Interesting Donahoe Video...
This came out this weekend and I thought it was interesting on a couple of levels:
- eBay still has some perceptions to fight - Maria introduces eBay as an 'auction site'
- They spend a lot of the interview talking about m-commerce. FYI - I just finished a two part series on m-commerce and reviewed two application that do UPC scanning - check that out over at sister-site, CSEStrategies.com here.
- For feed readers, the video is embedded here so you may need to click through.
SeekingAlpha Disclosure - I am long Google and Amazon. eBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor whee I am CEO.
It's hilarious that Donahoe talks about mobile commerce sales and how it's key for eBay when he cut the entire mobile team responsible for creating the eBay iPhone in last year's reorg.
Posted by: Dr. X | November 08, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Of course the Money Honey introduced eBay as an online auction site - that's its core brand. They never bothered to tell the customers they were changing into something else. They just flailed about trying to morph into a retail site, and when that failed, into a secondary market site. But they never felt confident enough to actually tell the buyers that they were no longer an auction site but a whatever they were trying to become. And if someone asks you what differentiates eBay right now from Amazon or Buy or Walmart.com or half a dozen other e-retailers, what will you say? Auctions.
Watching John Donahoe wax rhapsodic about small businessmen is nauseating, I must say. That would be the same set of people who are all guilty until proven innocent on eBay, and whose greatest feat to date is managing to stay in business while coping with an ever-evolving set of Five Year Plans coming at them from General Secretary of the Party Donahoe.
Posted by: nadine | November 02, 2009 at 10:46 PM