Praise be: eBay is 10 years old today. EBay itself is marking its anniversary this week with eBay Live!, a summit of users. Like any other self-respecting 10-year-old, it has grown out of its bouncy castles and jelly and ice-cream phase.
Even when I'm not buying or selling myself, there is much pleasure to be derived from simply gawping at the weird, wonderful or downright disturbing morsels in the eBay soup. EBay is cherished by most users, and as the Guardian noted in its leader last week, it is one of the few internet companies that survived the dotcom collapse to become global brands. It is also encrusted by barnacle-like smaller sites - this one was launched last week - that owe their existence to the mighty Bay.
But will it last another 10 years? The Economist pointed out earlier this month that the diversification of dotcom giants displays their insecurity:
The fact that the biggest web firms such as eBay, Yahoo!, Google and Amazon are so keen to invade each other's turf shows that none of them feels secure in their niche, or considers the others as well-protected from new competition.
And Mercury News (subscription required) reports that some traders are looking elsewhere to do business:
Fee increases, complaints of slowing sales and growing concerns about fraud and other issues have tested the patience of many eBay loyalists.
As a response to this, eBay is beefing up its customer service. But as John Powers comments on Knowlege Problem:
The key to eBay's success is never, and I mean never, answering customer's telephone calls. Customers fare for themselves and though many come out battle-scarred, somehow like it.
So like any other 10-year-old, eBay is great fun to play with, but its destiny is uncertain. It will be a few years before it reaches maturity, but it will be fascinating to watch it grow up.
