Friday, April 18th, 2008
John Donahoe talks to eBay Ink
Two weeks ago, John and Pierre conducted a live webcast to the entire organization that emphasized a need for open communication and what can only be described as bold steps for the company (I’m working on getting video excerpts of the conversation to share with Ink subscribers soon).
Before they sat down together, I was able to get a few minutes with John on my own in which he shared a lot of the same themes that came up in his discussion with Pierre. I had hoped to share this with Ink readers sooner than now but with the quiet period in place heading into earnings, I was unable to do so.
Before we jump into the original conversation, however, I wanted to make sure I addressed a timely and critical discussion that has been given more fuel by a Financial Times story, that ran on the heels of the earnings news this week, that I felt needed clarification directly from John. So, the first question and answer below is from earlier today. The rest is the transcript of my conversation with him on March 21. I plan on sitting down with Skype president, Josh Silverman, in the coming weeks to get his take on the future. For now, here is my conversation with John.
April 16, 2008
Q. I read in the Financial Times that we may sell Skype. That if the synergies are strong, we’ll keep it in our portfolio. If not, we’ll reassess it. Is this true?
We have no plans to sell Skype… and why would we? As I said in the story, it’s a great business with a great purpose — enabling the world’s conversations. With a new president, our plan for Skype is to focus on providing the best possible user experience and continuing the incredible growth momentum we’ve enjoyed with Skype for the past four years.
To be clear, I’ve fully supported big investments in Skype, including removing the earn-out, and bringing over some top talent like Josh. I think this business has tremendous potential that we’ve only started to tap. Josh and I are both excited about the prospects … our job now is to make sure we continue to build on Skype’s successes and grow its passionate community of users.
March 21, 2008
Q. Thanks for taking the time today. I’m going to jump right in by addressing the marketplace. There’s been a lot of talk about how you look at the business. Some of our users have even claimed that you don’t like the marketplace. What do you say to that?
I love the marketplace. I love the purpose, mission and values that underlie eBay. It’s why I left a really good job to join this company. I have enjoyed getting to know our community, this business, and the employees over the last three years. And yes, I love the marketplace! Let me share a story with you: I spent New Year’s in Australia visiting an old friend of mine – a music lover – and I wanted to send him a thank you gift. I went and found the entire collection of KFOG – Live at the Archives on eBay. There’s no place else in the world where I could get a collection like that so easily – I got volume 4 - 14. I went back and forth with several sellers – building the collection. And then I found a seller who had a set but had already sold it. I asked him where I could get another one (for myself) so in the end I was able to send one to my friend and get one for myself. That kind of interaction never ceases to excite me. The seller has since emailed me and asked me if I had listened to song 4 on collection 6 … to me, that is eBay.
So, I love the marketplace and I love our purpose and mission. More than anything, I feel a huge sense of responsibility to maintain the vibrancy and the relevance of eBay in today’s ecommerce environment … and in tomorrow’s. And that to me is the biggest challenge.
Q. Speaking of challenges that you face; specifically as the new CEO on the block, Meg said in her internal memo to employees “It’s time for eBay, and this community, to have a new leadership team, a new perspective, and a new vision.” How does your vision differ from Meg’s?
The world is changing and it’s a different time from when eBay was born. There are different formats and platforms that sellers can sell on. There are different websites that buyers can buy on. I view my biggest priority and challenge is to ensure that we bring the very best of what eBay has represented over the years. This means giving buyers great value and selection and giving sellers a great opportunity to sell at unparalleled volumes and to bring eBay into today’s world and tomorrow’s. So that buyers say “eBay is the best place to find value and selection and I will continue to come back” and so that sellers are able to sell and make a living which in turn fuels eBay’s success.
Q. You continue to reference challenges and you’ve also been quoted as being aggressive when facing those challenges. In the January earnings call, for example, you said that “we’re going to get very aggressive about making eBay easier and safer to use”. Can you elaborate on how you actually see us being aggressive? Provide specific examples?
