Company Profile
eBay is an international commerce company operating on stub Hub, market place, and classifieds platforms. The firmallows sellers to offer their stock to buyers who locate and buy the merchandize. . The platforms are accessible through online, mobile devices, and an application programming interface. The marketplace for eBay is located on its website, www.ebay.com, its mobile applications, and among localized counterparts. eBay was incorporated on 13th March 1998 (“eBay inc”).
Company History
eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar at San Jose California, as an auction-based company called “Auction web,” to provide few items that were used for sale. eBay Pwas started to offer individuals an opportunity to sell their goods and services. From conception of the company, Pierre worked with Jeff Skoll, a business partner and later introduced a Meg Whitman (“Our history”). Whitman as the third partner was to help in sustaining the company’s success.
The first sale was made in 1995 to Mark Fraser, a Canadian, who bought a broken laser pointer through. In 1996, the company hired its first employee,Chris Agarpao to coordinate online operations for virtual shopping. In the same year, Pierre introduced a feedback system to ensure that buyers and sellers attained a fair trade by giving them community information. This system remains one of the most successful features about eBay. eBay made more than 7.2 million dollars sales in the first two years. Jeff Skroll took the presidentship of the company in 1996 (“Our history”).
Growth and Development of the Company
eBay made its one millionth sale two years later , after selling a jack-in-the-box bird. In 1997, the company’s name was changed from Auction Web to eBay. Subsequently, the company went public in 1998 and sold more than $53 shares in a single day. In 2000, the company started eBay University, which focused on assisting upcoming sellers to identify their grip in the marketplace globally. At that time, the company established other subsidiary companies such a Half.com and introduced an option to buy items immediately through a “buy it now” choice on their website. In 2001, the company introduced stores that gave sellers an option to open personal dedicated eBay shops to consumers to copy other upcoming online ecommerce enterprises. In 2006, eBay made a wide development by partnering with PayPal payment processing system (“History of eBay”). They parted ways in 2015.
CEO Information
Since 2015, Devin Wenig has been the CEO and president of eBay. He is the third CEO since inception of the company. The purpose-driven leader has seen the company’s annual volume grow from $60.3 billion to $95 billion between 2011 and 2018. In addition, the customer base has increased by 81%. Other achievements under his leadership include transformation of business through data led repel forming, artificial intelligence investment, differentiation of the brand, mobile experience redesign and global expansion (“eBay Inc”).
Devin is a great fan of sports, an amateur coder, runner, and art enthusiast. One of his greatest passions is applying technology to positively impact communities globally (“eBay Inc”). Devin receives a salary of $18,172,166 as total compensation and serves the society as a board member of different areas, including Marina Biotech, Nastech pharmaceuticals and March of Dimes (“David.N.Wenig”).
Major Competitors
eBay has several major competitors, including Amazon.com and Alibaba.com. Some of the striking features of eBay in comparison to its competitors are summarized below.
Business Model | Pricing | Sellers Service | |
EBay | Auction house, assisting sale between third party sellers and buyers | Wholesale pricing strategy, providing an auction or “buy it now” options. | Sellers oriented. invites sellers in auction participation |
Amazon | Direct provider of goods. | Offers fixed prices | Buyers-oriented. Invitesbuyers to visit the site and buy its inventory. |
Alibaba | Acts as a middleman between sellers and buyers | Prices are fixed by the various suppliers and sellers. | Both buyer and seller oriented since they only act as middlemen. |
Some of the disadvantages of eBay as compared to its competitors relate to payment approaches. Firstly fees paid in eBay tend to be complicated compared to amazon and Alibaba. Secondly, eBay’s policies are less flexible; for instance, the company takes only specific payments and the keywords used to order commodities are limited as compared to its competitors. Thirdly, many restrictions are evident regarding types of goods to sell compared to the competitors (“How are eBay”). For instance, eBay does not allow sale of digital goods, such as e-books.
Several advantages over its competitors are also evident. Firstly, eBay has inbuilt buyers hence the seller does not do much in pushing their products as compared to its competitors. Secondly, eBay allows auctions, which are ideal for sale of rare commodities which the seller could have no idea on the value as compared to its competitors. Thirdly, eBay has strict policies on buyer protection (“How are eBay”). Giving buyers confidence in using the avenue when purchasing goods.
Stock analysis
The stock analysis of eBay in 6 months, one year and five years is as shown below;
High | Low | Average | |
6 Months | 38.7500 | 28.3200 | 35.7421 |
1 year | 46.1900 | 26.1400 | 36.0619 |
5 years | 23.3296 | 18.8368 | 21.0147 |
The analysis shows that eBay stocks have been increasing from 5 years ago, even though a drop of 31.98% has been observed from last year (2018). Some of the reasons for the decline include slowed down sales caused by powerful competitors, such as amazon, whose revenue increased to $38 billion and wal-mart at $123 billion sales in 2018. In addition, eBay has had to shed off some assets such as paypal, which was its main growth driver, hence eBay has been outpaced by its rivals. Another reason for the decline in shares has been a shift of consumers’ mindshare. In this aspect, most consumers admit that they first search commodities on Amazon before any other site (Kramer). Hence, eBay becomes an afterthought.
Brief Conclusion if it is possible on the company and what the whole repart say about eBay.
Works Cited
“Ebay inc” Reuters, 2019, www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-profile/EBAY.O. Accessed 9 June 2019.
“David. N. Wenig.” Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/4300278. Accessed June 2019.
“History of eBay – How they Got to Where They are Today”. Infographic design, 2018, www.infographicdesignteam.com/blog/history-of-ebay/. Accessed June 2019.
“How Are eBay And Amazon Different?” Investopedia,
www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/061215/how-are-ebay-and-amazon-different.asp. Accessed 9 June 2019.
Kramer, Michael. Invostepedia, 2018, www.investopedia.com/news/ebay-seen-dropping-8-analysts-lower-estimates/. Accessed 9 June 2019.
“Our History”. eBay, www.ebayinc.com/our-company/our-history/. Accessed 8 June 2019.