Question
Shopping.com acquisiton a sign of eBay weakness?
Wonder if eBay has tired of paying Google for all those keyword searches.
Answer
These things can be spun both ways. Is buying shopping.com a sign of weakness? Or is it a sign that eBay is recognizing a shift in the marketplace and is trying to get a piece of it.
As far as the statement about the large sellers leaving eBay for their own sites? Well that seems like an obvious progression. At some point everyone realizes that it's cheaper to cut out the middle-man. It may be obvious to most people that you can take home more profit from your own site, but it's also pretty clear that building a site with a full product line that people want to buy and then driving a sufficient number of people to the site takes time. So if you are just testing the waters of eCommerce, eBay is a likely place to start. It's relatively easy to get started and has a large installed user base. If you get hooked and learn and grow you'll eventually become one of the larger sellers. You'll run the numbers, realize you're paying eBay way too much of your profits and you go and set up your own web site.
I'd compare eBay to AOL. I had no use for AOL when I started on the net. I didn't like the idea of someone holding my hand and spoon feeding me information. I had friends who were too scared to go it alone and said the loved AOL. I showed them how easy it was to get an ISP and the necessary software to get out there on their own. Most of them dropped AOL very quickly. I assumed that AOL would eventually die as people, especially kids, became more net savy and didn't need the prepackacged internet.
Well AOL is still here some 10 years after my prediction of imminent demise and I imagine eBay will do it's best to remain relevant as well. Although I passed on AOL, selling online was not something I was so confident about so I started on eBay. I gained my confidence and although I'm not what I would consider a "large seller" I'm working on my own site and looking to minimize my eBay presence.
As far as I know eBay got big as a venue for small sellers and at some point made a decision to attract large sellers and name brand companies as a way to increase revenue. Maybe the issues it's having keeping these cash cows on the site will make eBay remember it's roots and start focusing on the little guy/girl again.
Or not.
-y
Answer
Well shoot, there goes one of my favorite price comparison sites. I use shopping.com all the time to get prices *off* eBay.