We have to confront some sacred cows. Our guiding principle is what is best for our marketplace? What is good for the buyer? At the end of the day we need buyers and what has distinguished eBay from the beginning is the extraordinary traffic. We’ve done a lot of research on buyers and we know what turns them off. Our best buyers are telling us that they’re having too many bad experiences and that is unacceptable.
Q. What kind of bad experiences?
A big issue is excessive shipping charges. A second is that the item is not as described. A third is item not received. A fourth example, which is particularly infuriating, is when a buyer receives retaliatory negative feedback. Our most active buyers have told us that this was among their primary reasons for buying less on eBay. But we’re doing our part to make it better. For example, we’re focusing on providing better customer support and protections for our buyers when they have a bad experience. Our number one goal is to ensure that our marketplace provides the best experience for buyers so that they come back.
Q. What about the seller experience?
On the sellers’ side we heard a lot of feedback, too. Sellers came to us and said a number of things, including that incentives aren’t aligned enough … that they were absorbing too much of the risk with insertion fees … that they wanted to list at higher volumes and create listings more easily. They also told us they wanted to get a gauge of where they stand in terms of performance.
The new pricing that we’re rolling out is directly in response to this feedback. The seller dashboard that we’re rolling out in May is in direct response to that. We’re making improvements to our tools for casual sellers. For example, we instituted a process that has cut down the listing time by a third. And for larger sellers, we’re doing a number of things that will make their experience on eBay much easier. We’re determined to be the healthiest and most vibrant marketplace today for both buyers and sellers.
Q. Taking a step back from the Marketplace – looking at eBay Inc., the big picture. We have a lot of irons in a lot of fires… what is it that keeps you up at night?
It’s having the courage to stay with what is right for our customers, even when there is controversy around it. I really care a lot about listening to the community. I care a lot about being customer focused. But I also recognize that there are 80 million different opinions out there and it’s tough not to be paralyzed by that many different beliefs on where we should go as a company.
I feel that our user experience didn’t keep pace for a number of years, partly because we were trying to please all of the people, all of the time … we became less decisive in making changes that we had to make. Now we need to have clarity and conviction to acknowledge what needs to be done – and then do it.
For example, we instituted detailed seller ratings last year, which caused a lot of controversy in the community. But we know they’re working – both buyers and sellers are telling us that. At the end of the day, we must have the courage to do what’s best for the marketplace.
That’s not to say we won’t make corrections where needed. For example, we announced changes to pricing across the board at the eCommerce Forum, but heard from some sellers that the structure didn’t suit certain categories very well. So, we went back and changed pricing for media, such as books, CDs and DVDs.
We are going to be much more balanced moving forward in terms of being responsive, yet sticking with our conviction.
Q. Any advice to the new guy?
Listen and have passion. Our goal is not to be a finely tuned, smooth, perfect machine. The minute our community stops talking is the minute I worry. Because their opinions, constructive criticism or praise, stem from passion. People are basically good – that is our belief. And we will not shut our ears to what people have to say – we will embrace it.
Tagged: ceo, ebay, eBay Ink, ebay interview, ecommerce, executive profile, interview, john+donahoe, Marketplace, online marketplace, paypal, q&a, skype
Formerly Known As MarikaBooksOn 04.18.2008 at 5:05 pm Said:
JD said:
“we instituted detailed seller ratings last year, which caused a lot of controversy in the community. But we know they’re working – both buyers and sellers are telling us that”
Oh, c’mon! I follow many industry discussion boards and I do not see sellers saying DSRs are working. They are saying exactly the opposite. The only sellers claiming to be thrilled with DSRs are the ones paid by Ebay to do so. The majority of the REAL sellers who speak out are sick over it.
