It’s funny how Amazon feared eBay, and then failed to beat them — in 1999.<p>But when I worked at eBay in 2003, they had the mailroom put a sticker on every amazon box that said “Next time get it on eBay!”<p>And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground."<p>wow. Seems relevant today.
Amazing to see the picture of the BEST Internet server facility .. that was certainly a pivotal and interesting company in the history of the Valley.<p>I worked there on contract a couple of times, got to know some of the folks - and it sure seems like it was a breeding ground of interesting Internet ideas. Matt Dillon, who has clearly proven his mettle in the time since, was developing his keen sense of social stewardship by keeping BEST's internet services up and running - I'll never forget the shock of discovering that they ran the entire thing on a database system Matt had developed himself...<p>I wonder what other things came from that incubator. It was a wild scene, indeed.
eBay is a fascinating story for their early impact to the commercial internet. It is also fascinating to see how they've fared: it is still around but now it is being eaten up by competitors like Facebook Marketplace in the US, MercadoLibre in Latin America and others.<p>PayPal is on a somewhat similar trajectory.<p>The lesson here is to keep your customers happy or someone else will.<p>Also found it interesting to read about the people and companies who thought eBay wouldn't work for various - good - reasons. You can always make something work!
I wish ebay wasn't so buggy. Mysterious failures, absent error messages-- both as a buyer and seller.<p>Aliexpress has much better software in my experience. :(
But at this stage, I feel Shopify has better chance than eBay on branding... The long term value and potential scaling effect is still the mainstream before we live under universal basic income era.
eBay has its chance. It should help build the tool for the community to provide customized service easier and cheaper.<p>Marketplace is also based on the abundance and quality of contents (merchandise). Scale effect is good at the globalization period but not sure for the next era.
I liked the original title of the story for what it is worth.<p>As Chris MacAskill wrote:<p>In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground.