Walt Mossberg asks “why do you need them?” It was as if Donahoe was ready to pounce on the question, almost as if Paypal was his wife and another man had just attacked her (at least that’s how it seemed to me).
Most people I know avoid Paypal if they have an option for a number of reasons, including phishing. But, Donahoe says, “Phishing was a big issue for eBay and Paypal five years ago and we were the two sites that did a lot of money exchange at the time. We’ve come a long way and fraud is down 80% over the past five years. Anytime anyone reports something, we take the site down in 12 hours.”
When asked who their main competitor was today, John responds with Amazon, Walmart and Etsy in that order. He says, “We’re an eCommerce site – that’s WHAT we are.”
He reminds that eCommerce is only 5% of all retail. Walmart is the largest discount retailer in the world and they’re unstoppable. They have about 7% of online retail. Costco and Target compete in the same niche and both successfully. We’re at the beginning. Each of us needs to focus on what we’re all really good at.”
In the future, more and more devices will be part of our online purchasing experience. He gives examples, i.e., “you can imagine someone walking into a store using a red laser from a mobile device and then buying it online from inside the store. People will use their iPads for browsing so they can look at a product’s specs in details before they buy.” Then he adds, “if you want to see the best eBay experience, go to our iPad app.”
I thought – egads, if one more speaker touts how much they’re in love with their iPad, I’m going to think that Jobs bribed everyone before they set foot on the stage – it’s a beautiful device, but c’mon already.
“What makes the iPad different?” asks Walt. “Let’s look at the core eBay website experience on a scale of 1 to 10,” says John. “We’ve gone from a 2 to a 4 and we should be proud of the improvements we’ve made, but we need to make this a more compelling experience for those 90 million users around the world. The iPad has forced us to start over. You’ll start to see vertical market apps, such as a fashion app. We can now serve just a segment of users in the way they want to shop. We’re not trying to do it all from one browser.”
On market segments, John says, “eBay is the largest seller of fashion, clothes and accessories online worldwide by far. eBay has a really loyal following; we’re driving more tailored vertical market shopping online. Fashion is really high (clothing, shoes and accessories) which we call the Fashion Vault.”
Think image search, i.e, I’m looking for a blue shirt and I want to see more blue shirts. You shop for clothing differently than you shop for a Blackberry.
Walt moves to Stubhub; here, there’s a lot of controversy around this as a model where tickets can be resold, how they’re resold and priced.
Says John in response, “Stubhub is a simply a marketplace. What Stubhub has done that scalpers have never done is make it totally transparent. Stubhub guarantees every purchase – and they provide complete transparency. At the end of the day, it should be the fan’s choice to resell their ticket if they want to.”
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
