ebay Stock: Is that going to affect the PowerSellers?

Some of the  eBay Power Sellers have noticed, and made a big deal about, the falling stock prices of eBay. It’s a surprising development, but are the stock prices at eBay really going to affect eBay sellers?

I had the pleasure of attending an analyst dinner with folks from Piper Jaffray and took away a few notes. The dinner was attended by some of the major shot callers for stock pricing for eBay. As I understand it the price will stay as a buy. Eventhough many are squaking about it, the fact is that eBay is diversifying their business to include their payment system (Paypal) and VOIP product (Skype). The auction business may have matured, but in fact there are many other avenues to make money on the internet, most noteably Pay per click, and why wouldn’t any public company enjoy those avenues.

Skype is a product used by millions of users and although it is still not fully developed by eBay - they are certainly looking for ways to improve their pocketbook with this product. Bringing to the table pay-per-click, ads on the Skype platform, and eBay visibility will play well for eBay. This might even bring more buyers to the eBay auction site, and eBay Express.

I wouldn’t discount eBay as the largest ecommerce platform out there, because in reality it is! Alexa ranks as the top 5 sites, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, MySpace and eBay, and while Yahoo certainly has ecommerce, it does not have the available buy it now mentality and the volumes of listings that eBay has. None of the others come close.

Take a look at all the ruckus about GBase. Here is something that is said to have the capability to rival eBay, yet in reality, it is nowhere close to the ecommerce portal that eBay is, and honestly, I don’t see much there when I look at other Google attempts to go, like Froogle. Froogle is a search for product entity that doesn’t contribute but a minor portion of any etailer profit. In fact I’m hard pressed to find any ecom site that has good results from Froogle and a good conversion.

What many may not realize, especially sellers on the eBay platform, is that eBay is more than just an auction site anymore. It now has interests in many markets and the most profitable is likely to be the Skype and Paypal areas, not the core auction business that it has been in the past.

While sellers are clamoring and disgruntled over this, the fact remains that eBay can only justify to their stockholders moving forward and reaping a fortune. If the core site has matured, they are smart for going out to other avenues. As a seller, that should be the key as well. Diversification is where sellers will continue to find new opportunities for growth while still maintaining their base. This is what eBay is doing and this is what eBay sellers should be doing too.