Pfffttt.
implogOn 04.18.2008 at 5:12 pm Said:
So is Mr. Donahue saying that when listening to seller feedback, “incentives not aligned enough” (someone please translate) was more pressing than one sided feedback, the miscommunicated DSR policy and atrocious customer service among many other things? Did sellers really say that they wanted an increase in Final Value Fees?
…………………………. O M G !
Concerned ebayOn 04.18.2008 at 6:17 pm Said:
At the end of the day its not what is good for the marketplace its whats good for ebay’s pocketbooks. Ebay runs at a gross margin in the high 70%’s, yet their stock price is down.
Are you worried JD?
JD if you were doing whats GOOD for the buyer experience, you’d change paypal’s funding mix to accurately warn buyers of the risks with ‘Instant Payments’.
Shipping and handling is down 1% due to the DSR’s and we all know that ebay takes a bigger cut of the FVF’s if there is free shipping. Thats not good for the buyer or seller its good for EBAY and EBAY only.
What a bunch of hog wash JD. Shame on you.
MelOn 04.18.2008 at 6:22 pm Said:
Hmmm, I don’t recall giving any feedback. I wasn’t asked! And sellers are eBays customers, not buyers?!
DaveyOn 04.18.2008 at 8:05 pm Said:
There have been so many things in the policy changes that have pointed out to me a complete lack of seller feedback, that Mr. Donohoe’s communicated intentions are not believeable to me, and I think by the average seller out there either. At least he realizes that customer service needs work (like a complete overhaul and demolition of the boilerplate response bot and exercise of judgement and some power on the part of reps). Many of the buyer and seller experience shortcomings have been related to poor customer service and inaction on fraud that would have been easy to swat had someone listened and done it.
Still other things like difference of DSR definitions given to buyers versus sellers is tearfully pathetic and not thought out–you can’t tell me that this was not done on purpose. Then there are other strokes of genius–the Shipping Time DSR, which should have been automatic from the time of payment clearance and electronic notification of acceptance by the shipper. Instead, we’re left with a very subjective rating that really doesn’t describe how fast I as a seller bring my items to a shipper, and hits me for things I can’t control as a seller.
So many of eBay’s supposed goals here had very workable solutions that would have been fairer to sellers, if only a cross-section of sellers had been brought in on the process.
As noted by others, the announcement of listing fee lowering, while other fees were “adjusted” in fine print, was so spin-laden and disingenuous that it was laughable. I didn’t “ask” for my overall fees to go up 50 percent, but somebody “listened” anyway. In the end, this maneuver gave a token reduction to sellers who didn’t know how to price for sell-through while penalizing those of us who did, which until the “adjustment,” I thought was a good, valued, and encouraged skill. Thus the insinuation that sellers of cheap Chinese garbage posted en-masse are the future of the site. Which, of course, with the folly of “Best Match,” makes legitimate sellers’ goods almost impossible to find now.
How is the site and Paypal any “safer” to sellers than it was before? What actions are being take to make it so? Paypal is notoriously unsafe for sellers, with many ways to be parted from your money and merchandise, especially internationally, and with the customer service that eBay has become infamous for.
I’d like to see some evidence that Mr. Donohoe is really listening to sellers. That we get any sort of rudimentary buyer fraud protection to replace what two-way feedback gave us. That we ALL get international confirmed address SPP so that mid-range sellers have some incentive to expand. Heck, even seeing a “glitch” that was finally in sellers’ favor would be something to behold. I haven’t seen anything come my way for years now–there is no give and take with eBay, just take.
If Mr. Donohoe is listening and wanting to improve seller experience, I’d like to see some evidence of it rather than just mere words. Sellers want to improve buyer experience too, but why are so many opposed to the changes as they stand, then? The innate intelligence of the marketplace is being ignored in favor of diktat–”Sellers prefer this structure.” How would that phrase be said in Chinese?
