Chris O'Brien:
They had a legacy business (auctions) that once made them dominant, but was now falling out of favor among consumers. Despite the obvious warning signs, executives repeatedly refused to fundamentally re-examine their core business model. They made a number of rash acquisitions that didn't pan out. And the result is that they fell behind Amazon.com on a number of metrics.Sound familiar?
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Well, I really would like to hear from people who actually SELL on Ebay and know the ins and outs of ebay... Fact is they are killing themselves by their own greed. There have been such fee raises thru the years (two this year alone - they are NOT decreases as ebay states) that sellers can't offer much in the way of bargains and still make any kind of a profit. Ebay is strangling sellers with fees, with a terribly flawed search called Best Match and in tying their standing in the listings to an also flawed DSR rating system. Most sellers have thrown up their hands and they are leaving. So...what you will eventually have left is just another retailer site with fixed prices - not unlike Amazon but also not unlike Walmart, Sears, Target, Best Buy ad naseum...all of whom are online and becoming very active with shoppers who don't want to go to the mall.
Ebay lost its heart - the uniqueness and the rarity that made it what it is today. They've driven out small sellers in favor of diamond sellers with dismal sell-thru rates. Ebay needed tweaking - it needed some of the excitement back but it didn't need this "disruptive innovation" that is killing and dumbing it down until nobody cares about it. So...please, consult some long time sellers so the story can be told as it really is!