Editor’s note: This is a temporary locate by Keith Rabois, evilness chair of strategy and playing utilization for Slide, the ethnic recreation company. Prior to Slide, Keith was a VP at LinkedIn and an EVP at PayPal in calculate of among another things, combative strategy vis-?-vis eBay. He also worked at eBay for threesome weeks mass its acquisition of PayPal. Keith currently serves on the Board of Directors of Yelp, Vendio, Xoom and FanIQ.

On weekday afternoon, I was speech on a commission at the Social Graph Symposium when the moderator asked me what eBay could do to improve its activity by investment the ethnic graph. Dave McClure, same some pundits, presumes the ethnic interpret could be a enthusiastic increase for eBay, if not an unqualified panacea. I replied, ?nothing.?

It?s actually the ethnic interpret and kindred products that hit settled a wager in eBay.com. Most often, grouping blessed eBay?s modify on factors same the weakening economy, the rise of Amazon, as substantially as eBay?s possess wasteful wager functionality. But the actual and ultimate think is eBay is no individual fun. Over the years, it has forfeited online connector and eyeballs to clean recreation destinations much as YouTube and ethnic networking sites same MySpace and Facebook.

Do It eBay

Although it was ever categorised as an e-commerce destination, the quirkiness of the eBay activity was erst a field maker of recreation on the Web. It was where grouping wanted and bought everything from the prototypal busted laser indicator to Beanie Babies to Bob Dylan?s boyhood home. While the catch?anything from an alter measure to a Gulfstream II?was gratifying for the buyer, it was mostly the recreation and fervour of the motion that brought a vendee to eBay in the prototypal place.

When eBay launched its prototypal U.S. playing crusade in 2000, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove stated, ?We wish they [the ads] emit the recreation that grouping hit when they become to our site.? According to USA Today, ?the recreation characteristic of eBay seems to hit struck a chord with consumers.? At that time, eBay was complete addictive and when you won an auction, it was thrilling. That revel kept grouping reaching backwards for more, whether or not they actually prevailed with their bids.

Almost half the U.S. cyberspace population

Let?s rewind to 2004, meet a brief fivesome eld ago. In Jan 2004, nearly 50 proportionality of the whole U.S. cyberspace accumulation visited eBay apiece month. If grouping were tired at work, chances are they were aquatics the pages of eBay and unearthing anomaly sell items they never modify knew existed. This was the peak of the eBay heyday.

So what happened?

With the recreation bourgeois dynamical eBay usage, what rattling stole eBay?s prominence was the uprise of ethnic networking sites much as MySpace and Facebook and the likes of YouTube. In Dec 2006, nearly half of the U.S. cyberspace accumulation was ease temporary eBay. But when you investigate the turn amount of instance spent online, 11.9 proportionality was spent on MySpace versus 3.7 proportionality on eBay (according to Compete.com). By then, grouping were already devoting more of their online instance to pimping discover their MySpace profiles or snacking on YouTube?s videos.

To add boost hurt to injury, in primeval 2007, Facebook unsealed up its platform and ushered in a batch of newborn applications. The termination was the launching of modify more recreation options to spend your online hours. People began to switch the activity of serendipitously discovering knick-knacks on eBay for watching grouping separate into trees on YouTube or SuperPoking friends on Facebook. The eBay dependency was replaced with other, more diverting addictions.

eBay strips discover the fun

This was not forfeited on every of eBay. As primeval as 2006, individual executives championed an interior try dubbed ?eBay 3.0.? The newborn exteroception for eBay was to resuscitate the ?fun? of auctions. An ad crusade tagged ?Windorphins? was meant to inform consumers of the endorphin festinate old when success an auction. The purchase of StumbleUpon modify had a explanation in this model. The ideals supplying eBay 3.0 yet fizzled.

By the instance John Donahoe took the helm of eBay in Q1 2008, he opted to ?aggressively modify our product, our client move and our playing model.? In a useless try to contend with Amazon and Google, eBay activity essentially empty some remaining recreation existed discover of its marketplace. In Dec 2008, eBay?s visitors accounted for exclusive 1.5 proportionality of turn transactions spent online (according to comScore Media Metrix). The cheater commission for crowning online properties showed Google, bag of YouTube.com, and Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace.com, in the crowning five. EBay hierarchical ordinal in turn unequalled visitors, but was also the exclusive concept on the crowning 10 itemize to wager a fall from 2007.

Where did every the recreation go?

Ironically, at digit saucer correct after it bought PayPal, eBay had the directive actors of most of this recreation turning movement in its offices. Afroasiatic Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube fame, saint Thiel (Facebook), Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp), Max Levchin (Slide), king Sacks (Geni and Yammer), philosopher histrion (LinkedIn, commission member of Zynga) and others, myself included, were every likewise unoriented by eBay?s bureaucratic and semipolitical MBA culture. So we definite to create our possess recreation elsewhere instead.

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