CrunchyPostingGoodnessOn 04.18.2008 at 9:29 pm Said:
Quote: “This means giving buyers great value and selection and giving sellers a great opportunity to sell at unparalleled volumes and to bring eBay into today’s world and tomorrow’s. So that buyers say “eBay is the best place to find value and selection and I will continue to come back” and so that sellers are able to sell and make a living which in turn fuels eBay’s success.”
- No offense, but I do not have this view of eBay or its recent changes as a buyer or seller. If that is his intention - he is failing miserably.
Quote: “We’ve done a lot of research on buyers and we know what turns them off. ”
- I don’t remember ever being asked for my input as a buyer on eBay.
Quote: “A big issue is excessive shipping charges.”
- This comes from the fact that most buyers on eBay are looking for a bargain. They have absolutely no idea how much it costs in time and material to ship items. The problem is the eBay buyer mentality. No wonder I do not experience this “customer dissatisfaction” regarding shipping on my other selling venues.
Quote: “A second is that the item is not as described.”
- Or is it that the item was described correctly, but the buyer simply failed to read the item description in the listing?
Quote: “A fourth example, which is particularly infuriating, is when a buyer receives retaliatory negative feedback.”
- The problem is what eBay is defining as “retaliatory”. They believe that who ever leaves a negative last must only be doing so out of retaliation and not because it is justly deserved.
What if a buyer used feedback to punish a seller for not marking an item as gift on a custom form? What if a buyer leaves a negative for a seller because they bought a blue sweater, the sweater was clearly described as blue, but somehow the buyer “thought” it would be pink? What if a buyer performs a charge back weeks after receiving the item and never sends it back to the seller?
The main issue I have with the data and information that Donahoe is using is that these individual incidents have not been researched to see who exactly was at fault. Does he really think a scammer is going to admit that is what they are doing? Does he really think a buyer is going to admit that they were the party which was wrong? Basing decisions on blind opinions without researching their creditability is irresponsible and fool hearty.
Quote: “Sellers came to us and said a number of things, including that incentives aren’t aligned enough … that they were absorbing too much of the risk with insertion fees … that they wanted to list at higher volumes and create listings more easily.”
- Funny how sellers did not ask for an overall fee increase, yet that is what they got. Also interesting is that sellers did not ask that they lose their ability to rate a transaction accurately, yet that is the exact effect of removing the ability to leave negative feedback for buyers. I also recall that seller’s have asked eBay for more protection against fraudulent buyers, yet these added protections have only been made available to Power Sellers.
They say to be careful when making a deal with the Devil. He will grant your request, but twist it into something you never intended it to be - harmful and devastating. If this is how eBay responds to what sellers request, perhaps it is best that sellers make no requests at all.
Quote: “But I also recognize that there are 80 million different opinions out there and it’s tough not to be paralyzed by that many different beliefs on where we should go as a company.”
- and that is exactly why eBay can never expect to be regarded as a “partner” is anyone’s business. It clearly lacks the ability, understanding, and initiative to do so.
Quote: “For example, we announced changes to pricing across the board at the eCommerce Forum, but heard from some sellers that the structure didn’t suit certain categories very well. So, we went back and changed pricing for media, such as books, CDs and DVDs.”
First, this only goes to prove that eBay does not research the effects of its policy changes before placing them into effect. Second, the main voice that petitioned eBay about this matter was the Power Seller United Group. With the threat of so many sellers leaving for Amazon, considering that is a prime venue for media, eBay was forced to make the change. That decision was based solely from eBay’s pocketbook and not on what was best for the community.
CrunchyPostingGoodnessOn 04.18.2008 at 9:39 pm Said:
@ Richard
I know that you are fairly new to eBay and since you are their employee, I’m sure that you feel the desire to believe the PR that Donahoe is trying to present here. I do not expect that you will have a very critical view of his statements and that after talking to him, you probably feel that he is sincere.
The thing I have learned overtime is that public presenters and motivators can be very convincing. Often making us believe something is possible, though all common sense in us tells us it is a lie.
