, Columnists
EBay Is the Un-Amazon, for Better and Worse
Its defensible caution may ensure that the online marketplace stays viable and profitable, but it risks losing relevancy.
Slow and steady may not win this race.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
How can a company be both the second-place player in its fast-growing industry – and largely excluded from the conversation about the future of said industry?
That’s the weird position occupied by EBay Inc. The company grabs a larger share of the U.S. e-commerce market than Walmart Inc., Apple Inc., and every other retailer besides Amazon.com Inc. The $95 billion of goods and tickets sold on EBay’s sites last year was more than Target Corp.’s annual revenue. EBay has 179 million active shoppers, while Nordstrom Inc. served 35 million shoppers in fiscal 2018.