3 ms·

The best big tech company? Maybe presently people have no major beefs with the organization. But there have been more than enough negative actions by this com

The best big tech company? Maybe presently people have no major beefs with the organization. But there have been more than enough negative actions by this company in the past including: Suing craigslist (and losing) for breach of fiduciary duty because it wouldn't exploit its users enough. This was knowing that the shares were acquired in conflict with the ownership and mission of craigslist. eBay tried to get inside information from Craigslist while it was secretly preparing release of Kijiji.[1] eBay has been facilitating the sale of counterfeit items long before Amazon. Many sellers were upset by the requirement to use PayPal anded even acted to ban use of competing services. So while the heat may be on Amazon, I would hold off on elevating eBay to some superior ethical position. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120959923436057759 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120959923436057759

JohnFen 7y ago
Yes, this. I don't consider eBay to be a "good guy". But they do increasingly appear to be the best of a bad bunch.
nacs 7y ago
Also, they own Paypal which itself has tons of issues (it had them before the purchase and apparently those issues continue as regular HN posts show).
- smeyer 7y ago
  >they own Paypal They spun Paypal off into an independent company in 2015.
  - GarrisonPrime 7y ago
    Yes, technically the are separate. But given how tightly the systems remain integrated, it appears that was just for show.
    - smeyer 7y ago
      >given how tightly the systems remain integrated Ebay is moving away from its tight integration with Paypal and has a deal with a new payment processor (Adyen) after it's current paypal deal ends in 2020. Between that and the fact that they're two public companies with separate freely traded ownership, it's hard for me to buy the argument that the spin off was "just for show". https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-to-intermediate-payments-on-its-marketplace-platform/ https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-to-intermediate-pa...
      - empyrical 7y ago
        Also (in Canada at least) they are using a service called "Shippo" for shipping labels, instead of PayPal's shipping label service
- lavezzi 7y ago
  They *owned Paypal
vonmoltke 7y ago
> Suing craigslist (and losing) for breach of fiduciary duty because it wouldn't exploit its users enough. The lawsuit had nothing to do with "exploiting users". It was about Newmark and Buckmaster's attempt to dilute eBay's shares. A lawsuit eBay won.
- bredren 7y ago
  The fiduciary duty was to eBay. Which means eBay wanted craigslist to make more money, either through ads, data sales or both. Craigslist is so comparably benevolent, any additional revenue would have exploited its users. The lawsuit also involved reversing the staggered board elections craigslist put in place specifically to prevent eBay from gaining access to confidential material. Both the share dilution and board procedural change were done in response to ebay’s surprise launch of an attempted direct competitor to craigslist. Both sides claimed victory, and eBay did not end up influencing Craigslist in any way. So it is hard to paint it as much of a victory. [1] And whatever you think of craigslists slow, stodgy UX and feature set, it is hard to imagine if eBay had gained control having some positive impact on the site’s destiny apart from some comparably exploitive direction. Ebay wanted first to make money off craigslist, and failing that to get info that would allow their competing biz to do so. [1] https://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2010/09/10/did-ebay-really-win-its-case-against-craigslist/ https://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2010/09/10/did-ebay-really...

JohnFen 7y ago

Yes, this. I don't consider eBay to be a "good guy". But they do increasingly appear to be the best of a bad bunch.

nacs 7y ago

Also, they own Paypal which itself has tons of issues (it had them before the purchase and apparently those issues continue as regular HN posts show).

smeyer 7y ago
>they own Paypal They spun Paypal off into an independent company in 2015.
- GarrisonPrime 7y ago
  Yes, technically the are separate. But given how tightly the systems remain integrated, it appears that was just for show.
  - smeyer 7y ago
    >given how tightly the systems remain integrated Ebay is moving away from its tight integration with Paypal and has a deal with a new payment processor (Adyen) after it's current paypal deal ends in 2020. Between that and the fact that they're two public companies with separate freely traded ownership, it's hard for me to buy the argument that the spin off was "just for show". https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-to-intermediate-payments-on-its-marketplace-platform/ https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-to-intermediate-pa...
    - empyrical 7y ago
      Also (in Canada at least) they are using a service called "Shippo" for shipping labels, instead of PayPal's shipping label service
lavezzi 7y ago
They *owned Paypal

vonmoltke 7y ago

> Suing craigslist (and losing) for breach of fiduciary duty because it wouldn't exploit its users enough. The lawsuit had nothing to do with "exploiting users". It was about Newmark and Buckmaster's attempt to dilute eBay's shares. A lawsuit eBay won.

bredren 7y ago
The fiduciary duty was to eBay. Which means eBay wanted craigslist to make more money, either through ads, data sales or both. Craigslist is so comparably benevolent, any additional revenue would have exploited its users. The lawsuit also involved reversing the staggered board elections craigslist put in place specifically to prevent eBay from gaining access to confidential material. Both the share dilution and board procedural change were done in response to ebay’s surprise launch of an attempted direct competitor to craigslist. Both sides claimed victory, and eBay did not end up influencing Craigslist in any way. So it is hard to paint it as much of a victory. [1] And whatever you think of craigslists slow, stodgy UX and feature set, it is hard to imagine if eBay had gained control having some positive impact on the site’s destiny apart from some comparably exploitive direction. Ebay wanted first to make money off craigslist, and failing that to get info that would allow their competing biz to do so. [1] https://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2010/09/10/did-ebay-really-win-its-case-against-craigslist/ https://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2010/09/10/did-ebay-really...