Did Meg Whitman hurt or help Ebay

[homerwannabee]

I don't really care what you think of her politics. That is not my issue. My issue is what you guys think of what she did to Ebay. Was she good for Ebay? Or did she completely ruin it? Your thoughts would definitely be appreciated since I live in the great state of California.

[homerwannabee]

So no responses. Oh well. Funny there will probably be more responses to me complaining about no responses than to the question at hand. Funny how society works at times.

[Rev]

i just heard a pin drop in here

[Crazy Climber]

I would answer but I do not know who Meg Whitman is and I am too lazy to do a search. If you post a link as to what you are talking about I guess I could skim through it and ad my 2 cents, otherwise sorry, I have no clue what you are talking about

[Cebus Capucinis]

So no responses. Oh well. Funny there will probably be more responses to me complaining about no responses than to the question at hand. Funny how society works at times.

 

OH GOD WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST WAIT SERIOUSLY IS IT THAT HARD? J/K

 

I think Meg Whitman was both positive and negative for eBay. Under her guidance the company grew and with that exposure there became a large group of sellers that otherwise would not have used it. She aggressively pursued media exposure for the website and started using television and radio ad campaigns to increase the user base. (Whether this is a good thing or not thanks to damaged items and idiot sellers is not her fault.) A lot of items that we would not see on a search for Atari, Intellivision, etc. probably would never make their way to eBay without that serious marketing campaign, instead just making their way to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Even if you think that the items going to GoodWill are a better thing, because prices are "chaeper" (in theory), almost each and every one of us has bought or sold something on eBay and we wouldn't be able to amass some of our collections without it.

 

However, that's a two-sided blade. With the influx of popularity and the increasing amounts of users to the site, the business focus shifted from being a simply service-oriented fun marketplace to a serious money-making machine and business. That's just the way of business and it was bound to happen, so I don't think anyone can blame Whitman for doing that. But one of the negative ramifications has been the quality of eBay has gone down very significantly in the recent past. Aggressive fee structures have popped up at higher rates than they were before. Policies and procedures have become much, much more stiff and hard to follow, and eBay now has a self-interest in almost every transaction that does not go right -- they are motivated to ensure the transaction stays in place due to those fee structures.

 

Could eBay have stayed the "old" eBay? Honestly I don't think so, and I think Whitman realized that as well. There's good and bad to every business and eBay is no exception to the rule.

[Crazy Climber]

Uh...yeah, what he said