Vice President Meg Whitman?
August 28, 2008
Meg Whitman, former CEO and President of eBay Inc, is being tipped as a possible Vice Presidential running mate for Republican nominee John McCain. If chosen, she would be only the second woman to run on the ticket of either major party since Democrat Geraldine Ferraro was chosen by Walter Mondale in 1984.
It all seems rather unlikely, but the rumour isn’t going away. From a British perspective it is extraordinary that someone could go from CEO to ‘a heartbeat away from the presidency’ in less than a year. She has never, after all, been elected to any political post. Ever.
The job of Vice President was famously described by one incumbent as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss” and has no executive power, many ceremonial duties and comes with the right to preside over the Senate. So in some ways it might be rather less thrilling than being CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. But it does come with a plane (call sign Air Force Two): a perk shared with the CEO of eBay.
Dan Wilson is a writer and consultant and the bestselling author of ‘Make Serious Money on eBay UK’.
Bill & Meg show there’s life after eBay
July 8, 2008
Online travel company Orbitz have appointed Bill Cobb to their board of directors. Bill served as President of eBay North America until January, and had previously held a number of positions withing the company, including senior vice president and general manager of eBay International and senior vice president of global marketing.
Steve Barnhart, President of Orbitz Worldwide, said that he looked forward to benefiting from Bill’s advice and counsel. Orbitz own a number of online travel brands, including ebookers and cheaptickets.com.
Bill’s one-time boss Meg Whitman has also been mentioned several times recently as a possible Vice-President for Republican candidate John McCain.
John Donahoe and the eBay circus
April 2, 2008
Talking at the Catalyst conference at Pinehurst Scot Wingo today revealed his thoughts on how eBay will change under JD. When asked how eBay would change from a buyer and sellers viewpoint under JD, specifically in comparison to Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb, Wingo explained that the site is likely to become more business orientated.
Speaking of eBay Live!, due to take place in Chicago this June, Wingo likened JD to taking the “CEO of a fortune 100 company and seeing him run a circus”. Mentioning a square peg and a round hole he said one of JD’s challenges will be engaging with eBay buyers and sellers - something that Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb have excelled at.
Whilst Meg and Bill are exceptional and talented business people, they have always connected with the eBay community and appeared to enjoy contact with eBay buyers and sellers. This is something which to date JD has appeared uneasy with; eBay Live! in Chicago will be his first opportunity to set the tone for the eBay of the future.
Meg joins McCain’s presidential campaign
March 14, 2008
Rumours of political ambition have been flying for a while: first she was quitting to join up with Mitt Romney, then she was planning a run for Governor of California. Now Meg Whitman is joining John McCain’s campaign to become the next US President. Meg, who says that America needs McCain’s “courageous leadership”, will be national co-chair of the Republican senator’s campaign. She will be fundraising as well as developing policy and travelling the country on his behalf.
Do we wish her every success in her new position? I’ll leave that for you to decide 
Meg Whitman to inspire future CEOs
February 24, 2008
Meg Whitman is to join the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Warren Buffet and even George Washington as a laureate of Junior Achievement Worldwide.
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization providing school and college programs for students, with the aim of inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Junior Achievement aim to be the bridge between education and business.
Meg will now join over 200 Business Hall of Fame Laureates which consists of outstanding individuals who have made legendary contributions to the free enterprise system.
Here today, gone tomorrow
February 7, 2008
What short memories people have. Just a couple of weeks ago eBay users and the media alike were either praising or (mainly) blaming Meg Whitman for her management of the eBay site. Now just a few days after she announced she’s stepping down Seeking Alpha carry the headline “How Donahoe Broke eBay“.
I guess it’s a refreshing change from blaming everything on Meg, but has she been forgotton so quickly? Surely she oversaw all of the changes recently announced? Or was it really all JD’s idea which he kept under wraps to announce the minute Meg stepped aside?
Is JD worth $25million?
January 30, 2008
While eBay sellers spend the morning counting pennies to see if we’re better off or worse, Valleywag asks the question that really matters. Some quick numbers:
• $900,000 annual salary
• $1,125,000 “target annual incentive bonus”
• $23 million in stock options and restricted stock units
Nice.
