PastTense

Is the Digital Magazine Coming of Age?

The OP didn't really address the important issue: will people pay to read these?

eBay Is a Winning Bid - Barron's

And as to Skype, "Legal battle puts Skype's future in jeopardy, owner says"
"If Skype loses the right to use a key part of its software and can't create an adequate replacement, "Skype's business as currently conducted would likely not be possible," eBay said in its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission."

edition.cnn.com/2009/T...

Amazon Is Wal-Mart, The Next Generation

While Amazon is a major retailing success, it is not accurate to call it a Walmart. Walmart strength is one-stop shopping of commodity items. Amazon's strengths is in the long tail (Walmart offers tens of thousands of SKUs; Amazon offers millions of SKUs).

Is eBay's Real Threat Amazon or Classifieds, or Both?

"I'd say that a big chunk of that - 80% or so is straight out of eBay's GMV pie or approx $2b/yr."

I disagree. I think think the vast majority of eBay use is for shippable products (small products with a relatively low shipping charge), while the vast majority of Craigslist use is for non-shippable products (where the shipping charge is too high for its value and thus local pickup is the preferred option).

So lets consider furniture. There were never all that many eBay furniture ads (except for expensive stuff). But Craigslist is excellent for both the buyer and seller here--with the expectation the buyer is going to come pick it up. So the newspaper ad has been transferred to the Craigslist ad.

Consider small antiques. You find a much larger set of people interested in eBay than your local metro area, and thus a higher price if you are seller. But if you are a buyer do you really want to spend an hour going and picking up a $10 item--when it could be shipped to you from anywhere in the country for $5?

eBay: Where Did All the Fun Go?

A site can't be all things to all people. But eBay has decided it can, and has failed--Amazon is a better Amazon than eBay is for those who want an Amazon type experience... eBay would be much better off by developing separate platforms with different characters.

As to what killed the fun in eBay auctions, one thing was the development of computerized sniping programs--you are battling a competitor you've fought a number of times before--and someone comes in 5 seconds before the end of the auction with a computerized snipe taking it away from both of you--with no time for you to react (and of course now you don't even know who you is competing against you--it's all anonymous)

The Internet as an Operating System and Maximizing User 'Default' Behavior

If you wait too long to monetize your position you can go broke.

E-tailers Show Mixed Earnings Reports

While Amazon is doing well, eBay is declining--see this SA article:
seekingalpha.com/artic...

eBay Offers Something Amazon Cannot

Some retailing formats work; some don't. For internet retailing three formats seem to work: 1. company having its own website and advertising on Google..., 2. Amazon style, 3. old-fashioned eBay style.

The current eBay format is a bizarre format which has the disadvantages of the above formats, but not of the advantages. Thus traffic is rapidly declining on that venue. Nothing will change there unless there is a total replacement of Donahue and other top management.

Kindle 2: Ten Reasons to Buy One, Ten Reasons Not to

The OP failed to mention the biggest drawback of the Kindle--that it is a proprietary system tied to Amazon.

If I were to get an ebook reader it would have to an open standard so I can get content from anywhere.

Amazon vs. eBay: Follow Up Q&A

Patricia013: Mr. Wingo is doing a 4 part series, see:
ebaystrategies.blogs.c.../
"This is the first of a four part series focusing in on eBay and Amazon. This series comes from many questions we are receiving at ChannelAdvisor from our customers and prospects (and the press/Wall st.) about what is going on at the two companies and what retaliers strategically should do about it.
Here's an outline of the series:

* Episode I - Q408 in-depth analysis
* Episode II - Introducing the ChannelAdvisor Ecommerce Framework (CEF)
* Episode III - eBay, Amazon and the CEF
* Episode IV - How to fix eBay"

So apparently his suggestions will be in Episode IV.

Note Mr. Wingo has a lot more skin in the game than simply being long Amazon and Google. He is CEO of Channeladvisor:
"ChannelAdvisor Corporation provides technology and services that enable online retailers to maximize their profits across multiple e-commerce marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon.com and Overstock.com, comparison shopping engines"

ChannelAdvisor doesn't seem to be doing too well lately, as it is laying off more people after laying off 20% of its workforce in September:
onlinesaleschannels.wo.../

What Will Become of eBay?

And what are buy.com and the other large venues doing? As soon as someone buys something from them on eBay they try to convert them into buyers at their own websites--so the repeat traffic goes to buy.com et al instead of eBay.

This is something the small sellers are much less effective at--simply because small sellers don't have the broad inventory--so the repeat business goes back to eBay.

Abebooks: Another Good Acquisition for Amazon

There is considerable skepticism among used bookdealers that "AbeBooks will continue to operate as a stand-alone business with all aspects of AbeBooks’ bookseller and customer experience remaining intact." Several years ago Amazon acquired a similar operation called Bibliofind which Amazon closed down after a couple years.

Online Sales: Poking Holes in the Long Tail Theory

I think Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) has pointed out a number of times that Amazon is making a large chunk of its sales in long tail products (such as the millions of titles of books it offers).