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In a notice to the California Employment Development Department, eBay said that it plans to slash nearly 300 jobs from Bay Area locations by July 20. The company, which called the cuts a “mass layoff,” said that it informed those being laid off at the end of June, according to The Mercury News, which obtained a copy of the notice. The layoffs will span eBay’s locations in San Jose, San Francisco, and Brisbane, according to the report. The San Jose office has been affected most by the layoffs, with 224 of the cuts coming to that location.
The online auction site’s decision comes after eBay has been experiencing some problems in its business. While the company’s revenue was up to $9.6 billion last year from $9 billion in the prior year, it took a loss of $1 billion. In the first quarter of this year, eBay’s profits slipped 60.7% year over year to $407 million.
In online retailing, there can be only one.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday July 20 2018, @02:13PM (5 children)
They have made some horrendous changes to their web site the last few years, but between eBay fees, paypal fees, and crazy insane shipping prices, the entire idea of small blow joes selling a few random items has gone down the crapper. It is sometimes cheaper to throw that valuable antique in the garbage! It seems like only large sellers are left, and large sellers don't really need eBay.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday July 20 2018, @03:40PM
Small seller can "easily" sell something on eBAy. Unlike Amazon, which charges a monthly/yearly fee. I don't sell enough stuff to warrant a monthly/yearly fee. Ebay is also a lot nicer than holding a garage sale.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @07:09PM (3 children)
Yes. I sell a few items on eBay per year. eBay's changes have made using the site unpleasant.
However, the users themselves are a large part of the problem. Most buyers don't want to go through an auction process anymore, they want the Buy Now price. So sellers have to guess at what price might move the product, instead of setting a rock-bottom initial price and letting the auction find the 'market' price.
Also, if you don't offer Free Shipping (and thus have to roll the cost of shipping into the item price), a lot of buyers won't even look at your stuff. Oh, and if you do sell something, you have to hope the buyer is honest and won't falsely claim you shipped an empty box, and get PayPal to steal their money back from you.
The fees are killing their business, true. But the entire process is helping make it not worth the bother, as well.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:33AM (2 children)
Please don't blame the "users", aka buyers. The auction process is annoying. Having to wait many days to see if you won something, only to be last-second sniped, is pretty demoralizing. I kind of like the idea of automatically extending an auction 10 or 15 (or 60?) minutes whenever someone increases the current bid.
I don't mind shipping being separate; in searches I usually sort by price+shipping so it doesn't matter. Sometimes people charge obviously absurd shipping costs so that's a problem.
Sorry about the rip-off schemes. People can be absolute scum. I guess you have to video record and witness packing and shipping things anymore.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:49AM (1 child)
There is no such thing as last second sniping. You were outbid because the other guy was willing to pay more. Bid higher and his last second bid will fail the same as if he made it made days earlier.
In the hypothetical case of if you had a chance to counterbid his last second bid, and you would have gone higher, then why didn't you bid that earlier?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:31PM
Look, argue with me all you want to. People love to get into these stupid flame wars, arguing within narrow-walled containers, point-to-point.
The article is about ebay laying people off because they're losing market share, and I'm just commenting on my personal experience and preferences, and how I use ebay less and less because of factors in that experience. Argue all you want, but in the end, I get to choose. If ebay wants more of my business, I want more of a real, live dynamic auction experience. I know there are silent auctions; I don't participate in them. It's my preference and choice.