eBay have just announced the end of the Home Page Featured listing upgrade on .co.uk and .ie. Apparently “part of our ongoing efforts to keep the home page as relevant and useful as possible for all our members”, it’s difficult not to see this as part of eBay’s ongoing efforts to take more control of the site away from sellers.
A purge on diet pills, get rich quick schemes and ebooks last year cleaned up HPF listings almost beyond recognition: this is not a trust and safety issue any more. At an average of around 200 items on ten day listings, this was probably only netting eBay £1k a day. Think how much more than that a big company would pay for a slot on eBay’s home page.