Meanwhile, Meg’s reluctance to check out of the Hotel California will cost the company $600,000 in salary and the same again in bonus, plus additional payments from the incentive plan, office space and secretarial services. Never has quitting looked quite so lucrative.
All the details, for those who want them.
Feedback changes coming soon
January 25, 2008
We know that eBay in the UK, US and Germany will be announcing changes in fees next week, but it seems changes to feedback are also coming. Richard Ambrose, eBay UK’s head of trust and safety, just posted this cryptic comment on the Q&A forum:
I’m hoping that one of the eventual outcomes of them might even be an end to feedback threads.
Coupled with the cancellation of Community Court, the “feedback jury” to which members could appeal to have unfair negatives removed, this seems to open up a number of possibilities for feedback:
- Blind feedback: Both parties have a limited time in which to leave feedback. Neither party’s shows until both have left it, but if you wait too long, you lose the right to leave anything. Brian Burke said at eBay Live last summer that this was something that was being considered.
- Automatic positives for buyers on payment: eBay surveyed members about this last year. I suspect it would be linked to PayPal payments, so would they lose their auto-pozzie if they then did a chargeback? Who knows. I think sellers would hate this one possibly even more than blind feedback, but I doubt that “sellers will complain” would put eBay off!
- Abolishing buyer feedback: I’ve seen a fair amount of speculation that eBay will move to an Amazon-style system where feedback is only for sellers. I don’t think this will happen in practice - buyers *like* feedback - but in theory, it’s already here. Buyers’ feedback rarely matters: the only time I ever look at my buyers’ is if they haven’t paid, I just don’t have time or opportunity to vet everyone who BINs a bead or three from me. Sellers’ feedback, as we all know, is being made to matter more and more.
As if this weren’t enough, there are hints that a new feedback system for PayPal might be coming. Scot Wingo links to an interview with Meg and JD, in which Meg says:
We wonder if there is a way to embed reputation into Paypal. Is there a way to travel across the Web with your Paypal wallet and some other aspect of reputation?
UK PayPal wannabee payment service Nochex already has a feedback system, used by almost none of my buyers: what do other Nochex users find? I must admit though, I find the idea of a “reputation system” on PayPal intriguing: something more extensive than the current ‘how many transactions have you done’ numbers could be useful for small merchants trying to build a reputation online.
No doubt we’ll see. Next week and the coming months should be very interesting times indeed.
Arnie Schwarzenegger or Meg Whitman?
January 25, 2008
It’s a choice I’d never have dreamt up in a million years, but reports in the Los Angeles Times suggest Meg Whitman may be applying for Arnie’s job as Governor of California.
Currently fund raising for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign she is no stranger to politics, also hob nobbing with British PM Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Arnie and Whitman couldn’t be more different, but maybe she’ll adopt his old slogan “I’ll be back”, for the thousands of eBayers living in California you might not be missing Meg for long!
Hop over to eBay Matchups and cast your vote - Arnie vs Meg
Via Auctionbytes
So, farewell then?
January 23, 2008
If I were Meg Whitman, I think I’d change my mind about announcing my leaving eBay along with the Q4 figures today. The internet is awash with rumours of my demise: having to watch all those people go “oops” before telling them I was just kidding and skipping off into the sunset, would be far too tempting.
There’s so much speculation out there that I honestly don’t think we need to add to it here. Here are a few of my favourite bits of opinion for your reading pleasure though:
- Auctionbytes picks up on an interesting tidbit from yet another WSJ piece: John Donahoe, heir apparent, was the person responsible for the third party ads in search, which are loathed by sellers and generally serve to only confuse buyers.
- Scot Wingo has a two part post on what analysts are expecting from the Q4 figures, and why it matters: At this point in the series, you maybe asking yourself: “Self, why am I continuing to read this stuff about Wall St. Analysts, bulls/bears, etc. I’m an eBay seller and this has nothing to do with my business.”
