Affordable Online Continues to Expand

Katya Kazakina has a brief story on the expanding lower-cost art universe online that features Auctionata (listen to our podcast with founder Alexander Zacke, above) which will launch in the US in November with auctions hosted from studios in New York:

“A new online art company pops up every week,” says Alexander Zacke, Auctionata’s chief executive officer and co-founder. Since 2013, a dozen online art companies, from galleries to an art financing firm, have raised at least $230 million in total funding.

Auctionata has run about 100 online auctions since 2012, Zacke says. The average price of a work is €4,000 to €5,000—translating to about a 27.5 percent profit margin.

Can the market sustain so many players? Zacke says he doubts there’s room for more than one big site. “The question is, who is going to occupy this space?” he says. “That’s what the investors are looking for.”

Online Art Startups Look to Attract Buyers With Affordable Pieces  (Businessweek)