eBay, Facebook and statistics.

August 7, 2008

As every avid viewer of Yes Prime Minister remembers: “statistics can be used to prove anything. Even the truth.” And whilst the headline from Hitwise (respected ‘internet numbers’ people) is accurate, “Facebook overtakes eBay to become third most visited website,” it only tells half the story.

hitwise pic

Facebook has enjoyed an irresistible rise in the past two years and in July overtook eBay.co.uk, with 2.75% of UK internet visits, to become the third most visited website in the UK. Google is #1 and so far in the lead that it’s (quite literally) off the chart. Microsoft’s ‘mail.live.com‘ domain (Hotmail, MSN etc. to the rest of us) has benefitted from consolidating URLs and remains firmly established in second place, with a just over 3% of net visits.

And what of eBay? As you can see, it’s been on a largely static course for the past 24 months (note the summer dips and the Nov/Dec peaks) and that’s no real cause for concern. As is pointed out, these are the visits for eBay.co.uk and visits from UK users to eBay motors or the eBay.com domain are not included. Would it make a difference if UK visits to all eBay domains were totted up? I reckon.

This is a good news story for eBay and eBay sellers. Internet visits are on the rise. Newcomers (like Facebook) are going to emerge and, in the face of those, it is remarkable to maintain such a strong percentage share of visits. In real terms, it would seem, eBay.co.uk is seeing more traffic than it did two years ago. Critics will remark that June 2008 was eBay.co.uk’s low water mark in the past two years and, frankly, only time will tell whether that’s a blip or the start of a trend. For the time being, eBay.co.uk remains the British ecommerce toppermost of the poppermost in terms of visits. Not ‘arf.

Dan Wilson is a writer and consultant and the bestselling author of ‘Make Serious Money on eBay UK’.

Written by Dan Wilson · Filed Under Ecommerce, Featured, Internet | 2 Comments 

eBay.ebay? Yes, says ICANN

June 26, 2008

A major shakeup in the way that domain names are created has been approved by the organisation which oversees the system of web addresses. ICANN today approved a new way of creating domain names, which will see traditional suffixes like .com, .net and .co.uk joined by others such as .bank, .bet, .school, .shopping or .hotel.

As well as these generic TLDs, the owners of existing trademarks are expected to buy their own names: .ebay is expected to be just one such example. Cities such as New York and Berlin are said to be pursuing .nyc and .berlin. It will also be possible to create full domain names in alphabets other than our own Roman one.

However, if you’re planning to buy your own name as a vanity project - and I have to say, .sue has a certain ring to it; just think of all the lawyers I could sell it to - you might need to think again: the new domain names will cost at least $100,000.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Ecommerce, Internet | 1 Comment