Once again you are going to need to determine what the motivation is behind those you interview and those users who respond to these statements. Please keep in mind that Donahoe is a company man. He was hired into eBay. He does not own a business on eBay and he does not use it the way those of us posting here do. Given that, who is more believable - the ones using the system for their livelihood and extra income, or the one hired to defend corporate decisions?
Patricia 1On 04.18.2008 at 10:24 pm Said:
“Listen and have passion. Our goal is not to be a finely tuned, smooth, perfect machine. The minute our community stops talking is the minute I worry. Because their opinions, constructive criticism or praise, stem from passion. People are basically good – that is our belief. And we will not shut our ears to what people have to say – we will embrace it.”
I’m so amazed all I can say is…..huh????
MechelleOn 04.18.2008 at 10:27 pm Said:
First question to the blogger- why was it necessary to hold off on presenting this until after the quarterly reports? I don’t see anything that would affect the reports in this “interview”.
Yeah- I wasn’t asked for my interpretation of the problems and how I think they could be fixed- I don’t know anyone who was.
Buyer Complaints
Shipping costs:
Has Donahoe taken the time to educate himself on the cost of shipping? Have any of the eBay executives? Maybe if they were personally aware of the cost of shipping they wouldn’t encourage my customers to distrust the actual postage cost fee I charge.
One of the new “aggressive” changes involve little threatening messages, when I am listing, concerning the cost of the shipping fee- which is what it will cost to ship- hello. It’s pretty bad when I am trying to do my job the company I am purchasing services from sends me threats of suspension for excessive shipping fees. Really, come on blogger - what is that? is that the quality of customer service I should be modeling for my customers? Oddly it feels like retaliatory feedback- You know - say what I want you to say or your suspended.
Item not as described:
Would those be the counterfeit items that I have reported numerous times to eBay T&S only to watch the auction be won by some trusting “eBay” buyer. As a matter of fact I have 5 of those auctions that sold the other day sitting in my watch list because I had reported everyone of them 3 days prior to the end of the auction.. Yep now I look at them and know how they will feel when they open their package - the same as I did when I was sold counterfeit Mac Cosmetics on three separate occasions- it doesn’t feel good and it sickens me how often I report these and I have never seen any pulled never!
If your concerned about item as described complaints maybe you should pay attention to the reports of the listings that clearly are not selling as described products?
Items against eBay Policies for good reason- used cosmetics- report those but they are still sold.
Excessive shipping- I report that - 20 shipping for what would cost 5 dollars as someone who deals with the shipping costs and knows what they are I can easily pick out instances of excessive shipping charges- yet those continue on as well.
What exactly is it that eBay does to enforce their rules? Ask/expect us to police the marketplace, but ignore the reports of violations. If your not hunting them down, because we have to why can’t you follow through and enforce the damn rules? If your not doing either maybe you can cut some fees for us by firing the T&S dept- they are utterly worthless.
Retaliatory Feedback:
It is infuriating to you that people who sale on eBay use retaliatory feedback- really, because from my position I see a system that developed and fostered the behavior in the first place. Funny to promote and then become infuriated by the activity.
If you don’t want retaliatory feedback then why:
Is there feedback withdraw?
Preferences in selling manager to auto feedback after we receive positive feedback?
EBay recommendations of waiting until feedback has been received by our customers before we leave ours?
Clearly all of these communicate to those selling on eBay that our feedback should be held until we receive positive feedback- why? Why is this being communicated? You fed the mentality developed the methodology and now you have the audacity to strut out and tell us and the public how much we infuriate you- WOW!!!
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU INFURIATE ME! It really P***es me off that you (eBay) are the drivers of the policies/rules - you set them for us- then you ignore the rule breakers, set the system up for these deviant behaviors, and communicate to your customers Explicitly that you want them to act deviously. Then you tell the world with a blanketed statement that your customers are trash- Why because they played the hand you dealt?
