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Internet eBay Chief Prepares for Retirement
Brandon Hill (Blog) - January 22, 2008 11:42 AM

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16 comment(s) - last by BPB.. on Jan 23 at 10:14 AM

eBay CEO Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman's ten-year tenure at eBay is coming to an end

eBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman has been with the company for nearly 10 years. When Whitman took over the helm, the company had 30 employees -- the company now has over 15,000 employees and brought in nearly $6 billion USD in revenue last year.

Shortly after joining eBay, Whitman commented that "No CEO should stay more than a decade in the same job." Whitman is taking her own advice and will retire from her position as CEO within the coming weeks according to the Wall Street Journal.

The prime candidate for the CEO position is John Donahue, president of eBay's marketplace business. Donahue would be tasked with strengthening eBay's auction business which accounts for over two-thirds of the company's revenue. Although eBay's auction business continues to grow year-over-year, the rate of growth has slowed recently.

eBay came under fire just over a year ago when it announced a new round of fee increases for regular auctions and fixed-price listings. eBay sellers who also accepted PayPal, another eBay-owned service, faced the double whammy of payment processing fees in addition to the increased auction fees.

Many sellers cried out for Google Checkout support on eBay, but the company's policies at the time -- and currently -- prevented the use of the competing payment service.

eBay also introduced a new feedback system earlier this year aimed at providing buyers with more information on sellers. As is the usual case when a new system is brought in to replace a decade-old staple, reaction was mixed at first. However, most sellers have warmed up to the idea of having their performance scored on four key areas: Item as described, Communication, Shipping time and Shipping and Handling charges.

Although eBay is best known for its online auction marketplace and PayPal, the company also owns Skype, Half.com and StubHub.com.

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Craigslist FTW

By therealnickdanger on 1/22/2008 12:11:17 PM , Rating: 4

While I realize that eBay is still a monster compared to CL, I am one of many that stopped using eBay altogether due to CL.

RE: Craigslist FTW

By kinnoch on 1/22/2008 12:20:03 PM , Rating: 2

ebay also owns 25% of craigslist. Although craigslist won't let them buy a larger share.

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RE: Craigslist FTW

By AlexWade on 1/22/2008 12:50:28 PM , Rating: 1

I abandoned "FeeBay" years ago. They just kept adding fees and adding fees. Then they forced you to use PayPal, which added even more fees. I broke out of that cycle.

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RE: Craigslist FTW

By Oregonian2 on 1/22/2008 4:38:25 PM , Rating: 2

Forced you to use Paypal? A large number of their auctions are forbidden to use Paypal!

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RE: Craigslist FTW

By Oregonian2 on 1/22/2008 4:40:26 PM , Rating: 2

I use it often and have for a very long time. And I still like it.

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Retail sellers only

By cubanx on 1/22/2008 12:34:55 PM , Rating: 2

Ebay's seller fee's are starting to get up there so pretty soon the guy that wants to sell a few items here won't bother to use them. More and more you are starting to see more Store fronts on ebay and the deals are less and less. Might as well buy from a online retailer with a product warranty.

RE: Retail sellers only

By Oregonian2 on 1/22/2008 4:45:39 PM , Rating: 2

What is the alternative that you would use? Sidewalk garage sale next summer (getting to keep 100% of the money, albeit only a tenth as much)? Craig's list ad?

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RE: Retail sellers only

By PandaBear on 1/22/2008 8:58:51 PM , Rating: 2

Craigslist for the win.

I don't mind buying from Ebay or half.com for rare items. For commodities I usually buy local with CL. I really hate it when they force you to charge only $2 or so extra for first class shipping regardless of size when you use half.com, I refuse to provide priority/ first class for that reason.

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ebay greed

By goku on 1/22/2008 12:49:48 PM , Rating: 2

It's Ebay's greed that is their weakness. They're so desperate to show growth to investors that instead of making the site more accessible, they increase the fees to push out the little guy and make more on the power sellers. They have no growth, the only growth they've had was in profits and that was because of their growing fee structure. I used to like Ebay, but now that it's so unprofitable to use Ebay, I just avoid it altogether. It's too bad though because I'd be selling on Ebay as we speak if it wasn't for their atrocious fees.

RE: ebay greed

By Ringold on 1/22/2008 4:37:31 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
It's Ebay's greed that is their weakness. They're so desperate to show growth to investors that instead of making the site more accessible, they increase the fees to push out the little guy and make more on the power sellers. They have no growth, the only growth they've had was in profits and that was because of their growing fee structure.

"Greed" is a meaningless word* unfortunately, made so by the over-use found in the course of class warfare, but that aside, you almost identified the real problem; improper application of greed, or pursuit of greed, not the actual greed itself. I think Jim Cramer at least has been talking about how poorly run Ebay has been under this woman. Wall Street isn't blind. This doesn't, therefore, surprise me at all. No doubt soon she'll come out and say she wants to spend time with family. Someone else will come in, who is every bit as "greedy", and just do a better more sustainable job of growing the business -- and profits.

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RE: ebay greed

By Oregonian2 on 1/22/2008 4:43:10 PM , Rating: 2

Qualification for they not being greedy is for them to gimme something free.

:-)

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Submittals

By TimberJon on 1/22/2008 1:49:39 PM , Rating: 2

Where can I submit my resume?

RE: Submittals

By kinnoch on 1/22/2008 2:56:29 PM , Rating: 2

ebaycareers.com! I'm sure thats where they'll list their CEO position.

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She isn't "pondering" retirement

By Kensei on 1/22/2008 5:04:57 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Whitman is taking her own advice and will retire from her position as CEO within the coming weeks

I think the article title in inaccurate. She is not thinking about retiring.... she is going to retire.

Kensei

RE: She isn't "pondering" retirement

By Oregonian2 on 1/22/2008 5:55:30 PM , Rating: 2

To be inaccurate she'd have to be doing it without think about it.

But I'd agree the title is perhaps incomplete . :-)

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I often use Amazon now

By BPB on 1/23/2008 10:14:26 AM , Rating: 2

This may sound silly to some, but many items I would have once gotten via eBay I now get via Amazon using their feature which allows you to buy new and used items from other sellers. I've gotten many DVD's for very lost cost this way, and ALWAYS cheaper than eBay.