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53 Comments
- dpk87, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16ebay is tanking? Since when?
- neko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Too much MMORPG'ing; reading the headline, I think "Of course they're tanking, they have the most HP."
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Google sucks at non-English services by the way. Specific areas of weakness include spam filtering for both mail and serps that result in third-rate quality compared to localised alternatives (which dominate marketshare as a result).
- Abarax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12how the hell do any of these companies rely on advertisements for revenue
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Fee Bay! That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while. That's exactly why I haven't been using eBay. Well, that and Paypal. Oh, and the ridiculous shipping prices that plague the site too. God, what a mess.
- yottabite, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14just to further r2d7's comment - Google has the ***** japanese support I have ever seen. This involves EVERY piece of software they have, including gmail which makes email incomprehensible from western types with jp input to native japanese people. Yahoo, on the other hand, got it right since roughly day one. (ya-ho!)
- dalooo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Amazon's still the biggest online commerce there is or will be online, they're investing heavily into technology, I think they'll bounce back.
Ebay's the largest online auction house, it's almost impossible for ebay to lose money, they make millions on commission daily, I don't think Google Base would generate the amount of user interest that Ebay does anytime soon.
Yahoo, I think Yahoo's still a decent company and is the only company that may stand a chance against Google. I use yahoo services more then googles, but predominately use google's search, but I'm starting to find google's results becoming more spammy. Sometimes I find more of what I want on Yahoo and MSN then Google.
As technologies and competition increases, I think either Yahoo, MSN, Ask or maybe a new company will take away from Google's Search Engine lead, when you're that dominant there's no way to go but down and Google can't be compared to Microsoft, because people have choice while the MS operating system was monopoly.
Just my opinion. - computerdude33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I can understand AOL kind of, but seriously. I buy stuff all the time from Amazon & eBay, and I host my website on Yahoo.
I might be convinced if there was any STRONG evidence. Until I hear that Amazon bought eBay, which then bought Yahoo, which then bought AOL/Time Warner, then imploded, I will keep my trust in these (rich) companies. - cremate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9yea, ebay, with its multi billion in assets is really tanking. and their monopoly on the auction scene. also let me bring up the countless number of people whose businesses rely on ebay, in america, europe, asia... need I say more?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Each one of those business face unique challenges for the sector they are operate in. Its kind of inappropriate and shallow to group them all together and discuss their problems as one just because they survived the dot com bubble.
- sk33t, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8All except for Yahoo has had traffic drop about 20% from the beginning of this year.
But anyways, alexa flat out sucks. - greg9683, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Google is killing them(well AOL killed itself). eBay though is getting hammered in fraud more and more. And Google's Checkout should give their Paypal a run for its money.
Google is making themselves the most business friendly/accessable. And its succeeding. - chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7yeah, I heard they only made $600bln profit this week.
The horror.... now they can only use $50s to wipe there asses with not $100s - eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Maybe yahoo would do better if they went to back to a webpage that didn't act like tar when loading from behind a firewall (or whatever it is that slowed up there webpage).
- AliceKK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4if google dies, I would say alot of the open-sourcing and web 2.0 will go down as well... So shut your trap and dont jynx it :P
- Dropscience, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ebay is tanking? I use ebay almost every day.
- lcarsdeveloper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I earn a lot of commission through Amazon.com, every 3 months I get gift certificates. I'm happy with their range and prices, the Associates Program works great, and I was impressed with their API (although there is such a thing as having too many features).
I don't know, I haven't had any real problems with Amazon, although their Adwords type text-links (which I beta tested) sucked big time. I think in those few months I made about 8 cents! But they gave me a $100 gift certificate to say thanks for trying the program.
I also occasionally run competitions on my website for my members, the winner gets to choose a prize from the list, I type their address into Amazon and they get a free prize in the mail.
I don't want to sound like an 'Amazon Fanboy' or anything, but in the last 3 years I've been extremely happy with them, apart from some ridiculously priced 3rd party items I've seen. If only they would launch an Australian version so I would get more free stuff out of my gift certificates (less wasted on shipping) :) - williamkusumo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4They are not tanking...the market in general is...
Like 'whoatemydigg' said, it'd be shallow to group them together and compare apple to orange just because they all survived dot com bust. - FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Not only does their new home page load slower, it also looks too cluttered in my opinion. Every time I see it I get reminded of AOL...that is definitely not a good thing.
- jmnormand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i agree, these companies are maturing into upper level corporations, a position where growth is less important than stability. the market always expects companies to keep growing exponentially when they know its not a possibility. with the possible exception of AOL, who failed to innovate with changing technology, these companies along with google are the cornerstones of the Internet economy.
- greg9683, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The thing about Google, is they have stayed open to to business. They are helping others while helping themselves. They have a sustainable product, because they keep adding to their core success. A company goes bad, when they get too satisfied.
