What Ever Happened to eBay's _____?

When you've been an observer of eBay (EBAY) for many years, you often have moments where you take a step back and say; What happend to eBay's _____ ? With eBay the list can get pretty long.

What happened to eBay's ______ ?

• eBay Express - They shut down the UK site and have put the other sites on cruise control. I call it "milking the asset". eBay doesn't commit any resources to Express, so it has to grow organically and eventually they will just shut it down.
• Half.com - Half has been on cruise control since they decided not to shut it down in 2004. Once again, they are "milking the asset". Had Half.com not been successful with Textbook sales twice a year (August/Sept and January,) they would have shut it down years ago.
• StumbleUpon - eBay acquired Stumbleupon a year ago and still nobody knows why.
• ShopVictoriously - This was an ad campaign that was supposed to identify eBay as the fun place to shop and win. I always thought it was a bad campaign and it appears to have gone the way of the Windorphin.
• eBay Neighborhoods - eBay's attempt at social networking has really not done much. The Coffee Drinkers Neighborhood has the most members with 4,179 members.

What about StubHub? Why has it not been expanded to additional regions? I would think the UK and Germany would be perfect fit for a roll-out.

Many of these sites and ideas start out real promising, but when eBay does their ROI evaluation they find that growing them will cost more money than they want to spend and require resources, so they get put on cruise control.

What is the old saying? "If you don't grow you die!" In many ways this is the same thing that has kept eBay's marketplace business from growing because they aren't investing enough in the business to make it grow. They continue to milk the asset and even though they have made some significant changes in the marketplace this year, they aren't radical enough to reinvigorate the business.

So, 10 years down the road will the question just be "What happend to eBay?

Disclosure: None

Comments

[User 153301:]

This article is the worst I have ever read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008 Feb 26 11:58 AM

[User 153301:]

Hey Randy this is one of your worst writings ever.

2008 Feb 26 06:24 PM

[VA:]

Well, why single out eBay? It's been happening with any other company, especially in the Internet domain. What happened to froogle? What happened to yahoo auctions? What happened to ___'s ___? It seems nowadays, the "alpha seekers" use a rule "if you don't find anything to criticize eBay - you die" ;) An extremely shallow 'analysis'...

2008 Feb 27 12:01 AM

[Randy Smythe:]

vacz, I singled out eBay because the post was about eBay. It was not a treatice on Internet failures.

User 153301, I've written worse posts than this.

2008 Feb 27 01:58 AM

[User 153301:]

If you have written [Comment edited for abusive language. Commenter put on notice]

2008 Feb 27 06:30 AM

[User 153301:]

I have to agree. This article makes no sense. If you are going to spend time writing something with some detail make sure the article is correct.

2008 Feb 27 08:23 AM

[Trish:]

I found it to be extremely truthful. Ebay is burying itself - putting more and more pressure on their sellers to perform, however, they cannot live up to their own standards. This company is on a downward spiral whether you choose to identify it or not.

2008 Feb 28 10:29 AM

[Bgang1:]

I agree with Trish completely. When I started on ebay it was fun and exciting. Now, for the past 3 to 5 years it is just getting worse not better. I finally closed up shop in 06 because the cost of doing business on ebay didn't work for me anymore.

Customer service is a farse and IMHO that should be #1 after honesty dealing with people. Ebay is on the down hill side of 40 instead of the uphill climb to 21!! That is just my opinion and I could be wrong...

2008 Feb 28 11:04 AM

[Patricia013:]

Smythe is right in his post. Ebay has squeezed so much profit out of its sellers that its been wasting money like drunken sailors. The "whatever happened to" can also be called the ebay's secret failure list! Just as no rhyme or reason has been put into the operation of ebay - so no rhyme or reason has been put into its purchases the past several years. Skype and the millions thrown into China alone should have cost Whitman her job but ebay kept chugging along and showing a profit. All this while, ebay has made money in spite of the way its operated but that's beginning to change now. More and more buyers and sellers are becoming disenchanted with the quirky thoughtless policies and the outright greed of this company. Sellers are leaving and diversifying and beginning to take their customers with them.....and perhaps that's as it should be. One day it will be "whatever happened to Ebay?"

2008 Feb 28 12:07 PM

[horsemama:]

Why are you people so rude?

And . . . does anyone really think it's going to take 10 years for eBay to finish destroying itself?



BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY .... until they get IT.

2008 Mar 03 09:27 PM

[Aussie Battler:]

Keep up the good work Randy , spot on again.
Its amazing that there any feebay supporters left I think they must be disgruntled stock holders blaming someone else except the clowns who started this mass exodus and fiasco.
Turning sellers and buyers against each other , (giving a "fee decrease", and raising FVF's). taking away the right of sellers to weed out scammers and fraudsters (no negatives or neutrals to be left for them from May) , apparently grossly inflating listings through "tests" and "mistakes" , hope the authorities are vigoursly following up on this one and any evidence of stock manipulation .
Many more issues that "one liner" User 153301 appears to unaware of or selectively ignores.
Must be an ostrich with head in the sand .
Don't you feel sorry for Senator John McCain ?

blogs.wsj.com/washwire...

Dont forget the worldwide May 1st BOYCOTT.

2008 Mar 18 12:30 AM