4 ms·

Was eBay a Fad?

• bprater 18y ago
  With the economy slumping, I wouldn't be surprised to see a resurgance at Ebay.
  • andreyf 18y ago
    Or at a startup that's on its way to replace eBay :)
    • dmix 18y ago
      This is in an industry of scale. For that very fact alone starting a company in this area would be a really bad idea. It's not even on the decline yet let alone in a weak position.
• andreyf 18y ago
  No. eBay was a good idea at the time executed without enough mobility. Auctions are losing a ton of share, and fixed price has been gaining pretty steadily. This might be because fixed price distributors have gotten smarter at setting prices, not because fixed price is inherently better than auctions.
• babul 18y ago
  Wasn't this article here last week? (albeit on another url)
  • bouncingsoul 18y ago
    Yes: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=207995 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=207995
• jgamman 18y ago
  britannica has the chutzpah to comment on anything to do with the web?
  • fbailey 18y ago
    I'm not sure about Brittannica, but I would say that Nicholas Carr has earned the right to comment on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Carr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Carr
• dant 18y ago
  It doesn't really say that ebay are doing less auctions than before, just that fixed price are gaining share. I doubt auctions will die off completely.
• antidaily 18y ago
  You just can't find some of the stuff on eBay elsewhere, which makes me think it'll stick around. Also, they have http://www.express.ebay.com/ http://www.express.ebay.com/ now.
• patrickg-zill 18y ago
  No, I think eBay shot themselves in the foot by acting arrogant towards both sellers and buyers.