eBay alerts go mobile

News this week that eBay, the world’s biggest online auction site, has just launched a text service to keep you up to date on your auction bids while you’re on the move.

People in the UK can now make a bid online, and then sign up to a text messaging service which sends an alert as soon as you are outbid or when the auction is about to close.

The service claims to go one better than accessing the site on the mobile internet because it’s automatic, fast and direct. In fact I see it as highly complementary to accessing eBay on the mobile internet in the first place.

There’s a price to pay for this service, of course. It will cost 25p for each message and only works with WAP and GPRS enabled handsets, except for those of the 3 network.

The service is actually a continuation of eBay’s foray into the mobile communications market, after having done well with their VoIP service, Skype.

I’m interested to see how well the service does. For me it sort of reflects eBay’s recognition that mobile is increasingly the way to go.