- slicedoranges, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I wish AOL would die so I could play a decent game of Starcraft.
- superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I still sell stuff on eBay from time to time, sure the fees are a little high but it makes it so easy to get money from something you might otherwise simply be donating to Goodwill, or paying even more to list in a local classifieds to sell to a far smaller market.
Also as someone who has used eBay off and on through the years I would have to say that the higher prices we see now are somewhat justified by the WAY better tools that they offer sellers now. It's so easy to go through the process of sending an invoice, collecting money, even pre-printing postage through the integration with the postal service that it takes almost no effort to run several auctions a week if you are willing to put a small amount of time into it. You can also skip browsing at the buffet of listing extras like bolding an entry with a gallery picture, but then again all of those can make money back easily if used under the proper circumstances.
People say price are lower now but there are still items that sell for a lot more than you would think, just as there will always be items that are dogs or get flooded on eBay when word gets out something is wanted. Just do a little research before you list. - marthaphoebe, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6google will die too, just give them time...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Buyers still need disposable income to buy.
You are probably right about the supply & demand shifts on ebay due to the overall economy.
ebay becomes much less of a bargain when shipping prices get pushed up by higher fuel costs.
My point is that I don't expect Amazon or ebay to go belly up- they just won't make as much money until their customers can buy. - superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1(damn you digg and your not attaching comments to something you clicked on before login - this was for jamessavik, above)
Aren't eBay and Amazon kind of at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of indicators?
If times are good, people are buying loads of stuff on eBay.
If times are bad, people would be selling some stuff off on eBay and buyers would be looking more to eBay for bargains. - AliceKK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If i ever get rich, I will buy AOL and tear it to pieces leaving only aim... and ill open-source it... and then yah... boo AOL!!
I use Amazon and eBay daily... I wouldnt say they are tanking.
Yahoo!'s problem (if any) is lack of support and innovation in the market, Yahoo! doesnt offer anything that isnt already on the market and better.
We also have to consider CraigsList, I have started to go there for alot more of my sales and purchases rather than using ebay and amazon. - rolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I used to sell on eBay. Bottom line, it got too expensive to list things. The same thing back in '97 which cast maybe $1.50 to list can cost over $5.00 (or more) to list these days. Plus the seperate end cut percentage is up. They want to end nickel and dime you to death. Combine this with the fact that the amount of sellers went up exponentially since the late nineties, while the buyers only went up linearly, items don't sell at the premium they used to nor at the rate they used to (75% selling rate vs 25 or less these days.) In short, I was paying $1.50 per item with an 75% "assurance" it would sell 8-9 years back vs $5.00 with 25% it would sell today. Do the math. In fact, when people complain about the high high shipping rates on ebay, they are there for a reason - that's how many sellers make their money. Ebay doesn't take a cut of that money in end percentages nor are listing fees are calculated with shipping, only on the official "listing" price (so that lowers listing fees all around), etcetera. Anyway, that's why I left. Selling locally became more lucrative again. On the plus side, there are a lot of bargains there, especially from countries where they can afford to only make $1.00 or so off a sale, because their wages are so low.
But eBay tapped out their market, siphoned it for what it is worth. Their growth will only be from the growth on the internet.
AOL, OTOH, should be obvious why they are suffering. No one wants to be on dial-up anymore (I sure won't suffer through it since I experience broadband) nor will a big number of people want their pop-ups, etcetera when they can get a gmail account or yahoo account for free. Besides that, what else would you want from AOL? - brsly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Investors in these companies still believe they can ignore reality. There must be a new economy in here somewhere. Even Google now seems to think they have it, but their day will come as well.
The worst one of all is AOL (now back to Time Warner) opening up their walled garden to gain advertising dollars. They are hoping for some kind of gold to come out of the turnip on the internet.
This is not a new economy, just a new group of suckers. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2AOL is tanking because it stinks. It's business model isn't that of a dot com. It's business model is that of a late-80s early-90's ISP (with a little bit of used-car salesmanship).
Yahoo- I'm not that familiar with.
Ebay and Amazon's fortunes are tied to their consumers disposable income which is tremendiously affected by energy prices. I expect to see high energy prices create a ripple effect throughout the economy.
Ebay & Amazon are bellweathers in this regard because they are so sensitive to the changes in their consumers fortunes. This doesn't mean that the companies are fundementally unsound. They are simply being effected by fluctuations in the economy.
No one is talking about it yet but high energy prices are bound to create one mother of a recession. Remember- you heard it here first. - sparty1969, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"the Wall Street Journal reported that AOL might soon adopt a new business strategy: It will morph from a subscription-powered Internet-access provider to an advertising-supported portal."
