Company Name: E-bay
Company Website: www.ebay.com
Business Industry: Online trade channel, retail, worldwide marketplace, auction place
Background/History
Ebay was founded in 1995 to create a platform for the sale of goods and services by community individuals and businesses. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar who immigrated to the United States from Paris when he was six. He graduated with Computer Science degree from Tufts University in 1988. He married Pam who has a pretty unusual hobby, collecting and trading Pez candy dispenser. When his wife complained about how difficult it is to find people with the same interests, he then created a small online auction service. It was launched during Labor Day weekend in 1995 and …show more content…
He was President for the last four years and overseeing the eBay marketplaces since he joined eBay last 2011. Under his leadership, eBay brand became part of the world’s top 30 brands. eBay has grown from $60.3 billion to $83 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume from the year 2011 to 2014. At the time of his reign as President, eBay added 56 million buyers, now totaling 155 million.
Analysis via Porter’s Five Forces Model
Threat of New Entrants
• The e-commerce market possessed low barriers for new entrants. It is quite easy for new entrants to enter the market and sell their products.
• Although, there may be difficulties for new entrants to achieve brand recognition and achieve high ranking on search engines.
• New entrants require significant marketing budgets to compete on a large scale. and this restricts new entries.
Bargaining Power of …show more content…
The service they provide appeals to both individual and corporate customers, from the hobbyist, to collectors, casual sellers, professional buyers and some corporate sellers, they all belong to the eBay customer base. There are variety of products and services offered as well, from shoes to jewelries to cars. These make their product offerings diverse as well. eBay’s differentiation strategy set eBay apart from other competitors. They created a one stop shopping experience for their customers. The following are some of the reasons eBay is different from competitors:
1. Variety of Product Offering
a. Customers can search for any products
2. eBay Community
a. eBay wants customers to be part of a community. This community feel gives the customer a sense that they are branch of something to care about. By showing its customers feedback and opinions create an important ground for these customers.
3. eBay website
a. The global reach of eBay hasn’t been achieved by any other online auction sites.