eBay takes on Google
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Written By Mohammad Usman | July 9, 2007 | Share This
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In the ongoing battle between Google Checkout and Paypal, eBay recently delivered another blow by publicly denouncing Google Checkout’s performance. On Friday, Bloomberg published an article quoting eBay CEO Meg Whitman, in which she calls attention to both Google’s poor user ratings and PayPal’s revenue contribution. From Bloomberg,
“In recent surveys, the world’s largest auctioneer found that less than one out of five users of Google’s Checkout online payment service was happy with it. At EBay’s PayPal, the figure was more than double that. Meanwhile, PayPal, bought by EBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, has widened its lead over Checkout since the holiday season.”
Granted, eBay owns PayPal - it’s no wonder they support their own online payment service.
The Bloomberg article is the culmination of a long public spat between eBay and Google. Roughly a month ago, eBay announced that they would be performing a limited advertising “test” in which they pulled all of their ads from Google Adwords. A week prior, Google tried to throw a Checkout party that would coincide with a scheduled eBay/PayPal event that was being held in the same city. Before that, eBay was mad about Google Checkout’s omission of service fees for a year as a promotional lure, and Google was angry at eBay’s intensified relationship with Yahoo…. the bickering continues.
Though Google detractors are welcoming eBay’s public battle against Google, this isn’t exactly a David and Goliath fight. Both companies are so large and inter-dependent that a total break in business relations would be in neither company’s interest. To date, the fighting has done little more than fluctuate eBay and Google’s stock prices, which on Friday went up $1.12 and down $2.23, respectively.
Topics: Advertising: Distribution, Advertising: Online, Google, Google: AdWords, eBay |
eBay powersellers have noticed a distinct drop in sales since the ’spat’. Has Google tweaked the Algorithm so that eBay is just not as quite as high in search (but no-one could prove anything?)