- Only eBay swims against the tide: I doubt very much we will hear anything about Whitman resigning today. Personally, I think the WSJ article has been blown a little out of proportion although I secretly wish I was wrong.
- Crunchgear’s great take: Meg Whitman set to retire, my friend, and we in St. Victual’s School for Girls in Lagos, Nigeria would like for to buy your item as a present for her.
For those who want to listen along, the Q4 earnings call can be found here at 9pm 10pm GMT. [oops!]
Will Meg stay, or will she go now?
January 22, 2008
Yet again rumours are rife that Meg Whitman is about to retire, reports in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and Reuters say that she has recently “begun delegating more daily responsibilities and was completing succession plans”.
The front runner to take the reins is still John Donahoe, that would signal a change from a leader who puts the community at the fore to one who appears to be more interested in stocks and shares then the humble eBay seller.
Rumours of Meg leaving eBay are nothing new, and have been circulating on a regular basis for a few years, based on an old statement that “no CEO should stay more than a decade in the job”. That comment has been following her for years ever since her ten year tenure was achieved.
Many are saying that it’s time for change as the eBay group of companies is not in particularly good health. The share price is down, sellers are spreading their wings to Amazon and other auction sites and setting up their own websites. Skype wasn’t a great buy and was written down last year. I prefer to look back at the fledging company Meg joined when the eBay was still called “Auctionweb”. Just as she’s overseen the sight change from a dull black, white and grey site to a rich multicoloured multimedia site she’s also overseen the growth from a small startup to a company that’s created more self employed traders than any other in the history of commerce.
If Meg does leave eBay many will count it as leaving a failing company in need of revitalisation, and in some ways they’ll be right. I’ll look back on her management of eBay as the golden era when ecommerce became available to the man in the street and the age of opportunity and entrepreneurship.
Yahoo! and eBay team up in Japan
December 4, 2007
eBay are going back to Japan having pulled out of the territory in 2002. This time however they’re not going it alone but will partner with Yahoo!
By March next year the Japanese will be able to bid for items listed on eBay through Yahoo! Auctions, and in a reciprocal arrangement by the middle of 2008 US eBay users will be able to bid for Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay. Meg Whitman said of the deal, “We are excited to partner with Yahoo Japan in providing Japanese users with localized site designed to enable them to shop on the eBay marketplace with ease and convenience”.
It’ll be interesting to see how the differences between the site mesh, and how clear it will be if an item is listed on eBay or Yahoo! One thing is for sure though, and that’s that a whole load of new buyers and sellers in Japan will be accessing eBay in their own language.
To attract even more Japanese buyers a new site called Sekaimon is being jointly launched. A collaboration between Yahoo! and eBay the Sekaimon site will translate items on listed on eBay into Japanese and help with payments, shipping and customs clearance for Japanese shoppers. Sekaimon literally means “Global Shopping”, which is after all eBay’s ultimate aim.
More powerful than the Queen
September 4, 2007
…but less powerful than Oprah, eBay Chairman and CEO Meg Whitman is placed at number 22 on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most powerful women. Headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the second year running, the list throws up some interesting questions. Is Oprah really powerful, or just inflential? Does the Queen (#23) have more power than Hillary Clinton (#25) - and will their relative positions have changed in next year’s list?
Thanks to Dan for the link.
Happy Birthday Meg!
August 4, 2007
eBay appoint new director to the board
July 16, 2007
eBay announced the appointment of David Moffett, former Vice Chairman and CFO of U.S. Bancorp today. Moffett retired from Bancorp on 27th February this year.
We are delighted that David has joined eBay’s Board. David’s deep experience in the financial services industry and decades of global financial management expertise will be instrumental in helping shape eBay Inc.’s growth strategy moving forward. He will be a natural fit for our outstanding Board.- Meg Whitman
The appointment is effective July 13th and Moffett will serve on the Board’s Audit Committee.
Meg says eBay may eventually use Google Checkout
July 6, 2007
In a Bloomberg TV interview aired on Independence day (Sounds a bit like Freedom!) Meg Whitman revealed that eBay may eventually use Google Checkout if more people are satisfied with the service!
