What was all that mumbo jumbo? It was eBay's Q3 Earnings Call for 2008! Contrary to what John Donahoe said on CNN Money recently, it seems eBay's business IS down some.
Let's cut through all the figures and analyst jargon. Sales stink for most people. My friends, who used to regularly use eBay, now tell me they don't even think of eBay when they are about to make a purchase. They have either been burned, or the site is so complicated that they just go somewhere else.
It really sounds stupid when John Donahoe, and Bob Swan read their carefully worded, prepared statements telling us how confident they are in what they're doing. Just because they "believe" it to be so - does not make it so. It is absolutely amazing how out of touch they really are with the community opinion on Main Street.
Imagine a popular restaurant in your community. Based on a few complaints the chef decides to add more salt to the food. Now, people who used to enjoy the food find it too salty. As word gets around, fewer and fewer people stop by. Those who stick around, complain loudly.
What should the chef do to fix the food? More bold changes! More salt! Some cayenne pepper too! He's confident that this is what the original complainers wanted, it will just 'take time' for them to appreciate these bold changes.
Meanwhile, maybe placing ads for other restaurants on the menu will bring in some extra revenue. In fact that's a great idea! The revenue from the ads will make up the losses from the food! Brilliant!
What the brilliant business minds don't get is people come for the food. No good food, no one will see the ads.
John Donahoe keeps suggesting eBay needs more bold changes to get people to come back. Perhaps going back to the original recipe would help.
Popularity: 12% [?]
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant post…. dead on the money.
You hit that nail right on the head. Back when, eBay would have been my first stop looking for high quality slightly used items. In a flat or down trending economy eBay should be roaring but that can’t happen if all the sellers of slightly used items have packed up their flea market stalls and gone elsewhere.
I would love to know what Donohoe believes will happen to advertising rates when the buyers realize there aren’t as many visitors.
I am off to pull PayPal off my websites, I like GC better
I wish people would stop referring to ebay sellers who don’t sell new Chinese garbage as “flea market” booths etc. like the above poster. “sellers of slightly used items have packed up their flea market stalls”
I don’t sell trash. I don’t sell Chinese knockoffs. I sell slightly used, frequently antique items. Most are no longer made. Doesn’t make my items “flea market”.
As for Donohoe and company, the sooner they take their profit and quit eBay, the happier I’ll be. The board of directors and major stock holders should be screaming for his head on a platter. Or handing him his signed resignation.
The board of directors should be charged with failing to perform their fiduciary duties to the corporate stock holders by protecting the solvency of the eBay corporation. The negligence is astounding & is shared by the corporate officers who are going along with JD’s idiocy. It is criminal
Another analogy goes something like this.
An eBay employee is caught stealing another employee’s iPod and fired. Word gets around about the iPod theft and a few other employees report their iPods as stolen. No one is sure if the dismissed employee stole the other missing iPods.
Ebay issues a notice that because of the iPod thefts, all employees would be searched as they left the property.
Next eBay sets up a system where eBay employees suspected of iPod thievery can be anonymously reported. The iPod theft reports will not be investigated. Any eBay employee with 2 or more reports within 30 days will be suspended.
Once the suspended employee returns, any further Detailed Suspect Reporting system reports will result in dismissal. Again, the iPod theft reports will not be investigated.
This is what is now happening to good, honest long time eBay sellers, suspension because of unconfirmed reports.
Ebay justifies this, claiming their goal is providing an “excellent buying experience”.
Meanwhile, eBay seller “buy” (buy.com) racks up nearly 300 negative feedbacks a month, contradicting eBay’s justification for the DSR system and subsequent suspension.
Buy gets away with nearly 300 non “excellent buying experiences” a month and good honest long time sellers are suspended for 1 or 2 uninbestigated negative feedbacks in the same time period.