posted on April 2, 2001 05:10:53 PM new
Will eBay Ads Squeeze Out the Little Guy?
Somehow, eBay is trying to put a fairness spin on news that it is going to offer sellers the option of buying banner ads on the site.
But it hard to imagine how this plan could do anything other than tilt the playing field in favor of professional, high-volume sellers and away from the hobbyists who have been eBay's bread-and-butter from Day One.
And that's too bad. One of the great things about eBay is how it levels things off. If you go searching for an item and find it, you may not even care who's selling that item. Might be a little old lady in Florida who found one in her attic. Might be a wholesaler in Kansas with a warehouse full. It doesn't matter. When using eBay, the idea is to find what you want and buy it.
But now, with banner ads entering the picture, the site is going to be skewed, it seems to me, toward sellers who can afford to buy real estate for banner ads on one of the world's busiest and stickiest Web sites.
Keeping it Fair
eBay is preparing a test, which hopefully will flop, nipping this whole idea in the bud. But it probably won't, because one thing this scheme does is provide eBay with more revenue.
The auction house said the idea came from sellers. That might be true, but somehow I doubt it. Take a gander at the banner ads on eBay someday and you'll see an awful lot of in-house advertisement.
Seems that eBay users prefer to stick around on eBay, thank you very much, and aren't inclined to click their way off of the property until they're good and ready. So banner ads for third-party sites aren't effective. Most of the ads now are freebies posted by eBay itself, touting its advanced services and affiliate program.
Who Wins?
So eBay gets more cash and the users who can afford ads get a leg up. True, the banners won't send visitors directly to an auction listing. They'll go into the About Me page, but that's still a way to draw users away from their original destination, which may have been a competitor's auction.
The fear I have is that eBay will start a revolt of its own. That wouldn't take much, given the site's legendary ability to anger its membership right up to the point where they think about leaving but never actually do so.
But this move seems to set up a class warfare scenario, where the have sellers can boost their traffic and even divert attention from the have-nots.
What About Community?
After all, eBay is supposed to be about community, remember? That was the idea behind the short-lived magazine and the plans, first floated last fall, for a television show based on eBay and the wacky millions who make it tick.
The diversity of that community does a lot more than add charm to eBay's profile. It makes shopping on the site fun and interesting for millions of people. And it keeps the playing field level for buyers, too.
That's because those mom-and-pop sellers are more likely to sell an item for the sake of getting rid of it or for the kicks involved, and less likely to be interesting in profiting than the professional sellers.
This is not to say there isn't a place for the pros on eBay. Clearly they pull a lot of the weight and make the site as robust as it is. But eBay was never designed to be just about that.
And eBay for All
In fact, when eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave her latest rah-rah speech for the Internet -- "we're not dead" was the headline quote -- she mentioned the fact that eBay was built on the premise of fairness for all.
She might want to take that into consideration before she tips the playing field in the direction of the professionals and away from the hobbyists who made eBay what it is today.
posted on April 2, 2001 05:24:25 PM new
One buyers opinion: I literally tune out banner ads. Yes I see them peripherally but I pay no attention to them and I never click on them. The ones I find particularly obnoxious (like those flashing epileptic fit inducing ones) I make a point of never patronizing that business under any circumstances.
posted on April 2, 2001 05:31:19 PM new
A number of months ago when there was all that bruhaha about the Ace Hardware banner ads a number of "user groups" got involved in complaining to ebay about it.
One of those groups was the OAUA. There were several OAUA higher ups who were reporting here on these boards and other OAI chat boards about the Ace ads. They were encouraging posters to let them (the OAUA) know how we felt about the banner ads...with the slant, IMO, that they expected the ebay user to be incensed.
One of the rallying theme expounded by one spokesman (the COO of OAUA)and others, was that the banner ads by Ace tilted the playing field AWAY from the LITTLE user.
That spokesman, along with other higher-up memebers of OAUA requested a meeting with Ebay management in order to present the views of the community (as they saw the community views).
After that meeting another high-up of OAUA (and I believe a member of that delegation to ebay) reported back to not only the OAUA membership but to the online auction industry chatboards, including this one.
That report made reference to the fact that the OAUA delegation told ebay that we, the ebay community, would LIKE such banner ads. They reported that ebay was very interested and liked the suggestion.
At the time a few (me included) voiced the same points you have just made about "tilting the playing field". If I remember correctly, those concerns were brushed off. I came to the conclusion that "tilting the playing field" was wrong when it meant a big company like Ace was benifiting at the little ebay seller's expense...but was just fine if it was benifitting one group of "little sellers" (those who could afford the banner ads) at the expense of another group of "little sellers" (those who could NOT afford the banner ads).
posted on April 2, 2001 06:14:10 PM new
Like a number of long-term internet users, I hardly notice banner ads any longer. The probability that I will click on one is remote.
There are two programs currently available, as free downloads, that strip the banner ads from web pages, and stop pop-ups from automatically launching.
I've been using one for some time, and I'm quite happy with the results.
posted on April 2, 2001 06:20:23 PM new
Banner ads are really like billboards on the freeway. You really don't see them unless you want to look at them. Do you really see every billboard and every banner ad, do you? I don't stop to buy gas when I see a billboard for a gas station, unless I want or need gas. It's pretty simple.
[ edited by yeager on Apr 2, 2001 06:21 PM ]
posted on April 2, 2001 07:46:24 PM new
eBay is not about community. It is about the dollar, always the friggen dollar...
They are wall street slaves and must meet quarterly estimates or pay severe consequences. Meg has made aggressive promises to the devil and will continue to sell her soul until she is ousted.
posted on April 3, 2001 03:36:09 AM new
I agree with railside. Why even bother wasting your CPU cycles loading banner ads? Kill them dead with software such as Proxomitron (freeware), Adsoff and Clickgarden (shareware with 'extended' demos in some of the binaries newsgroups).
posted on April 3, 2001 04:12:07 AM new
From this little perspecitve there are a couple of issues:
1 - according Forrester Research (this outfit has been examining the web for years - he's aguru to some) less that 17% of web users even look at an ad. And, of those, less that 4% click, and of those, less than 2% stay and browse or buy.
Very expensive, with little result. If you notice, some of the large corporations have little use for banners. They follow Forrester.
2 - with the bannners being offered to the broad community, I don't believe it will be successful - not only because of the above reasons, but also because the majority of sellers sell less than $3,000 per month, with the average sale being under $40.00. Not a lot of room left for expensive banner advertising.
3 - those selling from large retail operations and selling new items (purchased from wholesalers, China, etc), they will face stiff competition regardless of the banners.
4 - those selling unique, antique, collectibles, crafts, may have to list more offerings and settle for a little less on the final sale, but will survive.
5 - its been discussed, but - a shake out is in the making. We've all witnessed it. People who once posted regularly are now back to the 9-5 syndrome.
Simply, the easy money is gone. Now we have to work for a living.
Regarding greed - aren't we all here to make a living and the bigger the living the better?