Checkout aficionados shouldn’t take too much hope of that being any time soon however. The comment was made while discussing a recent survey which found only 14 percent of Google Checkout users happy with it. Saying it may be allowed on eBay if user satisfaction increases sounds more like a dig at Checkout than a forward looking statement.
Meg points out the figure for PayPal users happy with the service was over double that of Checkout. PayPal has also increased it’s lead over Checkout since Christmas sales and Meg likened it to “a huge home run,” saying “It’s the most innovative Web payment product out there and has done really well, even in the face of a little bit of a challenge from Google.”
So what should we make of her comment that eBay may use Checkout? I think the operative word is *may*. I’m pretty sure eBay have no compelling reason to allow it, in fact it only benefits sellers and will certainly cost PayPal revenue. For buyers eBay and PayPal are synonymous and very few that open an eBay account don’t go on to open a PayPal account (at least in established territories). Don’t expect Checkout on eBay this year.
PayPal gave me something for free!
June 18, 2007
At the eBay Live! closing gala Bill Cobb and Meg Whitman presented eBay community awards to five eBayers and then Bill announced that PayPal wanted to give a present too - a $10 prepaid PayPal credit card.
Unfortunately Bill didn’t get the huge round of applause the announcement deserved. It sounded as if it was just for the five winners of community awards, in fact many were stunned that he’d mention a paltry $50.
Bill got the announcement wrong though, as people started to leave they realised he’d meant to say that PayPal were paying for a cab for EVERYONE at eBay Live! PayPal staff were handing out the creditcards to every single eBayer as they left for a free ride back to their hotels. I haven’t a clue how much it cost them in total, but I for one would like to say “Thank you”!
Feedback changes coming soon
June 16, 2007
Feedback used to be the one unchangeable aspect of eBay. Everybody hates it, everybody loves it, but no one wants it to change. Today Pierre Omidyar himself revealed that he never foresaw just how central to the eBay phenomenon feedback would become. Since he first introduced feedback until recent years only two major changes have occurred. First the ability to leave feedback for people you hadn’t transacted with was removed, and then after some minor tweaks such as introduction of feedback percentages eBay finally introduced measured steps to remove feedback in certain circumstances.
Removal of feedback that didn’t infringe feedback policies was introduced when it was determined an eBayer wasn’t participating in the transaction or community. If a buyer didn’t respond to an unpaid item process the feedback rating was cancelled, or if a buyer was suspended permanently within 90 days of registering on eBay it was decided they never had the right to participate in the community and all feedback they left was wiped.
Now both Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay and Brian Burke, the eBay Director under whose remit global feedback falls, have both stated within hours of each other that more changes are being considered, with the most serious proposal being double blind feedback which currently runs on Mercado Libre, an eBay owned site.
Double Blind Feedback
Double blind feedback is where both buyer and seller leave feedback but it doesn’t show until both are submitted. This wipes out retaliatory feedback which is a big issue although whilst there are obvious advantages studies are underway to determine what the downsides may be. One worry is that people may simply stop leaving feedback to prevent feedback being left for them (currently 83% of transactions have feedback left by one trading partner and in 70% of transactions both the buyer and the seller both leave feedback).
There are solutions to many of the issues, such as after a set period if one trading partner hasn’t left feedback they lose the right to but the feedback left for them is revealed on their feedback profile. It’s harder to find solutions for automated feedback, for instance Selling Manager Pro would no longer be able to leave feedback on receipt of feedback from the buyer. That’s a time saver for sellers but I’m not sure it’s a real concern for eBay, as retaliatory feedback is what they want to stop. Although uppermost in their minds is retaliatory negatives there’s no reason not to include retaliatory positive feedback as not particularly reflective of the transaction.
Repeat Feedback
The second bombshell released is that eBay are actively looking at repeat feedback to count towards your feedback score. Currently a trading partner can only affect your score by one (+ or -) regardless of how many times you transact with them. This would mean all transactions with that person would be counted, and would in some cases change feedback scores by tens of thousands, especially for sellers in categories where multiple sales and repeat sales are the norm.
This change would be applied retroactively - with some 4 million comments left daily and 6.1 billion feedbacks already left just the processing time to recalculate feedback scores is enormous. Look out for the number of shooting stars on eBay to multiply overnight if this change happens!
Feedback Disputes
The final change being considered is the community to adjudicate in feedback disputes. This would be a move to end feedback where for instance the buyer left a negative without even attempting to pay, or a seller left a negative after changing the terms after the sale. It’s simply not possible for eBay to decide who is telling the truth when a buyer and seller disagree, in fact in many cases they are both telling the truth but from a different perspective. In the case of negative feedback disputes it’s possible community members will be assigned to listen to both the buyer and the seller and decide which feedback is justified and which isn’t. The adjudicators would be assigned disputes at random to ensure that they’re impartial to both the buyer and the seller in any given case.
So that’s the future of feedback, what of recent changes such as the introduction of Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs)? The message from buyers is that they like them, and the hard facts from eBay are so far good sellers are getting more bids and higher selling prices whereas not so good sellers are losing bids and getting lower selling prices since DSRs were introduced. This is exactly the desired effect but eBay emphasised that you shouldn’t expect perfect fives in DSRs, Don’t compare yourself against 5/5, compare yourself with other sellers in your category. So far DSRs have not impacted the percentage of feedback left - 80% is still the norm in the UK, Australia and Ireland where DSRs were first introduced. Currently it appears that DSRs for the Item Description and Shipping/Handling time give the biggest disparity in conversion rates. Although it’s early days for DSRs these appear to be two that buyers look at most closely.
Finally a heads up for all sellers! There may be a change to PowerSeller requirements in the future where feedback DSRs are taken into account. More importantly eBay are looking to improve the finding experience for buyers: Don’t be surprised if at some point in the future you find sellers with high DSRs scores appear in search ahead of those with lower scores. If a seller is seen to be giving a better buyer experience eBay will want buyers to choose their product in preference to those who are rated less highly.
Keynote: Griff and Meg
June 15, 2007
They keynote speech kicked off in spectacular style with the much awaited live debut of Twisted Lister - eBay’s very own band. Bryan Wright, Steve Corral, Steve Slater, Brandon Jones, and Domenic Paolo are eBay employees by day and musicians by night. They entertained the audience while they took their seats, which took some time as thousands entered the auditorium. Between songs there were drummers and acrobats on jumping stilts.
Griff - Jim Griffith, Dean of eBay University, was there to entertain the audience with his repertoire of eBay stories, and sallied forth into the audience for ad hoc interviews with unsuspecting eBayers. With his silver sequined jacket he is every bit the loveable rogue as he purposefully picked those who looked most camera shy to talk to. Those cornered found themselves filmed live on screens to make sure no matter where you were seated you could see the action.
Griff then introduced eBay CEO Meg Whitman for her keynote speech. Meg covered many topics with the message that eBay is no longer just about buying and selling. eBay aims to be enable fun engaging transactions and communications around the globe. From Finding, Buying, Paying, Communicating and Entertaining many of the building blocks are already in place. Meg also introduced Kristen Cunningham from eBay Giving Works (eBay for Charity in the UK). Kristen has over seen eBay’s charity work for five years and they recently reached the milestone of $100 million funds raised worldwide for charities. The auction which tipped the $100 million balance was a cat painting by artist Sandy Byers who donated 50% to a cat shelter. Kristen explained charity auctions get more views, more bids and better final value prices that non-charity listings.
Meg also mentioned the Webby that the eBay community was awarded and of course couldn’t resist talking about feedback. Present in the auditorium was 6.1 million feedback if you added up the thousands of eBayers present. Meg also introduced Pierre Omidyar who is attending eBay Live! this year, along with a mention for John Donahoe who is not taking an active part in the Keynote speeches. Mentioning John is significant, raising his profile as he works very much behind the scenes and is seen as investor friendly rather than community facing.
