Is John Donahoe Finally Turning eBay Around?
Is any tech CEO more reviled by his or her own customers than eBay’s John Donahoe? In online forums, sellers seethe about the higher fees and site changes he’s implemented. They write and sign petitions calling for his ouster. Even eBay employees voted him onto Glassdoor.com’s “Naughty List” of CEOs with the highest disapproval ratings.
But while just a few months ago, Donahoe seemed destined to steer the e-commerce giant into irrelevance, a consensus is now starting to emerge that he may instead be turning it around. Investors have driven the stock up 71 percent since it hit a 52-week low on March 9, compared with a 44 percent rise in the Nasdaq. Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said last week that he sees “many evidences of turnaround” at the company. And the ever-volatile Jim Cramer rebuffed viewer demands to put Donahoe on his gimmicky “CEO Wall of Shame,” saying the stock could rally further.
Most of Donahoe’s changes are small but significant, in that they go a long way toward safer, easier shopping. For example, Aggarwal estimated that more than half of the items sold on eBay are now available for free shipping, up from less than 10 percent last year. “Free shipping” is important as it’s a phrase that generates higher conversion rates in online ads. eBay’s own search engine now promotes more reliable sellers. Recent fee changes have, by Aggarwal’s count, increased the number of listings beyond those found on Amazon. Perhaps most encouraging: Donahoe has finally come up with a coherent description of the new eBay: It’s not Amazon, or even Overstock.com. It’s an online big-box discounter, like Costco.
Other parts of eBay’s cluttered corporate structure are being addressed as well. Donahoe sold StumbleUpon back to its founders and is mulling the retirement of the Kijiji classified site. Skype is gathering enough momentum to allow for a sale or spinoff at a respectable price.
Strategically, much of these changes make sense, but it’s not clear to what degree they’re resonating, especially with consumers. Quantcast data suggests weekly traffic to eBay continues to erode relative to Amazon’s. And comScore’s data from April, the most recent available, showed a 15 percent year-over-year drop in eBay traffic — although that’s a slight improvement over the 20 percent declines logged in both February and March.
Even if the changes work, they don’t address what may be the biggest challenge to eBay’s future: Craigslist. Yes, eBay owns a significant stake in Craigslist. But Craigslist’s for-sale listings, which are free to post, still compete with eBay’s fee-based listings. During the last recession, people looking to raise quick cash by selling their stuff turned to eBay. This time, they turn to Craigslist.
If Craigslist wanted to kneecap eBay, it could find a way to make its for-sale listings nationwide, not just locally, and facilitate shipping arrangements. There’s no way eBay’s fee-dependent revenues would be able to compete with free. That would make the challenges John Donahoe faces today look small.
eBay owns 25% of Craigslist. Anything less than 51% of a privately held company that will never go public isn’t a significant stake.
eBay bout 25% OF cRAIGSLIST FROM a sigle person. What an asshole watch in a year they’ll be distroying craigslist too.
If eBay is all about profit, loss, corporate success, and squashing competitors, then maybe it is being turned around. But if eBay is about community and customer experience, then I’d suggest that eBay has lost its way.
A controlling stake, no. But judging from the way Craigslist tried to dilute that stake down, I’d bet they think it’s significant.
But there is no company in the history of startups that hasn’t diluted like that. eBay’s lawsuit against them was sour grapes.
Well, you can listen to the guru’s like Jim Cramer (who just a couple of months ago called ebay that “hapless” company) you can look at your mysterious figures. Down in the trenches the sellers will tell you a different story and so far that story has been upheld by the declining last two quarters Ebay reported! Before January, 2008 I had my sights set on powerseller status – which is difficult because I make everything I sell. Business was good – money was rolling in for me. 2008 was the big turning point for small sellers. I’ve sold only 11 items in the past month and my last 3 items are sitting stagnant with only ONE view between all three in the last 24 hours. Is it me? No…go to the discussion boards and you will see the same complain all over. Read the comments threads on articles and you’ll see it again and again. How Ebay is hiding this is beyond me. They are masters of only ONE thing – manipulation of figures to present them in the very best light and to hide the rot underneath. So….at this point I can only see Ebay turning more and more to failure. They lost tons of buyers because most of Ebay’s buyers are also sellers – a fact they keep on ignoring. I see failure for Donahoe and its well-earned.
