1) eBay is a virtual marketplace for the sale of goods and services for and by individuals. eBay's business model and mission is to connect people — rather than selling products to them. They have created a person-to-person marketplace on the Internet, where sellers list items for sale and interested buyers bid on these items. Thier success relies mostly on revenue generated from fees and commissions related to its trading services. Their business model has been extremely successful and they were able to attract more than 200 million users by 2006 and were expected to surpass 2 billion items listed in 2006.
2) eBay faces several challenges which will test their ability to continue in their growth stage. On the international front, they face stiff competition from Yahoo!. Yahoo! is positioning themselves in the online auction site industry in the asian markets. Furthermore, another online giant, Google, dominates the online advertising industry and eBay is attempting to penetrate that market by offering its own online contextual ads and auction promotions on linked Web sites.
However, their greatest problem is their difficulty in providing their users with a secure and honest online trading environment. Their rapid growth and enormous amount of transactions that occur daily, has made it extremely difficult for eBay to monitor and control fraud, identity theft and unethical/dishonest transactions. Many users who have been victimized by these unethical practices, do not feel confident in the efforts that eBay has made to prevent dishonest transactions and thus, question eBays ability to ensure integrity in their auctions. This is a great obstacle for eBay to overcome. To battle this problem, eBay relies mostly on customer feedback through a rating sytem.
4) According to a Fortune article published on January 23, 2008, eBay has undergone a management change which will bring forth organizational and technological changes. More specifically, Meg Whitman has been replaced by John Donahoe as CEO of eBay. While Whitman was central to eBay's growth and success, she felt that the company needed fresh eyes and a new perspective to continue to drive its growth.
Donahoe promised big changes in his first several weeks to help revive eBay’s core business. He discussed his plan to offer fixed-priced goods and an improved customer rating and support system to lure buyers. In addition, he has promised to lower fees for sellers to list items hoping this attracts more sellers and thus more transactional sales revenue.
2) eBay faces several challenges which will test their ability to continue in their growth stage. On the international front, they face stiff competition from Yahoo!. Yahoo! is positioning themselves in the online auction site industry in the asian markets. Furthermore, another online giant, Google, dominates the online advertising industry and eBay is attempting to penetrate that market by offering its own online contextual ads and auction promotions on linked Web sites.
However, their greatest problem is their difficulty in providing their users with a secure and honest online trading environment. Their rapid growth and enormous amount of transactions that occur daily, has made it extremely difficult for eBay to monitor and control fraud, identity theft and unethical/dishonest transactions. Many users who have been victimized by these unethical practices, do not feel confident in the efforts that eBay has made to prevent dishonest transactions and thus, question eBays ability to ensure integrity in their auctions. This is a great obstacle for eBay to overcome. To battle this problem, eBay relies mostly on customer feedback through a rating sytem.
4) According to a Fortune article published on January 23, 2008, eBay has undergone a management change which will bring forth organizational and technological changes. More specifically, Meg Whitman has been replaced by John Donahoe as CEO of eBay. While Whitman was central to eBay's growth and success, she felt that the company needed fresh eyes and a new perspective to continue to drive its growth.
Donahoe promised big changes in his first several weeks to help revive eBay’s core business. He discussed his plan to offer fixed-priced goods and an improved customer rating and support system to lure buyers. In addition, he has promised to lower fees for sellers to list items hoping this attracts more sellers and thus more transactional sales revenue.
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