It’s funny how Amazon feared eBay, and then failed to beat them — in 1999.
But when I worked at eBay in 2003, they had the mailroom put a sticker on every amazon box that said “Next time get it on eBay!”
And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
The likelihood is generally higher, but I've received drop-shipped items from eBay that come directly from Amazon & Walmart warehouses. Took me by surprise at first, but it was still the lowest available price. Unsure if they are still cracking down on that.
eBay has always been fantastic for used/refurbished electronics compared to anything else.
> And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon.
That isn't actually happening at all. That comes across as what you wish were occurring. Unless you're referring to eBay's share of online commerce persistently contracting as they stagnate. It isn't a new problem, eBay as a force in ecommerce has been eroding for many years now.
It's why eBay has a $22b market cap and their market platform has entirely stopped growing. Their stock multiple is so low because nobody believes in their growth story (it doesn't have one). Over four years they've seen an average of about 6% annual growth, although that includes other non-auction businesses they had acquired. It's also why they're a juicy takeover target: the lack of growth gives them a cheap valuation, combined with good margins and a difficult to remove quasi-monopoly position in auctions. There is no future for eBay other than in the belly of someone larger, and soon.
Amazon of course has been going gangbusters on growth during that time, becoming ever more dominant in online retail. The exact opposite of what you're describing.
And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
I rarely use Amazon for this reason, and order from Target, Walmart, and Ebay instead.
Amazon also plays games, like not letting you sort search results by "Best Selling."
"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground."
Amazing to see the picture of the BEST Internet server facility .. that was certainly a pivotal and interesting company in the history of the Valley.
I worked there on contract a couple of times, got to know some of the folks - and it sure seems like it was a breeding ground of interesting Internet ideas. Matt Dillon, who has clearly proven his mettle in the time since, was developing his keen sense of social stewardship by keeping BEST's internet services up and running - I'll never forget the shock of discovering that they ran the entire thing on a database system Matt had developed himself...
I wonder what other things came from that incubator. It was a wild scene, indeed.
I was a tiny tiny competitor to eBay some 20 years ago and the pez story was pure BS.
The reality is that eBay (that is AuctionWeb) got its initial traction from spamming Usenet as the story correctly states.
Very quickly they moved from spamming themselves to letting their users spam Usenet.
This is the "growth hacking" model still followed today by many. The question is there any moral middle ground?
If you can search Usenet archives you can find remnants of that AuctionWeb spam and people complaining. Soon others tried to copy them but it was too late.
Hahaha, that story really caught on but Pierre confessed it was made up for the purpose of getting people to relate to eBay. Netflix's story about late fees was same.
eBay is a fascinating story for their early impact to the commercial internet. It is also fascinating to see how they've fared: it is still around but now it is being eaten up by competitors like Facebook Marketplace in the US, MercadoLibre in Latin America and others.
PayPal is on a somewhat similar trajectory.
The lesson here is to keep your customers happy or someone else will.
Also found it interesting to read about the people and companies who thought eBay wouldn't work for various - good - reasons. You can always make something work!
That seems trite. Why couldn't ebay/paypal keep their customers happy?
It looks to me like these companies epitomize the management philosophy of "software doesn't matter". Having established a lucrative niche with strong network effects, they offshored their software development. The CEOs are pure managers without software backgrounds; they could just as easily be running Proctor & Gamble. And so they run it like Proctor & Gamble.
Stripe, Amazon are run by people with software backgrounds.
eBay has a lot of attackers: You have FB Marketplace on the local C2C side. They own kijiji (annihilated CraigsList in Canada at least), but it probably cuts into their eBay revenue.
Then you have Amazon on the B2C side.
And Aliexpress doing their damage on the low-margin direct-from-Asia side.
Yeah, the shopping cart performance has gotten so slow lately, I've gone days without being able to complete checkout. Or some items would complete and others would still be sitting there, lather rinse repeat, and some simply vanish without actually being purchased. Some get purchased twice...
If I were buying anything expensive, I'd care, but it's still better than Amazon for many things.
But at this stage, I feel Shopify has better chance than eBay on branding... The long term value and potential scaling effect is still the mainstream before we live under universal basic income era.
eBay has its chance. It should help build the tool for the community to provide customized service easier and cheaper.
Marketplace is also based on the abundance and quality of contents (merchandise). Scale effect is good at the globalization period but not sure for the next era.
I liked the original title of the story for what it is worth.
As Chris MacAskill wrote:
In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground.
[+] [-] jedberg|6 years ago|reply
But when I worked at eBay in 2003, they had the mailroom put a sticker on every amazon box that said “Next time get it on eBay!”
And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
[+] [-] kirse|6 years ago|reply
The likelihood is generally higher, but I've received drop-shipped items from eBay that come directly from Amazon & Walmart warehouses. Took me by surprise at first, but it was still the lowest available price. Unsure if they are still cracking down on that.
eBay has always been fantastic for used/refurbished electronics compared to anything else.