Should Donahoe ever be able to dismiss most of its sellers and turn into a cheap Amazon clone there is still one fact they don’t understand. They’ve lost the reputation they once had – they’ve become the most hated company on the internet and they won’t outlive it. Thousands upon thousands of sellers who were put out of business will continue making “noise” and using word of mouth will see to that!
10+ year constant Ebay seller.
“Before January 2008 … money was rolling in for me … [but] I’ve sold only 11 items in the past month”
Have you ever heard the word ‘recession’ said?
Sales are down as a direct reaction to policy changes for sellers. I am a powerseller and my sales are down 70% since the changes last month. NOT RECESSION! Donahoe is trying to turn eBay into an Amazon; they do not care about the seller they make changes without providing a bulk edit platform that works in hopes that the masses will just let GTC listings relist and absorb the rate hike. A real example… a listing last month that cost me $0.35 this month would be $1.85, who has time to go line by line and edit hundreds or thousands of listings so you simply end the item, eat the rate hike or join the ebay exodus. Ecrator here I come. No more Monopoly; I could see the writing on the wall when they sent me an email stating that I could only accept ebay owned Paypal payments.
Ebay PowerSeller and sometimes PowerBuyer.
Although the eBay stock is headed north, it has less to do with the core marketplace and more to do with the simplification of the corporate structure. Amazon’s third party sellers are growing >30% YoY while eBay is shrinking (albeit single digit points)… As eBay has raised prices and changed their algorythm, they have pushed out the great deals and the fun from their marketplace making a collision with Amazon inevitable.
Interesting to see that you think Craigslist is the impending threat not Amazon. Craigslist website is awesome for what it does. Though a national craigslist seems improbable. Craigslist would need to have merchant reputations ( Right now everyone who is not an abuser is assumed to be good) , Change search and add browse. All together it would ruin what craigslist is .. And seriously why would you use craigslist if the chances of fraud are much much higher
Lessee here…
eBay traffic? Down and still trending down for months on end.
eBay profits? Not bad, but coming at the expense of things like 21 day holds on PayPal withdrawals by sellers (huge float to draw interest there), increased fees and just generally the generation of a lot of ill will among all but the largest sellers.
Evidence of turnaround? Apparently the stock price. And what does the price of a stock really tell us? I submit that except in the case of a company in severe distress, it tells us nothing more than stock investors still move in herds.
eBay turning around? Ya know, from my perspective as a small occasional seller there in days gone by, the answer has to be a resounding no. eBay has well and truly lost touch with its roots. It’s on the way to doing what all corporations seem to do eventually and that is utterly forgetting who they are, where they came from and what it was they originally set out to do.
Turning around? No. A blip in the stock price? Sure.
People who think Paypal tries to increase float in order to earn interest income are morons.
That’s what I call a nice, reasoned argument, especially when that isn’t even what the post you are responding to says. None the less, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that when you hold money from a massive number of transactions, even when those individual transactions may be small, that the float is in fact quite a considerable sum.
I won’t get into labels and name calling. As a general rule, I find that people who resort to that sort of thing right off the bat do so because they have no real argument to make. YMMV.
I have read that the “float” on that held up money is upwards of 40 million dollars a year and that does not include the new “rolling reserves” that also holds back sellers’ money. They now say that 40 figure has probably doubled! Paypal, not under banking regulations, can do as it darn well pleases…and that’s just what Ebay is making it do. I can tell you I’ve had a Paypal shopping cart system on my website for many years and they do NOT act the way they do in Ebay transactions! On my website, I am Paypal’s customer and I’m treated with respect – on Ebay I’m just one of the herd to be milked for as much revenue as possible!
would this above moron be John donahoe
props to you three.
eBay is going the way of the dinosaurs…..extinct…I have bought and sold on eBay since 2000, and this year is the worst year on record for sales. I am lucky if I get one sale per month. Dispicable isn’t it? The category I list in generally has oodles of listings and bidders galore that produced record high final end prices. Now, forget about it. The bottom has dropped out, and I am packing it in. Since Donahue took over, it’s been nothing but bad news bears. Don’t hold out for a turnaround with him at the wheel. He’s on a collision course and he’s taking you all along for the doomed ride. Get out while you can people! It’s time to move all your eggs into another basket or two. Forget about FeePay once and for all!!!
John Donahoe wants Costco like bargain hunters. JD fails to realize that eBay once had these buyers by the millions.
eBay has been alienating these buyers in huge numbers starting back as early as 2005. It’s no coincidence that the alienation started just after JD joined eBay as President of Marketplaces.
