Ebay, Yahoo Shuffle Ads Around In Bid To Beat Google

from the three-card-monte dept

There's been so much chatter about possible mergers and alliances among the big internet companies, it's a relief to finally have some news -- even if it doesn't live up to the hype. Of course, analysts are insisting that today's partnership between eBay and Yahoo will alter the competitive landscape online. But it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. Yahoo will serve graphic ads on eBay's site, which is interesting only in that most people wouldn't think of eBay as being an important advertising play. In exchange, eBay will get better treatment from Yahoo, as in more links to ongoing auctions. Some might look at these deals and use the term synergies, though another way to look at this trade is to simply call it "a wash". Other parts of the deal could be interesting. PayPal will become the sole provider of payment services at Yahoo!, though it's strange that the popular service wasn't already in use. The two companies are also looking into Pay-Per-Call advertising, though that much-hyped space appears to be languishing. It's understandable that both eBay and Yahoo fear Google, and want to strengthen their position, but that won't happen from trading ads back and forth. Just a thought, maybe they should try developing new products that are actually superior to Google's.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2006 @ 2:03pm

    This is ridiculous and pointless.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Tim Arview, 25 May 2006 @ 3:17pm

    Pure genius!!

    "Just a thought, maybe they should try developing new products that are actually superior to Google's."

    LOL!! I bet they never thought of that. (Not that Google is the uberwebsite or anything, but c'mon...that was funny.)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    stephen, 25 May 2006 @ 4:21pm

    Has anyone else noticed how big PayPal was in popularity to now seeing "Our site no longer accepts PayPal as a form of payment."? Many sites are ditching paypal because they have to sell there products for more to pay for paypal.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    rijit (profile), 25 May 2006 @ 4:24pm

    Well I guess I will quit Ebay. I can't stand Yahoo for some reason. I have tried many times in the past to use Yahoo and i just can't do it. Their advertising services suck, in my opinion. I had to use them for a previous company I worked for. So, if things work out where I have to actually use Yahoo at any point during my time trying to buy or sell something on Ebay I will probably move on to Amazon.com or something.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    dick jackman, 25 May 2006 @ 8:17pm

    Fucking Tools

    You fucking tools!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    David Armstrong, 25 May 2006 @ 8:23pm

    Innovators Dilemma

    Meg and Jerry need to read this book....

    How about addressing the fact that ebay has 61% inactive users...people who have not LISTED even one item or BID, not bought...but even ONE bid in the last 12 months. Maybe that the service sucks?

    Sorry....but it's obvious...advertising on ebay, how about kicking me in the nuts first....here comes 70% inactive customers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    blagdash, 26 May 2006 @ 6:06am

    More links to current eBay auctions????

    Yech. I consider that a dys-feature. When I search for products, I want products that are actually for retail sale, not cluttered with links to auctions.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    ET, 26 May 2006 @ 6:13am

    Re:

    In reply to Stephen...
    If you use PayPal to process credit cards on line, you pay them a small percentage (anywhere from 0.5% to 4% of the total sale amount to PayPal to pay for their services.
    For most small to medium sized companies, this will cost them a lot less than securing their own Web site, getting an on line merchant account and paying a few hundred precious dollars per month for these services.

    The problem is that as the sales number grows, so do the total monthly PayPal fees. At one point the scales will tip and it will be cheaper for the company to use an on line merchant account and have a shopping cart software developed for their site. So they stop offering payments through PayPal.

    Owning a small business myself, I have found PayPal to be a very nice stepping stone, but I don't see it as a permanent solution once sales start to grow.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Ads Suck, 3 Jul 2006 @ 1:02pm

    WTF

    Ok, so let me get this right. I can now go onto ebay, and buy something used and pay 10% more than I could get it new at walmart, and not only that, I get to see ads? OMG I CANT WAIT.
    The only thing EBAY is good for is if you live in Zimbabwe and you cant find whatever it is in the local store. Everything sells for WAY more than its worth, unless you are selling something, which leads me to believe most people on there bid on their own items to drive the price above retail. Of course then there's the $5 they charge to lick a stamp and slap it on a box. Hell I'd lick stamps until my tongue fell off for that salary.
    And of course the only thing YAHOO is good for is, well, ummm, well I guess if you like a screen full of ads and propaganda its ok. Other than that well, ummm, its good for.... uhhhhh.... help me out here.....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    STOOPID HEAD, 3 Jul 2006 @ 8:07pm

    DUMMMMMY HEAD

    I like yahoo. I get 5,000 messages a day. I am very popular. I click on ads. I submit my email in forms to make new friends to message me. Sometimes I win millions of dollars and get free gift cards and sex dates a lot. Yea I get a lot of sex dates from putting my email in places. It's great. I thank yahoo for this wonderful life.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. Wow incredible 2 companies trading ad space and tr

    I am in agreement with the above post in that why would the 2 of these companies develop some real good products, tools services that the online community would want to use, instead they are going to trade the same shitty traffic back and forth and it is the advertisers that are going to pay the price. If you havent allready time to pull your ads from yahoo, I never really look to see where I am even ranked in any SE except google when I get good rankings there I almost allways have better rankings in yahoo and all the other 2nd rate SE's

    link to this | view in thread ]


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