Comparing revenues is a rather myopic way to compare these two companies. eBay is selling a venue and some added virtual services, exclusively. Amazon is selling material goods (and some virtual goods) for the most part. Different products means different things to consider. The promising thing to consider in eBay’s latest reports is that the number of material/virtual goods sold via eBay has begun rising again, after a bit of a slump. You’d have to do some research, but I believe eBay sold over $50billiion worth of material and virtual goods last year while Amazon sold just over $10 or $12 billion. That did not translate into equal or even similar revenues but both companies are making plenty of money, but it’s key to note that they both make money in very different ways.

If you were to factor in revenues for every item sold (by third parties, exclusively) via eBay it would blow Amazon’s numbers out of the water (even after including Amazon’s own “not piddly number” of 3rd party sellers). And that brings us to the real question: which site, of the big sites, has the staying power and will be the dominant ecommerce force in (the ever-increasing number of) online sales to consumers over the following years/decades? 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 3 years ago, the answer was clearly eBay and so eBay’s stock had a high trading price. eBay’s share of this market has slipped a bit over the past couple years (for a variety of reasons), and thus it’s stock has plummeted, while Amazon’s share has increased a fair bit in the same time, and thus it’s stock price has grown substantially. But for the long term, what will happen? Which company (not just between Amazon and eBay, but all the big players) is in the best position for the long haul? With eBay’s already staggering share of the online sales market combined with it’s extremely unique business model combined with it’s showing strong signs of turning it’s self around in a bleak economy, it seems apparent the answer is still eBay.

The fact that so many goods (i.e., a huge percentage, a near monopolistic number) are bought and sold via eBay relative to all other ecommerce sites, and the fact that eBay and it’s other company PayPal each get a modest cut of every sale is what eBay has going for it. The current eBay management understands the big picture for their business better than almost anyone else, and seems inclined to bring eBay’s near-monopoly status back to the practically-full-monopoly status it enjoyed for several years in the early days of the net, and as unlikely a prospect as that may seem, if you read what eBay’s management has been saying, they seem to have a very good plan for doing so. And when they eventually succeed, you can wager that eBay’s stock will be selling at an extremely high price. Buy It Now…

I have great ideas, but i’m reluctant to go to venture capitalist, who are after profits, cos they never understand karma. if you know someone in America who is not after profits but greater good of the society, let me know :o), its ok this was a JOKE hehehe..no im serious let me know

“To Matt Jul 24, 2009 4:15 PM GMT Matt: You are spot on. Patricia013 (and variations of “Patricia”) have posted anti-eBay comments on various eBay stories at numerous web sites over the last few years. Go eBay stock value!”

If so, I’m flattered to have picked up a…..”fan.” ;-) You really fool no one.

Also, people who obsess over stock charts for a living tend to regard those 1-year, YTD, etc charts as random and not very useful.

The point is right, that it’s only a reflection of how far eBay has fallen, but I had to reply since interesting-but-manipulated graphics are my pet peeve. If someone just looks at that graphic, they could quickly think, incorrectly, the wrong things.

Its a big scam people, These P/E ratios, acquisition, market cap.

In the last 10 years, is your life improved or you see prices going up all around ? Do you see more jobs ?

With all these technologies, were you able to take a long healthy break from work or got more sucked in for less salary?

These companies fire their own people and then come up with new products, its insane for profits for the top few.

I’m waiting for one tech writer to criticizes the whole tech industry that is now based on lies.