Predictions

Predictions

by Mike Masnick


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Can Google Steal Customers From eBay?

from the it's-all-coming-together dept

After noting in the previous post how search engines were becoming media players, they're also becoming e-commerce players, to a certain degree. While it may not seem initially obvious that Google and eBay compete in anything other than market valuation, the two companies are increasingly competing with each other, even if they rely on each other to some extent as well. The simple fact is that if people wanted to sell something, they used to just use eBay, since they knew that that's where the buyers would go. However, many buyers will now just go to Google, which will point them to many different buyers, even those outside of eBay. Thus, one of the benefits for selling via eBay starts to go away, and some sellers figure out they can just set up their own online storefronts, and get attention via Google using search engine marketing and buying up some keywords. While it's not a direct competition, it's clear that the two giants are at least competing in some sense.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

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  1. Google's relentless march

    by Young Man - Feb 8th, 2005 @ 8:18am

    After seeing how well Google has rethought e-mail and maps, its not hard to think that they could create a better auction ...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Google vs Ebay?

    by Advitas - Apr 13th, 2007 @ 6:30am

    I hope Google comes up with an alternative for Ebay. I have stopped using them since my Paypal account was frozen for no reason.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. by Anonymous Coward - Jul 21st, 2007 @ 11:14am

    watch out, Google is trying hard to

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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