System changes, policy changes, faulty search methods, huge fee increases, and poor implementation across the board have all served to combine and push buyers and sellers away from eBay in record numbers. Now, JD wants them back….Go figure.
In just over a year since formally taking over as CEO, JD has claimed to have one answer after another to bring eBay back. Each has failed to produce results so he rolls out another and it fails.
When will he realize that futility is the act of making the same mistakes over and over again yet expecting a different result?
First it was Diamond Sellers, results – none.
Then it was to mimic Amazon, without all the things that makes Amazon a success, another failure.
A few weeks ago, the latest salvation was going to be liquidators.
And now, eBay wants to be Costco. . Sooner or later, when JD runs out of schemes and business models to poorly imitate as he continues trying to bamboozle shareholders into thinking he has a solid paln, he will get around to the one that has been staring him in the face all along…. Let eBay be eBay by returning to its roots.
JD needs to stop giving speeches to other organizations and instead, communicate directly with his remaining users.
Maybe JD should take a page out of Auctiva founder and CEO Jeff Schlicht’s playbook, and publicly apologize to buyers and sellers.
Apologize for dismissing and ignoring complaints from buyers and sellers, and for referring to them as ‘noise’.
Apologize for systematically destroying the sense of community that was the cornerstone eBay was founded upon.
Apologize for all the poorly thought out changes and all the horribly implemented system revisions.
Apologize for and roll back the massive fee increases which have alienated sellers, driven up prices, and motivated buyers to find real bargains on other sites like Amazon.
The answer has been staring JD in the face all along, but he has been to arrogant and refuses to see it.
Try something new – turn eBay into….well… eBay.
John Donahoe has implemented changes to Ebay that have totally ruined my buying experience. He has insulted all customers publicly and the “new” Ebay treats customers terribly. I no longer buy there. I take my money somewhere else.
Well said RicRoe…
Truly eBay is now a ship without a captain, rudder or sail…eBay management has no clue as to the direction eBay needs to go.
All of John Donahoe’s “magic” has been done with mirrors to fool Wall Street and the Investors..JD talks out of both sides of his mouth…He has lied about the true health and vigor of eBay and cooked the books to make eBay appear healthy….
There needs to be a full investigation by the Wall Street governing board to review the stock sales of Meg, Pierre, and other top management from 2007 to present..Insider Trading was obvious – Meg and Company knew that the Jan 2008 John Donahoe roll-out was going to tank eBay, and they were right!…..there should some eBay principals be paying the same penalty to society that was forced upon Martha Stewart for stock manipulation…Jail time!!
Read this blog for unbiased true picture of where eBay is at present…. http://ebay33ebay.blogspot.com/
I am abandoning ebay for good starting from today. Can you believe they antagonised me 4 times in a month for various reasons?? It seems they are weeding out ALL the smaller sellers. I am sending mails to all my past ebay clients to tell them I moved now! I am not angry, I am MAD! Mad enough to give up 4000+ good feedback reputation. They just do not welcome my company at all!
John Donahoe has succeeded only in destroying the main reason I shopped at eBay in the first place: Unique, one-of-a-kind items, and rare/vintage stuff. He’s focused totally on “new new new,” and all that’s left are junk sellers importing crap knock-off stuff, and DVD’s — both of which are better purchased elsewhere. All my favorite sellers have left, and the influx of “clearing out the garage” folks — which is where i used to get MANY of the items I bought there — seems to have decreased as well. eBay should be doing GREAT right now with the recession, but they’re flailing because Donahoe wants to remake something ugly that works into something “new” and shiny, that sucks. I think it’s past the point of no return at this point. The emerge a completely different entity, and much less valuable, like Borland did when it tried “reinventing” itself in the 90’s.
Person to person buying and selling was what put ebay on the map. Ebay was the everyman’s web presence because your item was all that mattered. You werent judged on how much money you had preloaded into your paypal account, how many $$$ you ate on your shipping, or any of the other wacko spaceshot policies dreamed up by non sellers.
The bare-bones ebay concept is still a great idea and I hope the smaller competitors start to merge. It would be a dream come true to see a YahooAuctions-style company appear and give ebay a good dropkick. Or have napster-like auctions between computers, with no centralized host site. (This was under development in the late 90’s- ebay STAMPED it out.)
Not every seller is a business, but all have some nice items to offer. I just hope it’s not too late for person-to-person sales on the internet.
