EBay CEO: Ecommerce Giant To Focus On 'Secondary Market'
11 Mars 2009 - 5:55PM
Dow Jones News
EBay Inc. (EBAY) Chief Executive John Donahoe said Wednesday
that the ecommerce company would focus on the global "secondary
market," selling low-volume and liquidation products as part of its
effort to transform its core marketplace business.
"We are not a retailer," he said during a presentation at the
company's analyst meeting in San Jose, Calif. "We will focus on the
secondary market."
Donahoe didn't immediately provide details of the company's
plans to capture the lead in the "global secondary marketplace,"
but indicated that the process of transforming eBay's core business
would "take time."
He predicted that eBay's marketplace revenue would grow more
slowly than the ecommerce market in 2009, track market growth in
2010 and surpass market growth in 2011.
Donahoe, appearing at his first analysts day meeting since
becoming CEO last year, also declared that the company viewed
online auctions and fixed-price sales as formats, not strategies,
adding that shoppers want to buy things in various formats.
Donahoe also declared that online payments unit PayPal was a
second core business for the company with "an enormous
potential."
Growth at the Internet auction pioneer has waned in recent years
as online shoppers began shifting away from auctions to fixed-price
purchases on sites such as market leader Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
Investors have fled in droves, driving eBay shares down 66% in
recent trading from their 52-week high.
Ebay last year launched a series of initiatives to promote
fixed-price transactions aimed at attracting top-quality sellers
and creating a shopping experience that is more similar to
Amazon's. The company has so far failed to reverse the erosion in
its auction business, but Donahoe's comments suggest more dramatic
changes may be in store.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118;
scott.morrison@dowjones.com