Hehhemmm..... Hello McFly....They were always an advertising-supported portal from day 1. - BigBlueOx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I totally agree I used to log in to yahoo mail through the main page, now I have a book mark that skips the main page and goes directly to mail. Yahoo's home page is horrid, way to much Ajax and moving and blinking crap. What ever happen to KISS.
- maddoginthefog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Whenever I see stories like this, I buy the stock(s). It's so easy to report on what has already happened (the stocks are at a 3-year low - gee, thanks for pointing that out). The smart money is going into YHOO right now. There is no reason that delaying the new search platform should cause the stock to drop 20% in one day.
- yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Two comments: First, I think all of these companies jumped the gun and thought the next boom was just around the corner, and as a result started buying up young companies like flickr, skype etc. before any of them were sound business models. Google still has yet to monetize many of its purchases too. Now that the economy is obviously slowing (and there's even talk of a recession in 2007) what you're seeing is the tech companies being the canary in the coal mine, as always, for the general trend: down. I don't think this malaise is isolated to these .coms. I predict many companies are going to be doing some back pedaling in the quarters to come.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They're tanking because they can't manage their aggro. L2P N00bs
- rolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1While ebay may still make money, the problem is that it isn't growing at the rate anymore to justify the stock premium - the growth rate is why people bought it at ridiculous prices to begin with - but nothing can go up at that rate indefinitely anyway.
That is why it is going down. They exploited their markets. Plus in foreign markets, they are just not necessarily king. Take japan for example, Yahoo Auctions is king there while eBay is a distant second fiddle (they even closed their office there once....) - MrKite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I can see AOL and Yahoo having some worries, but eBay and Amazon? Not a chance.
Also, google gets way too much attention. All that it's going to take is a better search engine with good marketing to come out of nowhere, and their stock price is going to tank. - marthaphoebe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2or have too much hubris, or are fooling the world (click fraud)
- goldenbb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0eBay began the long path to suckage when it became just another way for businesses to market crappy wares. I'm sure people who are after collectibles still enjoy the few remaining garage-sale (i.e. non-professional seller) auctions. But when I can buy computer parts or other items for less on non-auction sites, what is the point? Also, they ***** Americans over when they got all moralistic and stopped letting people sell things like gun parts or other items their lawyers decided were too risky.
- injvstice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think ebay is counting on stupid people to stay alive.. Point in case, I was looking for a Magellan Explorist 500. Here's what ebay offers:
Start bid price: $234.99 Buy now: $239.99 Shipping: $20.00
Start bid price: N/A (Buy Now Only). Buy now: $319. Shipping: $13
What's the price on the street? Radio Shack.. $229.95
So what is killing ebay? Greed. Too many products are listed only with "buy now" prices, or ridiculous bid-start prices. It no longer feels like an auction place, it feels like an overpriced store. People have no interest in selling their products fast, they just repost the same overpriced item every week, hoping some idiot will eventually buy it. - chasan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm also a happy Amazon customer for ~8 years. However, I have one complain: I don't remember when was the last time they sent me a gift certificate :)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0AOL just added text advertisements to the bottom of all emails sent via their webmail site the other day. They didn't inform their customers (or even their own tech support) of the change and there is no way to disable it. I contacted their tech support who basically told me to f*** off. I can't wait for AOL to finally get flushed out.
- MetalMere, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1eBay is amazing sometimes,
other times it can be a money eating whore.
People still use Amazon and AOL??
Yahoo is decent. - FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I tried ordering something from Amazon in June after not having ordered from them in a very long time. I found the "new" order placing process to be incredibly cumbersome and filled with unnecessary information compared to other internet ordering methods - most of that information geared towards attempts by Amazon to make more money off of you when placing your order...
- brighteyes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I don't think any of these companies are going away any time soon.. if they survived once, they'll do it again.. But they are gonna have to work really hard to try to keep a good reputation.
- atmenterprises, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0There was talk of a recession in 1Q 2006, too.
It's the feds jacking interest rates to slow the economy and prevent inflation.
But I doubt we'll see the Bill Clinton recession of 2000 come around again soon as long as tax cuts abound. - MisterCookie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2But how's their hate control? AOL gets a lot of hate, but has very little HP.
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -12/+9http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=http://www.yahoo.com
You know, I am feeling really sorry for Yahoo! right now. They are tanking indeed and seem to be not very well off at all! :(
Oh, and eBay:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=http://www.ebay.com
...and Amazon
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=http://www.amazon.com
...and AOL
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=http://www.aol.com
After all, EVERY website in the 1% popularity percentile couldn't be doing much worse right now... - cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -8/+3Hard Gay didn't did an episode on Google now, did he.
Ya-hooooooooooooooo! - Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1i think google does great with americains and it has a stronger base here exept when they take photos with david hasslehoff
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