therefore to place this activity (online-auctions) in ISIC class 7290 (Other computer related activities). This decision has been changed! See Registry item 927 for details. Notwithstanding the above, the area of information and computer services will be one of the focus points for the future work of ISIC.