Though eBay was very influential at tech in one point, why eBay never became a Google or Facebook like company?
Bad marketing.
This.
eBay had really good leaders at one point in time who all ventured out to do their own start ups. The company got stuck in a rut with really bad management and people just got comfortable in resting & vesting. eBay forgot to play it’s strengths or to take risks. Recent growth of bad leaders within the company is killing it all and just playing for stock market will not cut them to become a fb or G or amazon. The sinking ship can still be saved if there is a true shake up at the C suite level.
Do you think eBay's tech can recover? I have no inside knowledge but from what I can see from the outside it seems all based on ancient tech. You jump from UX of different eras as you move from link to link, it's just super confusing and I can only imagine what a hit mess the back end might be given what the front end is... Also eBay I'm mad at you for stealing $100 from me and your horrible CS 😂
Well 95% of stuff is cheaper on eBay than Amazon. However. Main user base are older and if we change anything people go crazy. Higher ups too concerned with the right now and don't want to take any risks. It's old tech and frustrating to use, but there are some good things about it.
They charge a whopping 10% plus paypal’s 2.9%. That’s without any kind of promotion and promo costs more. I could just use Craigslist...
I still use ebay as a buyer. Prices are better than Amazon
Ask Meg Whitman Her visionless stewardship of eBay turned it into a shiteous nonentity as Amazon etc shot to the sky. Somehow mofos hired her to do the same at HP(E)
We hired their CFO as our CEO.
How’s that working out for y’all?
Completely agree with above comment.. Meg Whiteman screwed it big time .. Ignored other markets big time... allowed baba amzon to 🚀.. horrible horrible ceo!!!!
Tech companies need tech CEOs. eBay never had a technical visionary leading the company, and never saw technology as anything more than a necessary evil to run the website.
Completely agree. It is surprising how much the CXOs lack even a rudimentary technical knowledge. I don't think they even consider eBay a tech company.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I do think that tech companies need a competent technical leader(s), but it doesn’t have to be the CEO. Apple is an example of a successful tech company that doesn’t have a tech CEO. However, Tim Cook doesn’t try to make decisions on things he doesn’t understand and trusts those in charge of hardware or software or services to make the right decisions.
eBay went through a decade where it didn't see itself as a technology company, going so far as to contract out a lot of their stack. They're trying to go back the other way, but that's a lot of cultural inertia to overcome.
So does Microsoft or Google or Cisco