You’re like the parent that hands their child a cigarette and a lighter and then gets pissed when they light it. You set the stage and the actors put on the play- so get over yourself and your infuriated sentiment, because you have no right to be infuriated at anyone other than eBay Inc’s policy makers- you should make a public statement demonstrating your disgust for them and fire them.
You care a lot about the community??? You again referred to us as noise the other day in an interview- what message do you imagine this sends to us? Sure as H*** does feel like “caring” to me. It is arrogant and a costly over estimation of your power. Sure my 9,000 in fees last year , this person 2,000, this one’s 600, that one’s 50 taken alone look like nothing, but you know as well as I do pennies add up. The only people who aren’t furious with your “aggressive “ actions are the ones you claim you want out of the eBay marketplace. All the “noise“ are the people you should be begging to stay because they are the ones who have been holding eBay up- and not with fees- with reputation. The more of us who leave the trashier eBay’s marketplace will be and you will have nothing.
That’s what you seem to not understand- all this “noise” is a result of those of us who work our a**es off to maintain our reputation so that we can succeed and eBay should be thanking us for building its reputation by extension. So keep up your arrogant can’t touch this attitude and you’ll find yourself in deafening silence.
Kevin_TOn 04.19.2008 at 12:06 am Said:
QUOTE: “On the sellers’ side we heard a lot of feedback, too. Sellers came to us and said a number of things, including that incentives aren’t aligned enough … that they were absorbing too much of the risk with insertion fees … that they wanted to list at higher volumes and create listings more easily.”
=======
Leaving aside the condescending spin about “reducing up front fees” in the last of the ANNUAL fee adjustments. Does Ebay really think it is good policy to reward those who list unsaleable goods or have a particularly low clearance rate (the only way to get any advantage out of the so-called fee reductions), while punishing those who offer saleable goods with substantial fee increases?
Kevin (who lives in Australia, so doesn’t get dashboards or discounts, just over-regulation to damage a substantial part of the home market)
permacrisisOn 04.19.2008 at 5:33 am Said:
Your power company decides that one day, the new standard is 60 volts at the wall outlet. They do this because there were some incidents where a couple of people got electrocuted. In every other county, the power company uses GFI protective devices. But this power company, we’ll call them BayPower, does things a little differently.
They don’t check with anyone, they don’t give anybody a heads up. They just go ahead and cut voltage by half during the night. You get up one morning. Your lights are a bit dimmer, things sort of work but everything is sluggish and slow. Coffee takes 20 minutes to perk, clocks run slow, and you nearly lose your job.
Two days later, your electric bill arrives. Printed across the top it says, “You Spoke and We Listened!” The bill has increased by 67 percent, but it now comes with a business reply envelope so you don’t have to put a stamp on it to mail it in, so it’s hailed as a fee decrease.
Furious, you snatch up the phone and call the regulatory agency. But the Feds do nothing because when they drive by, the lights though dimly lit, are on and anyway the subtle changes are too complicated to explain to a politician.
Ebay: just buy your Top 200 out already, and get on with selling new items yourselves, which is all you really ever wanted to do anyway.
TheBrewsNewsOn 04.19.2008 at 7:08 am Said:
Donahue loves the eBay marketplace — What does Mr. Donahue’s feedback score look like? What is the actual number and what is the percentage? Has Mr. Donahue had any negative eBay expreriences? If not, why do you think Mr. Donahue has had only positive eBay experiences when other buyers report so much unsatisfactory experience? Is it because Mr. Donahue is only a “casual” eBay buyer or is it because Mr. Donahue uses the current feedback system to carefully choose the “right” seller?
Listing process cut down by a third - Please elaborate. My current experience is that I cannot bulk relist because I get an error that the item specifics have changed, even when they have not. And when I list new items, the item specifics automatically “pre-fill” with item specifics irrelevant to my item. My listing time has INCREASED by a third.
