The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on eBay Threatening eBay's Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone (subscription required).
So Mr. Wieber revamped his Web site and began selling through other online companies, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Last year, his sales neared $5 million, but his eBay revenue grew at a much slower pace, making up only a quarter of the total. It will likely fall still lower. Of the auction site, where he got his start, Mr. Wieber says: "Too many sellers, not enough buyers."
EBay, with more than 147 million users world-wide, has long been regarded as the dot-com survivor that could do no wrong. Mr. Wieber's story shows why the company may be losing some of that luster. Setting up an online store is so easy these days that sellers needn't rely on eBay as a source of customers. Advertising is simple and inexpensive, thanks to new technology from companies such as Google Inc. And multiple competitors, including Amazon and Yahoo, are pulling once-loyal eBay sellers into their orbit.
On his weblog Infectious Greed Paul Kedrosky writes in his post Google Sez PayPal is Safe. It Isn't. that once Google experiences success with its on-line payment service it will it face immense pressure to broaden its product offering, which will put it squarely in PayPal's territory.
And over on Street Insight (a subscription site related to TheStreet.com), fund manager Scott Rothbort wrote on Monday:
I thought the most interesting story today was that of Google (GOOG) replicating eBay's (EBAY) PayPal platform. Slowly but surely, eBay is getting picked off left, right and center by other Internet companies. eBay no longer deserves the lofty growth and P/E ratios the stock sports.
These are certainly challenging and interesting times for eBay. I wonder which company is more challenging to lead: eBay or Disney?
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