Ebay Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ebay - Essay Example Their CEO has also described eBay as one of the leaders in the consumer-driven goal to ensure that e-commerce is faster and more convenient for the users. They have managed to capitalize on this trend in the knowledge that most people have easy access to the internet through their smartphones which allows them to shop and pay anywhere and anytime (Sage, 2010). Technology is shaping e-commerce and changing the behavior of consumers. These changes are giving new worldwide opportunities for eBay and are driving the next generation of e-commerce users (Sage, 2010). There is an expected change in mobile transactions with almost double their numbers from the inception of PayPal. It is estimated that the mobile industry is set to increase to $4 billion in gross merchandise in the next year (Sage, 2010). eBay was a leader in the internet boom, however, it has since met with major competition from businesses which already offered online options for their products. However, eBay now highlights PayPal’s role in making improvements in its company transactions and in stabilizing marketplaces linking in well with all consumers (Sage, 2010). PayPal is utilized by about 59 percent of the major inline merchants in the US and up to 40 percent in the UK (Sage, 2010). Their revenue is expected to reach $6-7 billion by the end of 2013, representing a growth of about 76 to 105 percent. PayPal revenues also rose by 23 percent from 2009 to 2010 (Sage, 2010). The payments set off on two areas – from the buyers and the sellers; and the number of sellers is set to increase by the year 2013 – almost double the current PayPal traders. The company has become highly aware that mobile products and services can evolve and can actually add value to the company and the best thing for the company to do is to improve the consumer’s execution of its transactions (Sage, 2010). eBay investors are very much concerned about seeing the stability and growth of the company mark etplace. It is important to note however that they are still lagging behind Amazon.com which is still the leader in e-commerce. eBay has managed to increase the trust and safety of its site while also trying to update its e-commerce experts in reference to its outdated search technology (Sage, 2010). Most of their online buyers have now fixed-prices for their products and the company has tried to increase the mobile applications of their products. Consequently, the consumers have been able to use scan technology in order to compare prices on their smartphones while scanning the internet market (Sage, 2010). These improvements have managed to strengthen the company and improve consumer confidence – helping them improve their profits in the past few years. Despite these improvements, issues in the market and in the general economy have kept eBay shares at half their value of their largest gain in 2004 (Sage, 2010). eBay is still valued below other web-based companies at 16.7 ti mes based on 2010 earnings. Google and Yahoo, on the other hand have been valued at 18 and 21.6 times in earnings respectively (Sage, 2010). Social networking has also been considered as one of the major driving factors of eBay. Facebook and other social networking sites have created a market for many consumers and many sellers (Duryee, 2011). Social networking has fast replaced mobile access in its thrust toward consumerism. And still this trend will again see more changes in the next few years. Nevertheless, the point has been