EventHorizon1984

The eBay Ad Campaign Has Begun: Will It Help?

First the November 1st "eBay Set to Launch New Ad Campaign", now another article two days later with more praise.

One might think there's a pressing need by eBay and eBay/ChannelAdvisor to drum up online support for the ad campaign. And drown out the 'noise.'

Scot Wingo wrote in the article:
"I'm still not a fan of the 'come to think of it' tag-line"

Perhaps it's bootleg nature of eBay's ad (preview.tinyurl.com/yl...), as noted by Mr. Kreig in your previous article, that has you nervous.

How long with it take Heineken to notice?
.

"Come to think of it, I'll have a Heineken."
(c) 1986

eBay's Skype Fiasco: What Were They Thinking?

> it’s just appalling in terms of botched due diligence.
An example of Meg "A monkey could drive this train" Whitman's technological expertise.

She couldn't even get the quote right: "A chimpanzee and two trainees could run her." Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Star Trek III (1984)


Interesting that the "1.3 million U.S. sellers" earning a full time living on eBay MYTH continues to survive.

www.newsweek.com/id/13...
May 2008
My eBay Job
By Daniel Gross
* "a 2006 study conducted by ACNielsen on behalf of eBay. The company surveyed eBay sellers around the globe, including 2,000 in the United States. And it concluded that "approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income," with an esti­mated 630,239 in the United States"
* "Even the minority of sellers who meet the company's "power seller" re­quirements aren't coming close to "mak­ing a living" selling on eBay. To reach the lowest level, bronze sellers must rack up $12,000 in sales (sales, not profits), or move 1,200 items over the course of a year."
* "A bronze-level power seller isn't making a full-time living on eBay," says Cindy Shebley, who began selling on eBay in 1999. "They have to really crank it up and get into higher tiers, like titanium." Levels rise from silver ($3,000 or 300 items per month) to Titanium ($150,000 or 1,500 items per month).

www.washingtonpost.com...
EBay Sellers Fell Into Careers That Fill Their Lives
By Leslie Walker
June 30, 2005
* "eBay reports more than 100,000 merchants belong to its multi-tiered "power-seller" group, which requires sales of at least $1,000 a month"

A rough extrapolation gives an estimate of about 150,000 PowerSellers, who have "sales of at least $1,000 a month". And that income does not take into account the 8% eBay takes in fees, nor a seller's expenses.

The U.S. 2009 Federal Poverty line for one person is $10,830 a year.
.
"Of course, there's a big difference be­tween making a buck and making a living, between a sometime-thing and a steady gig. The notion that 630,000 Ameri­cans—a number roughly equal to the population of North Dakota—are making something approaching a living wage selling on eBay is a little rich." Daniel Gross (www.newsweek.com/id/32222)
.
Phrase of the day: www.urbandictionary.co...

Paypal Looks to Crush Amazon’s Fledgling Payment Service

eBay and PayPal spin the fiction that PayPal commands a massive market share.

It is fiction.

www.businessweek.com/t...
"in the U.S., where PayPal is strongest, its share of online payments is just 12%. That proportion is in the single digits in Europe"

That is 88% in the U.S. Do Not use PayPal, and over 90% in Europe Do Not use PayPal.

An analyst pumping PayPal stock because it might crush Amazon FPS, is akin to someone pointing out the fight between two barracuda. In a shark tank.


"Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. "
Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

eBay: Donahoe May Kill the Kijiji Brand

"I'm curious as to why you've only recently begun adding "eBay is a minority investor in ChannelAdvisor" to your disclosure. You've been writing on Seeking Alpha since January of 2008. eBay has been a minority investor in ChannelAdvisor since 2002.

David Steiner
President
AuctionBytes.com"


Scot Wingo apparently made the latest changes due to his Seeking Alpha articles being a violation of 1975-1980 FTC regulations.

www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides...
FTC GUIDES CONCERNING USE OF
ENDORSEMENTS AND TESTIMONIALS IN ADVERTISING

That is, Seeking Alpha is holding Mr. Wingo to their high legal standards.

Still this is not a particularly full disclosure, since for example '§255.5 Disclosure of material connections' states "such connection must be fully disclosed." And interestingly there is no statement made that 'Scott Wingo is CEO of ChannelAdvisor', i.e. the casual reader would not know the significance of "eBay is a minority investor in ChannelAdvisor." Ergo all of his Seeking Alpha articles (seekingalpha.com/autho...) remain in highly probable violation of these FTC Guides.

Although "eBay is a minority investor in ChannelAdvisor" and 'Scot Wingo CEO of ChannelAdvisor' remains an interesting read.


