Archive for January, 2007

Like most who sell on eBay, my initiation with the site was as a buyer.
Once I had a feel for how things operated, I realized it was the ideal way to achieve my dream of making money without ever having to theoretically put on pants.
Fast-forward five years and selling on eBay has become my primary […]

Yesterday Skype reached 9 million peak concurrent users. Read more about it at on the Skype Blog. But despite the new record, growth does seem to be slowing considerably. I have mentioned before that peak concurrent users is not the only criteria to asses growth but it is certainly the easiest metric to access.
Blogger Jean […]

eBay and Google are beginning to work together as part of an online advertising agreement the two entered into last August. The multi-year agreement makes Google the exclusive text-based advertising service for eBay outside the United States that also involves “click-to-call” advertising functionality.

Visitors to some non-US eBay sites, including in Canada and the UK, will […]

A new report from technology news site Slashdot has revealed that online auction house Ebay intends to remove listings for all virtual items, regardless of type or game title, clamping down on third-party sales of gold and accounts from many popular MMOs.
Despite the Slashdot piece further explaining continued in-game item and currency sales through third […]

Internet auction giant Ebay has admitted that it’s disappointed by the revenue return generated by its voice-over IP company Skype, which it acquired in 2005.
Despite Skype’s registered user numbers tripling to 171m by the end of 2006, Ebay’s CEO Meg Whitman told an investor conference that efforts to monetise the service had not lived up […]

I’ve done a couple of posts lately about password cracking and online security, and in your emails and comments I can hear your frustration: What is being done about this online epidemic?
Well, PayPal (one of the most heavily-targeted financial websites) is finally taking steps in the right direction, with a hardware security key that makes […]

Maybe it is a coincidence. Google recently started to offer a $10 credit to e-commerce customers who use its CheckOut product. For a few days Google (GOOG) even highlighted the offer for its PayPal competitor on its home page.
At about the same time, traffic to Ebay’s (EBAY) PayPal site has dropped sharply. According to on […]

The world’s No. 1 auction Website, Ebay is showing weakness in its core auction revenue with no indication of improving conversion rates, despite lower listings, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy.
“Investors should focus on user monetization and marketing efficiency metrics,” writes Rashtchy.
The investment banking analyst noted that listings were down 8 to 11 percent […]

A federal judge has thrown out an antitrust lawsuit filed by the distributor of Morpheus file-sharing software against Internet phone service provider Skype Technologies SA, eBay Inc. and other defendants.
StreamCast Networks Inc. had sought more than $4.1 billion in unspecified damages and a court order blocking eBay from selling Skype services.
In her Jan. 18 ruling […]

That’s what I call a good, but not massive, start. They also found that:

* Google Checkout users are younger (57% under 35), more likely to be male (penetration rates 2x more for men) and more affluent (34% have incomes over $75,000) than PayPal.

* Only 19% of Google […]