I completely agree that person-to person buying and selling is what made eBay a friendly and fun online market, but oh how times have changed. In addition to soaring listing fees, final value fees and PayPal fees, eBay has done its sellers a huge disservice. eBay’s newly implemented Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) have left every seller at every buyers’ mercy. Sellers no longer have the opportunity to leave negative feedback for buyers and trust me – some buyers are just looking for an axe to grind. While I have never received a complaint and my DSRs are solid, I haven’t sold anything on eBay for the last three months because I decided to focus on my creative efforts instead of selling my personal collectables. As a result, eBay “docked” my last three transactions from my overall feedback. Instead of having 62 zippy little gold stars on my “number of ratings,” I now have 59. I won’t bore you with the details of eBay’s explanation, but suffice it to say, I have been penalized for my absence on eBay. I’ve been a seller since 1999 and I am furious.
The only good thing I can write about Meg Witman is that her eBay email address was formerly available. John Donahue’s email address is being protected. From little old me? eBay has crushed more than one small business owner and I hold John Donahue responsible.
I live in California and the while what is going on with eBay anger me, the thought of Meg Whitman possibly being our governor is terrifying!
It is up 71% to the 52 week low that occured roughly 1 year into Donahoes tenure following a big plunge. The stock is actually trading at approximately half what it was prior to his massive disruption campaign. So he hasn’t even recovered the ground he lost yet, why is everyone in the financial community applauding?
THANK YOU!
These contrived financial reports and analysis piss me off!
Donahoe has RUINED eBay, not turned it around!
As others have said, they lost their identity. If you want knock offs and brand new junk and hundreds of listings showing the same stock photo, there’s always Walmart and the dollar stores. The Amazon Lite approach is failing miserably. Endless search “improvements,” slow loading new pages and bizarre feedback policies have certainly curtailed activity.
Many of the best sellers, big and small alike have found that they can have have their own websites without the hassle and with more than one payment option. I really used to enjoy it, strange feedback and crazy packing methods and all. Now it’s too much like work.
“Now it’s too much like work.”
LOL… Amen to that!
So now if someone should want to come along and start a new ebay that is now what ebay once was, I wonder what sort of profit could be made from it.
As a long term seller (and buyer), we are now officially leaving ebay for other, friendlier venues.
Donahoe does NOT have ebay on the upswing. Rather, his changes have done nothing more than focus on making the numbers look good to wall street, all the while allowing the foundation to crumble. He’s playing a shell game, and eventually all shells will be empty.
@ Bob
Best of Luck in your post eBay experience. You are joining a group that seems to be expanding every day.
eBay is goinf to face the fruits of their labors sooner or later. One look at sellerdome.com details the exodus of long term, formerly successful sellers.
Last time I looked at the statistics for the top 100 USA sellers as shown on sellerdome, fully 28% had either become NARU or had zero items listed. You can see the exodus of sellers clear as day when you consider that eBay has lost more than a quarter of their top sellers from that list.
When the biggest successes find that it is no longer profitable to remain associated with eBay, then it is even more obvious why smaller sellers and millions of buyers have walked through the exit door which John Donahoe so kindly holds open.
Fees increase, sellers pull out taking unique merchandise listings with them, buyers can not find what they are looking for and stop purchasing. eBay volume has been in steady decline while at the same time, Amazon and other sites see double digit sales increases.
Somehow, John Donahoe is considered to be turning eBay around.
Ponderous…but maybe not.
If the definition of turn around is to reverse course and become the opposite of what it once was, then maybe, yes, Mr Donahoe can be considered to be completing a turn around.
As always, statistics have been used to create false truths and half/truths. So, you get a stock that was 40.73 (2 short years ago) and then drop it to 9.91 in less than 2 years. Then the stock recovers to a paltry $17.00 and people are calling John Donahoe a success (currently $15.99)! Now that is funny. Lets look at the stats another way and say that they have devalued more than 150% since John Donahoe took over. Pat that guy on the back will you. You have to laugh at experts who know nothing of what they speak. They try to influence people into believing rubbish. Buy some rubbish now, it’s all over ebay…and it’s cheap too!
I used to sell my invention on Ebay. I found this page (Blog) by punching in “Donahoe Ruining Ebay”. I can’t imagine it getting any worse. The Good Ole Days on Ebay……..a Very Fond Memory……We had Good Times…..Met alot of Wonderful people. I just can’t believe it’s All Gone. How could they have let this happen ?
wait and see what the 4th qtr earning are for 2009. sales are plummeting now due to donahoes top rated seller county fair badge program. Its going to be dismal. then we will see a spike up for the first qtr 2010 due to minimal 20% discounts on final value fees from ebay. come jan.2010 there will be many less top rated sellers ” who get the 20% discount” than there are now April ends the 20% discount for powersellers which will raise the earnings report for the 2nd qtr. SO all earning reports for the first half of 2010 will be artificial. F**cking donahoe is pulling the wool over ebay stockholders. I dread to see what he is going to do to the sellers come 2nd half of 2010; If ebay is still breathing.
Please – Will ANYONE HELP US – PLEASE JUST READ
Hello, My Name is Brenda Rankin eBay ID girlbiker51. I have been a eBay Seller since Sept of this year. Have a 100% Perfect Score, My Bill Always paid, As Quoted by eBay in their personal Rating of me is
“ABOVE AVERAGE”. I just open My Own Combination Neighborhood Ebay Store / Collectibles / Antiques / Surplus. I was Going Like a Rocket, Gaining New Customers Daily from simple housewives to Local Politicians. They would bring ALL Kinds of Stuff for me to List and Sell For them on Ebay. I am 51 yrs old, disabled and my husband is Terminal with Advanced Progressive C.O.P.D. and Heart Disease. This is our ONLY Source of Income. Things were going Great until 7 Days Ago. Suddenly WITHOUT ANY WARNING – EMAIL – PHONE CALL – LETTER or even a MESSAGE Left in my Message Box on Ebay, Everything Came to a DEAD STOP!!! As I was Creating a New Ad and Ready to Submit, I get this note as follows, (actually copy) -
We regret to inform you that your eBay account is prohibited from listing additional items at this time. In order to maintain a safe trading environment, selling limits are occasionally placed on accounts. This selling limit is in no way meant to question your record with eBay or standing within the eBay community. To resolve this situation, please contact eBay’s Safe Harbor Department using the Webworm on the following help page.
We sincerely value you as a member of our trading community and look forward to a continued successful relationship. We appreciate your cooperation in resolving this matter as quickly as possible. {e25288-141474x}
I have sent over a Dozen Emails and Phone Calls to Ebay Asking Why, What Is Wrong, and How Long. For SEVEN DAYS (7) I have yet to receive an answer form ANYONE!
I Have NOT Broken a SINGLE RULE, Not A SINGLE COMPLAINT, Bills All UP TO DATE, Credit Card and Checking Account. I have been investing a LOT of Money Daily getting ready fro the Holidays. My Customer Base was Increasing 3 fold weekly. And Now, we are LOOSING Everything We Have. Besides the Fact I have Lost The RESPECT – TRUST and CONFIDENCE from My Area and Old and New Customers alike. They don’t and won’t believe me when I try to explain I have done nothing wrong. In all my life I have NEVER Been so Humiliated, Disgraced, Shamed and Disrespected like this.
And the Two WORSE Part is, For One, Did Nothing Wrong to Deserve it, Two, No One Warned me and Now for 7 Days of Pleading, Asking and even Begging, for a Answer and or Response, Still Nothing to this Date and Time of Oct. 14, 2009 4:00 pm est. I ask as Humble as I know how, PLEASE, WILL SOMEONE Hear and Listen To My Cry for Help and Seek out Why I have been done in this matter and will I ever be allowed back to Sell Again? We are now preparing to Sell Everything we own and move from the area. We are in Total Disgrace and Without Any Other Customers. This act of Ebay, has Literally DESTROYED Us and Our Business in 1 week. Please, Help. Brenda Rankin at bikerbrenda51@hotmail.,com
I run my own business on ebay, and my brother runs one too. My father also has an account on ebay. we all live in a building with provided internet. Ebay has suspended my account and refuses to tell me why. They told my borhter that his account is linked through finacial information to another account but won’t tell him how. They told my father that all he had to do was pay the fees that he owed. Fees that Paypal would not let send to ebay for over six months. after he fought with ebay for a montha and a half paypal finally released his fund to him (over $1500 that was illegally held) after paying his fees they then removed him as a seller and closed his store down. My borther and I are still suspended with no expination and for no reason. We both have %100 5 star possitive feedback rating.
Ebay is nothing but a buch of lying thugs. I recomend you leave while you still can. There are many other sites that offer the same survieces one that I would recomend is onlineauction.com I am not curently selling on there but trust me I will be if I don’t see some drastic changes soon.
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