Inevitably most of this week’s eBay news has centered around the earnings call: variations on a theme of “ohshit”. In the light of JD’s insistance that eBay has no stated goal to change its mix of sellers (conspiracy theorists, do your worst with that one), Internet Retailer has an interesting piece talking to Stephanie Tilenius and Neel Grover, the CEO of Buy.com: it sounds like Buy aren’t getting quite the stellar results some had feared they would.
AuctionWally had an interview with eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman.
Seeking Alpha has a couple of interesting pieces. Why Google should buy eBay is written by an anonymous person who claims to be an eBay investor, so this looks less like news than wishful thinking: when’s that share price going to sink below $10? (IMHO Seeking Alpha should drop anonymous authors altogether.)
Meanwhile, tech investor Kenn Registe has some advice for business-challenged eBay. Kenn was right on the money with “forget about issuing guidance and blame it on macro conditions that make it difficult to predict anything with surety”; that’s exactly what eBay did. He also makes a suggestion:
Eliminate your high priced consultants and listen to your “sellers”. They are the best source of input and their advice is free. Maybe create a high level management position like a seller czar, so to speak, whose sole function is to work with the sellers.
eBay of course already have Dinesh Lathi, VP of Seller Experience.
And finally, the lovely Mr Lindhorst from Genuine Seller has rewritten eBay’s core values statement in the light of current management practice. It’s funny because it’s true.
8 Responses
Oh yeah, ebay should be seeing $5 a share soon. Now that the new “MY EBAY” format has rolled out, there are another million sellers leaving again..If you thought best match was bad, take a look at the functionality of the new “MY EBAY” interface. Then check out how many users “love it” on the “My Ebay” Discussion boards. It’s no wonder the stock continues to dive..
The CEO’s have no interest in the sellers in the core. In fact, all they really care about now is Paypal, and finding more acquisitions to buy.
its boring as sin, all this doom gloom end of ebay hogwash! codswallop.! dribble and piffle,
I wish I were a penny behind them, and a business with just 1/10th of its value and profits
#2 The more sellers that moan norf the better,
coz when they bugger off to sell 1 item a month on eBid (for more profit *cough*),
you and me will still be here pulling in the big bucks 😆
We are doing very well on eBay BUT of course eBay won’t last forever. Something will happen at some point, that’s what progress is all about. The only question is if it’s within the next 2-3 years or further down the line that it all goes wrong.
Surely no-one here is suggesting that eBay will still be around in 15-20 years time?
too right whirly the more that bugger off the better 😆
your right pete things change and ebay may not be here in 20 years time but who cares something else will take its place
Why Google should buy eBay? Haha what a load of crap. Google surely shouldn’t buy feebay but start its own auction site IMHO. Let egay die as it deserves and start something new.
“Let egay die as it deserves and start something new.”
I already thought eBay was confused about it’s business values and model going forward. Now it’s confused about it’s sexuality, too?! 😕
As someone who has been buying on eBay since 2000 and has spent more money then I would like to admitt, I have to say eBAY is going down hill. As a buyer I go to eBay to find those things I can’t find anywhere else. With eBay pushing out the small sellers and focusing on the big Fix priced stores it is getting less fun to shop there. If I wanted to shop at a fix priced big store I would go to Wallmart. I have never sold on eBay but I can tell you that many of the sellers that I bought from are now gone. The new My eBay page has made shopping at eBay more of a chore and since they started it I have not purchase one item. I use to spend hours searching for interesting and hard to find items but with the new search engine that is so slow why would I want to waste my time.