Detailed Seller Ratings are working - Yes, they are “working” for me. On all 3 eBay seller IDs I list on, I would qualify for the 15% if not for the Shipping DSR (my DSRs for the other 3 areas range from 4.8 to 5.0 with the 4.8 being shipping time which I would expect since I sell internationally).
So, in response to the DSR implementation, I have actually RAISED the shipping rates I charge to offset the discount I am not receiving from eBay.
eBay publishes the median DSR ratings (4.8 for all except shipping and handling which is 4.6) so my question is - why require 4.8 on ALL four DSR ratings when eBay admits that overall a “good” seller is one who has 4.6 or greater on the shipping and handling. If eBay rewarded me with a 15% discount for 4.8 for the first three DSRs and 4.6 for the last DSR then I could and would lower my shipping rates but instead I now raised rates so that I can consider the DSRs to be “working” for me.
TWOn 04.19.2008 at 9:19 am Said:
Here is one sentence of Mr. Donahoe’s statement I feel the need to comment on.
“This means giving buyers great value and selection and giving sellers a great opportunity to sell at unparalleled volumes and to bring eBay into today’s world and tomorrow’s.”
I and many small sellers do not want to operate at a high volume. We have no desire to conduct business as a mega seller. We like the volume we operate at now.
I feel we are left out of any “communication”.
Another statement I would like to comment on …
“Sellers came to us and said a number of things, including that incentives aren’t aligned enough … that they were absorbing too much of the risk with insertion fees … that they wanted to list at higher volumes and create listings more easily. They also told us they wanted to get a gauge of where they stand in terms of performance.”
Nobody has ever asked me for my opinion. My STR is over 90%. The fee adjustments are killing me. The fact I get free gallery is of no consequence when I get my FVF bill and my cost of doing business goes up 15% to 25%. I am punished for my own success.
And yet another reference to “volumes”. I do not care to just fling items against the wall and see what sticks. If it won’t sell, I am not going to waste my time and money listing it.
I also do not need a gauge to tell how I am doing. I know how I am doing by the communication with my customers and my profit margins.
What will you do for the small seller who makes a living (or used to) on eBay? We are not “casual” sellers but we are not 5 figure feedback mega sellers either. I used to think we were the heart of eBay.
LurchOn 04.19.2008 at 2:13 pm Said:
As a follow-up to the prior post I just made on the Australia entry: so when John states above “We have no plans to sell Skype… and why would we?” it’s possible that he means that the sale might happen any day now? I’ve suddenly become very confused about the meaning of the word “plan.”
Mechelle - great post! I want to add a bit to it as well - and here’s something that eBay has been missing for about 8 years or so now (actually, more than 8).
Disclaimer: the following is very, very generalized. It is nowhere near 100% accurate. To be accurate, it would take me at least 100 pages. Likely more. The earlier period I write about below wasn’t entirely as rosey as it *may* read - I realize this - I’m not playing revisionist here, but I am trying to convey below some generalized history, which in fact, relate directly to (from a historical perspective) some of the points Mechelle makes above.
When I previously stated I’d been around since the 2nd week, I was not joking, making that up or roughly estimating. A guy who I had bought pulps from off of Usenet popped me an email that he had listed a couple of things on a brand new site called AuctionWeb and that I might be interested in at least one of them. I hadn’t heard of it - went and checked it out, and bid on one of his 3 or 4 items he had listed. I thought it was kind of cool, and a natural extension of phone auctions that existed in the collectibles area that people would hold (via various pubs, including Toy Shop - we’d even done some in Toy Shop). Anyway, the next day I found I had received an email from Pierre - if I recall correctly, thanking me for checking out the site. I thought this was very cool. I won the pulp. Got another email from Pierre, again thanking me, and asking what I thought of the site and a few other things I think. I *really* thought this was cool, and started checking it every day - and started turning up some neat stuff (keep in mind, back then I was using lynx as a browser and you could go through *all* newly listed items in less than 15 minutes each day). So anyway… time passed. In those early days, there would still be an occasional email from Pierre, but obviously that stopped as it began to grow. My wife and I actually tried to keep AuctionWeb a secret early on from other vintage toy dealers, because we’d find great stuff cheap from people who would just find things in their closets, basements, etc.