[+] [-] j88439h84|6 years ago|reply
you mean when eBay employees received a package from Amazon at the office?
[+] [-] adventured|6 years ago|reply
That isn't actually happening at all. That comes across as what you wish were occurring. Unless you're referring to eBay's share of online commerce persistently contracting as they stagnate. It isn't a new problem, eBay as a force in ecommerce has been eroding for many years now.
It's why eBay has a $22b market cap and their market platform has entirely stopped growing. Their stock multiple is so low because nobody believes in their growth story (it doesn't have one). Over four years they've seen an average of about 6% annual growth, although that includes other non-auction businesses they had acquired. It's also why they're a juicy takeover target: the lack of growth gives them a cheap valuation, combined with good margins and a difficult to remove quasi-monopoly position in auctions. There is no future for eBay other than in the belly of someone larger, and soon.
Amazon of course has been going gangbusters on growth during that time, becoming ever more dominant in online retail. The exact opposite of what you're describing.
[+] [-] scout4|6 years ago|reply
I rarely use Amazon for this reason, and order from Target, Walmart, and Ebay instead.
Amazon also plays games, like not letting you sort search results by "Best Selling."
[+] [-] helsinkiandrew|6 years ago|reply
This is a great video showing how stolen credit cards are laundered through eBay “Nina Kollars - Confessions of an Nespresso Money Mule”
https://youtu.be/4fYZpRBuh-s
[+] [-] Goronmon|6 years ago|reply
Wait, how is this different with eBay compared to Amazon?
[+] [-] GoRudy|6 years ago|reply
wow. Seems relevant today.
[+] [-] mapgrep|6 years ago|reply
But no, there was an Ebola outbreak in the mid 70s. Kind of scary to see a disease that can keep popping up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks
[+] [-] LowAmmunition|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] fit2rule|6 years ago|reply
I worked there on contract a couple of times, got to know some of the folks - and it sure seems like it was a breeding ground of interesting Internet ideas. Matt Dillon, who has clearly proven his mettle in the time since, was developing his keen sense of social stewardship by keeping BEST's internet services up and running - I'll never forget the shock of discovering that they ran the entire thing on a database system Matt had developed himself...
I wonder what other things came from that incubator. It was a wild scene, indeed.
[+] [-] michaelwilson|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blahyawnblah|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sireat|6 years ago|reply
The reality is that eBay (that is AuctionWeb) got its initial traction from spamming Usenet as the story correctly states.
Very quickly they moved from spamming themselves to letting their users spam Usenet.
This is the "growth hacking" model still followed today by many. The question is there any moral middle ground?
If you can search Usenet archives you can find remnants of that AuctionWeb spam and people complaining. Soon others tried to copy them but it was too late.
This was in mid 90s after the first mass spam from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Canter_and_Martha_Sie... .
[+] [-] cmacaskill|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gumby|6 years ago|reply
The reality is always much messier, more diffuse, and too much of a long story.
[+] [-] rmason|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aluminussoma|6 years ago|reply
PayPal is on a somewhat similar trajectory.
The lesson here is to keep your customers happy or someone else will.
Also found it interesting to read about the people and companies who thought eBay wouldn't work for various - good - reasons. You can always make something work!
[+] [-] stickfigure|6 years ago|reply
That seems trite. Why couldn't ebay/paypal keep their customers happy?
It looks to me like these companies epitomize the management philosophy of "software doesn't matter". Having established a lucrative niche with strong network effects, they offshored their software development. The CEOs are pure managers without software backgrounds; they could just as easily be running Proctor & Gamble. And so they run it like Proctor & Gamble.
Stripe, Amazon are run by people with software backgrounds.
[+] [-] Scoundreller|6 years ago|reply
Then you have Amazon on the B2C side.
And Aliexpress doing their damage on the low-margin direct-from-Asia side.
[+] [-] nullc|6 years ago|reply
Aliexpress has much better software in my experience. :(
[+] [-] myself248|6 years ago|reply
If I were buying anything expensive, I'd care, but it's still better than Amazon for many things.
[+] [-] windyfly|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toohotatopic|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] redis_mlc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] windyfly|6 years ago|reply
Marketplace is also based on the abundance and quality of contents (merchandise). Scale effect is good at the globalization period but not sure for the next era.
[+] [-] nullc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vilen|6 years ago|reply
As Chris MacAskill wrote:
In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground.
[+] [-] jt2190|6 years ago|reply
> The untold origin story of eBay that I lived...
[+] [-] dang|6 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
(Submitted title was "The untold origin story of eBay and Ebola that I lived...")
[+] [-] 3fe9a03ccd14ca5|6 years ago|reply
I think the original title is much more interesting and also correct.