From a technical point of view, it is a very dynamic web page. You see countdowns and other information flashing over the screen, which creates the tension and excitement of a computer game. A nice piece of Web 2.0 / AJAX technology.
From an economic point of view, all of this visual stress is created to lure you into bidding for a seemingly cheap product. I wanted to give you a calculation, but then a quick Google search gave me Oliver's article, who came to the same conclusions as I did and who wrote it up nicely with good model calculations.
It is indeed an AJAX game for money.
Update:
They changed their name to Swoopo.