In any event, here’s a key thing, and I saw it growing day-by-day, week-by-week and was involved in it: people would come for the stuff when they’d hear about it, and they’d also come *back* for the stuff BUT — they also kept coming back because a) it was fun; and b) because of the atmosphere which was fostered at the company level. It was mostly open. It was mostly honest. It was mostly friendly (again, at the company level). There was interaction. When there were problems, staff would work on them. Things were thought out before being implemented. There was honesty behind the answers to questions when things would change. People generally believed in eBay at a philosophical level. And generally, people were happy and so dealt with each other at a more friendly level in interaction. Sure, there were some who didn’t, particularly on the boards, but mostly overall, it was the case. And this is well beyond when there were only a few thousand users. The user base kept getting bigger and bigger. And for the most part, eBay was able to still hold this together.
Then it all started to fall apart, bit by bit. People mattered less to the company, people were no longer listened to, things were being implemented poorly (and when people would speak up prior to those implementations, they were outright ignored), etc. Sure, as that user base expands into the millions, it’s harder to keep up. But rather than trying to figure out how to adjust to retain and foster a similar atmosphere, eBay seemed to just bail. They’d give lip service that they still held the same ideals and listened to people, and really factored in people’s needs, but no one really saw that in reality - and no one really bought it. And things began to get more antagonistic. And people stopped caring about eBay so much and caring solely about only making money or getting stuff. Again, generally speaking. And from this, more problems were bred. And more antagonism. And less and less fun.
The thing is, eBay led the way in letting things fall apart and enabled the continuance of this deterioration. And actually started to respond with a bit of hostility (making it yet worse). And flat out ignored people who were trying to warn them. Ignored. And over the intervening years, there has been no plan to try to recapture this. Granted, it would be tough going now, due to a combination of the user base continuing to grow AND the fact that eBay has allowed (and enabled) things to just get worse and worse and worse. Although it seems like it should be a primary initiative. It would cost some money. Yep. It would take a lot of time. Yep. It would involve confronting some sacred cows. Yep. It would require policy shifts. It would require cleaning up the site. It would require analysis of each thing from multiple perspectives (”what is the fallout from what we’re going to do? Are we actually targeting the correct people? Have we covered EVERY base?”). It would require smart, thoughtful and human oversight. It would involve some honesty, less games and a certain amount of crow eating. And even more. But I think recapturing *some* of it is not necessarily completely impossible.
When John states: “ensure that we bring the very best of what eBay has represented over the years. This means giving buyers great value and selection and giving sellers a great opportunity to sell at unparalleled volumes and to bring eBay into today’s world and tomorrow’s. So that buyers say ‘eBay is the best place to find value and selection and I will continue to come back’ and so that sellers are able to sell and make a living which in turn fuels eBay’s success,” it tells me that he either doesn’t fully get what eBay HAD represented over the first chunk of its life (4-5 years) or maybe that an attempt to recapture any of that just seems too overwhelming now since the foundation has been pulverized over time, but really - wouldn’t you prefer that buyers say “eBay is the best place to be.” Not just for value and selection, but THE BEST PLACE TO BE. Isn’t that worth the work and investment for the long term?
The problem is that there is so much to dig out from under now (for eBay) that this job would be tough. If anyone had listened over the years, it wouldn’t be quite as tough, but no one did. But wouldn’t it be preferable to simply be “the best place to be?”
There’s so much more to this, but I’m stopping. It’s already far too rambling, and I’ve had too little sleep. Anyone can feel free to tear this apart, too 
I know it’s flawed - but my main defense lies in the need for being brief (and I’m sure some would say I failed at brevity ).
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