"I've found that when you want to know the truth about someone that someone is probably the last person you should ask."
Gregory House MD, House

FTC Complaint Assistant
https://ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

Introducing the ChannelAdvisor Ecommerce Framework

At least we now know the point of this article series; advertising for your company.

Amazon vs. eBay: Follow Up Q&A

> Disclosure: Author is long Google and Amazon.

Does this mean Scott Wingo has finally sold all his eBay stock?

Or does this infer that Scott Wingos's ChannelAdvisor is long on the Amazon marketplace and shorting it's eBay venue participation?

2008: The Year eBay Lost Its Mojo

Concerning eBay's 'debt rating'/'credit rating' depends of where you look.

www.reuters.com/articl...
Fitch Assigns eBay an IDR of 'A'; Outlook Stable
Tue Nov 4, 2008 9:12am EST

https://tradethenews.com/stock...
eBay Inc Fitch assigns A credit rating on a stable outlook
11/4/2008 09:12am

Or interested parties can buy copies of eBay's rating history.
www.fitchratings.com/
www.standardandpoors.c...

As for "trolls" or the good, bad, and ugly posters. The mystery of who's posting and who's shilling could be solved by providing the IP addresses of posters.

Unfortunately there are privacy issues involved.

Or not. Sharing is what eBay does.

> What does everyone think about eBay sharing members
> personal information, which includes financials, with every
> company they own & service provides whose identify
> remains a secret because it is not posted?

That User Agreement change, and others, had it's genesis in 2007.

"I'm writing to let you know that the eBay User Agreement and eBay Privacy Policy have been updated, effective immediately for users registering as of May 16, 2007, and on July 9, 2007, for current users."
Scott Shipman, eBay Counsel -- Global Privacy Practices


"If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?"
Tuco, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

eBay's Disruptive Innovations Come Full Circle

Although most MBA's are not technologically astute, we keep hearing the technological advantages of "Disruptive Innovation" from master MBA John Donahoe.

Perhaps an explanation of "Disruptive Technology" from the technology side would be helpful.

www.pcmag.com/article2...
The Myth of Disruptive Technology
PC Magazine
17 August 2004
by John C. Dvorak

"One current favorite is the concept of disruptive technology, a coinage and concept put forth by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and explained in his book The Innovator's Dilemma."
...
"The concept of disruptive technology goes to the top of my list as the biggest crock of the new millennium."
...
"In the Harvard Business School alumni bulletin highlighting this nonsense, there is a list of supposedly disruptive technologies. Not one is disruptive."
...
"James Burke's marvelous PBS TV series Connections offers a better explanation for disruption. When there is true disruption, it comes from inventions, regulatory and social change, complementary technologies, coincidence, and demand."
...
"There is no such thing as a disruptive technology. There are inventions and new ideas, many of which fail while others succeed. That's it. This concept only services venture capitalists who need a new term for the PowerPoint show to sucker investors."
...
"The concept of disruptive technology is not the only daft idea floating around to be lapped up obediently by the business community. There are others. But the way these dingbat bromides go unchallenged makes you wonder whether anyone can think independently anymore."

eBay's Donahoe Has Crow for Thanksgiving

You forgot:

11. eBay Acquisitions. eBay continues expending resources (read 'cash and credit') by overpaying for questionable operations.

The $2.6 billion purchase and subsequent $900 million Skype charge (write off) comes to mind.

BillMeLater might be another.
www.washingtonpost.com...
Was Ebay's BillMeLater Acquisition A Huge Blunder?

How Would an eBay Layoff Impact Sellers?

"What will eBay layoffs mean for sellers?"

Nothing. Human Customer Service is near non-existent, and a decrease in eBay CS personnel would not be noticed. And due to high IT (computer) department turnover, even with impending code monkey cuts system software will remain buggy.

But this topic is moot. Checking elsewhere, some stock analysts won't be mollified unless there's a 20% cut in personnel.

eBay: Triple Whammy Weighs on Stock Price

"are things starting to really worsen more than anticipated"

Here is a site showing the IT professionals that eBay has been hiring.

www.mydanwei.com/query...
(We have no connection with this organization)

When you look at the different career opportunities, realize that this list represents new hires that are Replacing people who have left. The people leaving recently are the more experienced IT professionals.

And it's not just routine career jumping.

Here's the turnover count during the pre-Donahoe years.

2001 - 85
2002 - 72
2003 - 128
2004 - 132
2005 - 136

John Donahoe began his tenure at eBay in 2005, and is considered the architect of changes from about 2006.

Here's the turnover count during the Donahoe years.

2006 - 283
2007 - 295

When larger than normal numbers of experienced senior IT professionals start leaving an IT company, somethings up.

When senior level management starts leaving an IT company, watch out.