7 ms·

This is exactly what happen to eBay: eventually, eBay become "crappy Amazon". If I'm AirBnB I would focus to be real marketplace so AirBnB does not end up as "

by tlogan 11y ago

This is exactly what happen to eBay: eventually, eBay become "crappy Amazon". If I'm AirBnB I would focus to be real marketplace so AirBnB does not end up as "crappy hotels.com" - but on other hand, eBay did extremely good (if you sold stocks before 2014).

prawn 11y ago
For a while, eBay was the default name in "looking to buy/sell something second hand" in Australia. "Just put it on eBay," that sort of thing. It was then overrun by professional sellers and I almost never hear it mentioned. People speak almost exclusively here of Gumtree which is individuals selling second hand things. Gumtree is, these days, owned by eBay.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago
  Sort of similar in the Netherlands, we had Marktplaats (marketplace). Pretty much totally dominated the market, eBay bought them actually. Now? I barely hear anyone about it, haven't used it in a long time. It, too, is pretty much dominated by professional sellers now. If you look for product XYZ the first full page of hits (it's beyond ridiculous) are dedicated sellers who paid for the spot or just spam the same stuff. All of the 2nd hand trading by me and my peers now goes through FB trading groups, a natural platform to communicate in text, post images of the product, negotiate prices, get a sense of identity/trust etc. This was great for about a year, but right now all of the few FB groups I used to frequent are seeing timed posts advertising professional services and products which keep popping up on my feed, drowning out the real sellers and causing me to delist myself from the group. New niche marketplaces pretty much keep popping up that grow pretty quickly until they're big enough to get spammed by professional accounts looking for new sales channels.
  - rosege 11y ago
    Marktplaats is extremely frustrating for a non-professional seller that has come from ebay. The main issue I had with it is that the bids are not binding. So getting someone to commit once they have bid is extremely hard. Ebay should just shut it and redirect it to its own superior site.
zouhair 11y ago
I remember the days when ebay was all about how people are mainly nice.

by tlogan 11y ago

prawn 11y ago

For a while, eBay was the default name in "looking to buy/sell something second hand" in Australia. "Just put it on eBay," that sort of thing. It was then overrun by professional sellers and I almost never hear it mentioned. People speak almost exclusively here of Gumtree which is individuals selling second hand things. Gumtree is, these days, owned by eBay.

IkmoIkmo 11y ago
Sort of similar in the Netherlands, we had Marktplaats (marketplace). Pretty much totally dominated the market, eBay bought them actually. Now? I barely hear anyone about it, haven't used it in a long time. It, too, is pretty much dominated by professional sellers now. If you look for product XYZ the first full page of hits (it's beyond ridiculous) are dedicated sellers who paid for the spot or just spam the same stuff. All of the 2nd hand trading by me and my peers now goes through FB trading groups, a natural platform to communicate in text, post images of the product, negotiate prices, get a sense of identity/trust etc. This was great for about a year, but right now all of the few FB groups I used to frequent are seeing timed posts advertising professional services and products which keep popping up on my feed, drowning out the real sellers and causing me to delist myself from the group. New niche marketplaces pretty much keep popping up that grow pretty quickly until they're big enough to get spammed by professional accounts looking for new sales channels.
- rosege 11y ago
  Marktplaats is extremely frustrating for a non-professional seller that has come from ebay. The main issue I had with it is that the bids are not binding. So getting someone to commit once they have bid is extremely hard. Ebay should just shut it and redirect it to its own superior site.

zouhair 11y ago

I remember the days when ebay was all about how people are mainly nice.