Is eBay dying because Facebook and YouTube are more fun?
By Dave Parrack
EBay was at one time not so very long ago one of the biggest and most-popular Web sites on the whole of the Internet. Now, well, it isn’t. So what went wrong? One theory is that the fun went out of the site, with other sites such as Facebook and YouTube taking over as destinations for bored employees at work. Could this factor really have played a part in eBay’s downfall?
When I first ventured online seriously about seven or eight years ago, the Web was a very different place. We all used dial-up for starters, meaning pages took an absolute age to load compared to the time they now take. The sites which provided entertainment, and were consequently ever-popular, were also different than they are now.
Social networking was an unknown term, while online video was virtually impossible due to the speed of most people’s connections. But eBay was alive and kicking, and was one of those sites which anyone already online would recommend to those yet to venture on to the Web.
It didn’t even matter whether you were going on eBay to buy or sell, but you inevitably ended up doing one or the other. It was, rather, more about searching for items you’ve been craving for years or seeing what those items sitting in your cupboards was worth to others. It was fun, it was exciting, and it was about all there was to do on the Web at that point.
EBay has had rather a tougher time in making an impact over the last few years. Sales and revenues are down, as is traffic. Interestingly, Keith Rabois writing on TechCrunch puts forward the idea that the reason for this downfall was that eBay was superseded by other new and exciting Web sites offering surfers the chance for more entertaining pastimes, particularly those looking to waste a few minutes (or hours) at work.
It is, obviously, not as simple as that. There are likely many reasons that eBay failed to keep the visitor numbers and level of activity it managed to secure years ago. One would be that other e-commerce sites (Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace) sprang up offering similar services but at cheaper prices. Another would be that too many people had their fingers burnt in an eBay transaction. Yet another would be that the bargains you could grab started to wane as sellers became more professional.
However, the fun factor surely has a part to play in eBay’s losses over the years. There are now simply too many other sites which you can literally waste hours on messing around – eBay no longer has that niche sewn up.
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May 24th, 2009
The reason Ebay is going down the drain is because it got too greedy.
It basically rubbed out all the small transactions by forcing people to use Paypal ,which basically eliminated small profit high volume listings through it’s cost.
You could clearly see a 40% drop off on items listed after this event.
I was a seller and refuse to use PayPal and hence Ebay – people don’t have to put up with this heavy handed approach. Go elsewhere.
If Ebay was to reverse this bad business decision I and many others would return.
So it’s no surprise that Ebay is going bad – it got it’s just deserts.
May 24th, 2009
I agree with Iva – eBay is too greedy. You get charged for the advertisement, charged a fee when your item sells and then charged another fee if the buyer uses PayPal. What’s more, if PayPal is used, you cannot transfer funds to your account until you have at least AUD$15.00. In my case, I sold an item for AUD$10.00 and the buyer used PayPal. I will never be able to get my money until I chose to sell another item on eBay. eBay is simply about greed!
May 25th, 2009
Killing the goose that lays golden eggs is more than “too greedy”. It is stunningly stupid.
The killer is eBay CEO John Donahoe and all his stunningly stupid changes!
June 17th, 2009
The problem with ebay is it has no competition. Therefore it doesn’t have to lie down to the needs of its customers, it simply lays the law down to its customers – like it or not. It’s a complete monopoly with no-one policing it and it’s getting away with murder. It’s a complete travesty to the way in which modern business should run. In any other form of business such a monopoly would be illegal. And Paypal is the epitomy of what is wrong with ebay. They control everything and take their cut every inch of the way. Isn’t it time that a little competition came along?
June 17th, 2009
ebay deserves to die
July 2nd, 2009
Facebook and Youtube have NOTHING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Ebay’s downfall.
It has everything to do with Ebay itself. They’ve spiked prices on sellers and made it a very unfriendly place to do Business. They don’t even let sellers leave negative feedback to bad customers.
Its hard to find things I used to find on the site easily. Ebay screwed itself with it’s over 1 billion dollar purchase of Skype – which they have done NOTHING with. They just handed over 1.6 billion dollars for nothing basically.
They’re trying to make up for the loss in all the wrong ways. Amazon will come back on top again.
July 2nd, 2009
I’m sorry – 2.6 BILLION dollars for a $60 million dollar VoIP company that couldn’t turn a profit.
AND now theres a patent issue. 2.6 Billion Dollars for FReeeeeeeeeeeee.