Five words from Meg Whitman
June 6, 2007
Meg has accepted a life time achievement Webby Award on behalf of the eBay community. Traditionally Webby acceptance speeches are limited to just five words so it’s hard to make a long blog post from Megs:
“Bidding starts at 99 cents.”
Very apt considering eBay’s commitment to go back to basics and bring the excitement of auctions back to the forefront of the eBay experience 
eBay gets a new baby - StumbleUpon
May 30, 2007
Meg’s been spending again, in the region of $75m for StumbleUpon.
For those that haven’t heard StumbleUpon is a discovery/search site. It aims to show you a combination of your own preferences and those of people like you to present websites, videos, photographs, and even information you didn’t even know you might like. That’s a great fit for eBay - if they can tie the technology into the auction platform they can promote listings you might like based on those people who have purchased similar items to you in the past like. For instance if you purchase clothes for a two year old they might present you with toys. Equally the software might establish that people with two year olds also purchase something totally unrelated and offer you a new hammock - you might just like it if others do!
Either way it’ll be interesting to see what eBay do with StumbleUpon, it can’t do any harm having an eBay owned toolbar on millions of browsers around the world!
UPDATE: Bill Cobb has just posted on the .com announcement board… they haven’t a clue how to integrate StumbleUpon with eBay, PayPal and Skype, but when they figure it out they’ll let us know!
Meg puts her shirt on eBay
May 24, 2007
Ever wanted to give Meg Whitman some feedback? Well, now you can. eBay’s president is auctioning a number of personal items and pieces of eBayana as part of Give Fest, an eBay employee event where items are being sold for charity.
Auction items include various eBay shirts, three (greedy!) bath towels from eBay Live 2003 and a pair of eBay flip flops. Maybe you could call your own business partners on Meg’s old phone, or add up your millions on her calculator? And then there’s my favourite, the Shrek and Donkey plushes given to Dreamworks’ board members.
Anyone worried by this zero-feedback seller should be reassured by her About Me page:
Don’t be scared of my non-existent feedback score. I actually opened up a new eBay account just for my Give Fest Listings (I assure you that I have a very high feedback score on my personal account!).
Don’t worry, Meg, we’re sure you’ll send the shirts. You don’t need them, when you’ve already had the shirts off *our* backs.
A chance to chat with eBay executives
May 8, 2007
Ever wanted to meet a top eBay executive and let them know your thoughts on the site? Well now you can! How about a game of golf with John Donahoe, rumoured to be next in line to take over from Meg when she eventually leaves eBay? Ever had a problem with PayPal and fancy unloading your frustration on Rajiv Dutta the president of PayPal? Maybe you’d like to fire some questions to the VP & CMO of eBay US, Gary Briggs? Or of course there’s everyone’s favourite Griff, the host of eBay radio.
Well now you can - courtesy of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and their “Bid for a cure” eBay for charity auctions on eBay!
All things nice
May 6, 2007
Forbes has some nice coverage of eBay’s nice CEO, Meg Whitman:
Nice is the word usually applied to Whitman personally, and nice she has been to shareholders. … “I love who we are as a company and what we stand for,” says Whitman. “It’s fun to have built such a successful company and done it with a nice character, in a way most people would be proud of.”
As well as decisively quashing any ’she’s leaving’ rumours (”The legacy-building period is not over yet.”), they add an astonishing list of possible future aquisitions for eBay, including Yahoo, Amazon and Expedia. Nice companies, if she can get ‘em.
The power of five
May 3, 2007
Griff points us to a nice story: the eBay Community is to be given a lifetime achievement award in this year’s Webbies. Meg Whitman will accept the award next month, given “in recognition of eBay’s contributions as a cultural phenomenon and commitment to innovation, growth and social consciousness”.
As Griff says, Webby acceptance speeches are traditionally limited to five words only: “Brevity is not always our strongest suit, so I’m curious what Meg will decide on.” It will be very interesting to see if she follows Paypal’s cheaty lead from last year: in accepting the People’s Voice award in the Finance sector, they said “Paypal thanks *a hundred and five* million users”. If they’re calling that a five word speech, it’s significantly not as described
You can add your suggestions for Meg’s five words to this thread.
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