eBay (EBAY)
eBay was once the hippest and most popular online shopping site on the internet. However, as the novelty wore off and online retail competition increased, eBay started to lose momentum, particularly to Amazon (AMZN: Charts, News, Offers). Amazon really started stepping on eBay’s toes when it launched the Amazon Marketplace feature, which allows its users to sell their items directly to Amazon visitors. The Marketplace is similar to eBay in many ways, but with no bidding option. For a while, eBay was struggling to regain some of its lost market share, but something has changed. What new development has eBay discovered? What does this mean for the company’s future?
Daily Chart
If you are not able to see the chart, your email client probably does not support javascript. To view it, please click here
Stock Analysis
Just as the concept of the internet revolutionized the retail sector years ago, the smart phone is doing it again. The explosion in popularity with smart phones has made the internet more accessible than ever before. People can literally be connected to the web 24/7. This constant user availability is exactly what eBay is trying to take advantage of. The adoption of smart phone technology in everyday life has created more market share for the eBay to capture. As a result, eBay has been working feverishly to secure as much of the mobile market as possible. How is eBay doing this?
As expected, eBay is establishing itself in the mobile marketplace with smart phone applications. It has launched a total of 14 applications so far, but it is eBay’s application development strategy that is making the mobile program so profitable for the company. eBay is rolling out its applications on a category basis. This selection process allows the online auction company to be the first to the market with the most lucrative product categories, which has helped eBay gain a leg up on the competition. eBay has even bolstered its mobile application power with its recent purchase of RedLaser. RedLaser is a mobile app that allows users to take pictures of various product barcodes and compare prices.
Overall, eBay is doing a fantastic job of staying ahead of the curve. It has identified mobile shopping as a huge opportunity for growth, and is timing its mobile functionality releases perfectly. Its sense of urgency has been instrumental in developing the mobile market. However, eBay also knows that just because it is the first does not mean it will be the last- more competition is sure to follow. Amazon has already rolled out several mobile applications, and eBay wants to do everything that it can to prevent its arch rival from stealing its market share again. The battle for mobile retail supremacy has really just begun. eBay is hoping that it can incorporate its new RedLaser technology with its current application offerings to further advance its mobile presence and push company profits higher.
More News About eBay
- Jimmy Buffett’s Charity Gig Ticket Banned From eBay – eBay protects its image and Jimmy Buffet’s good intentions by preventing “free” tickets from being resold on its website.
- eBay Asks Apple to Allow Charity Donations via iPhone and iPad Applications – The online auction website tries to convince Apple (AAPL: Charts, News, Offers) to make a policy change for its mobile application store. Find out the details.
Other Stocks in the Headlines
- Apple May Have iPhone 4 Antenna Patch – Apple Inc. (AAPL: Charts, News, Offers) is frantically trying to address growing concerns about its new iPhone reception. Does it have a solution?
- Google vs. China: Search Giant Blinks – Google (GOOG: Charts, News, Offers) tries to strike a balance between company goals and government restrictions in China. Is it working though?
Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel has got eBay accurately sized up: Sell! Sell! Sell!
Anyone that recommends buying eBay stock surely has to be receiving a consideration from eBay, or they are simply totally naïve as to what is currently happening at eBay.
This whale is beached and has died and since April Fools Day has been stinking; no amount of pumping by naïve analysts and journalists, who do no more than regurgitate the nonsenses that emanate directly from the eBay Dept of Spin, is going to inflate it and get it floating again. Just ask John Donahoe how things are going and you will get a different answer every day.
You think that 1989 San Bernardino train disaster and its aftermath was spectacular? In my crystal ball I can see an eBay train wreck approaching; it’s due to arrive in the evening of 21 July; this one’s going to be as horrifically spectacular; but as horrific as it is going to be, you simply won’t be able to look away. Mark your diary so you don’t forget to watch, and have your video camera on the ready (catch the train driver—that’s the one behaving like an excited chimpanzee—waving his arms around in the air)—you may be able to sell the footage to the WSJ. (But, don’t worry, if you do happen to miss this event, there will be a repeat episode on 21 October.)
If nothing else it will be interesting to hear who John Donahoe blames this time for the fiasco that has been eBay’s IT operation since April Fools Day; undoubtedly his creative reporting will show that it was all the fault of all those many unwashed, irritating, ignorant, “noisy”, flea-market passengers travelling in third-class—not the criminal fool driving the train, Donahoe himself, of course …
More fun with the ‘eBafia Don’ at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/fo.....?p=6502877
What possible good is RedLaser to eBay. Due to eBay’s constant fee increases, prices on eBay are no longer the best available. Merchants surely aren’t going to direct buyers to eBay when they can direct them to their own sites, or elsewhere, and avoid eBay’s ever higher and higher profit-sucking fees.
Why then would anyone (even eBay) want to promote a technology that is probably going to direct buyers away from their own principal site? Then, we have to assume that this most unscrupulous organization, eBay that is, won’t fiddle with the algorithm to favor themselves, don’t we? Sounds like another “Skype” purchase to me. Oh, sorry, I forgot, PayPal is going to be eBay’s major growth area in the future. Oh yeah, dream on …
Draft Media Release
“It is with very great sadness that eBay’s Chief Headless Turkey, John Donahoe (aka “Peter Principle”—among many other derogatory terms), announces the probable demise of eBay’s most ugly daughter, PayPal. PayPal is about to be stricken by particularly virulent strains of Visa+CyberSource and Mastercard open platform, aggravated by an insurmountable lack of direct financial institutions participation and a great deal of PayPal user/merchant dissatisfaction, particularly with respect to PayPal’s grossly unfair, “all responsibility avoiding” UA, primitive risk management processes, and totally unprofessional, buyer-biased, fraud-facilitating, transactions mediation.
“PayPal’s health may therefore be expected to deteriorate and, if ultimately not completely incapacitated, will most likely be eventually confined to its mandatory offering on what little there will be by then left of the Donahoe-devastated eBay marketplaces. There is no cure for this condition, and the “eBafia Don” is particularly saddened by the inevitable presumption that it is unlikely that PayPal will be able to continue to underpin eBay’s sagging bottom line in the future.”
In Australia, unlike all other payments processors operating here, PayPal has declined to sign up to the payments processors’ “Code of Conduct”. The clear message therefrom is “user beware”!
The fact is, had the original developers of the “bankcard” concept ever behaved the way PayPal behaves, credit/debit cards would never have gotten off the ground, and we would still be paying for all our purchases with pieces of paper and little metal discs.
A detailed examination of and prognosis for PayPal (including a further link to the “PayPal Nightmare Tour”) at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/fo.....?p=6504554