I think eBay very much recognizes its following. They are valuing themselves at more than $600M at the IPO.
eBay has many other revenue opportunities.
For example, every time they e-mail you with an "outbid" notice, they could enclose a brief text advertisement.
eBay also could "regionalize", "localize", "nationalize". For example, trying to do business with other countries is a real pain. eBay could develop auction sites for England, France, Germany, Japan, etc.
eBay could provide shipping labels to its sellers. What a great brand recognition scheme that would be.
eBay could gather demographics on the buying patterns of its bidders, help point them to auctions likely to interest them, take and place targeted advertising at these people, and get very good ad rates for this targeted advertising.
eBay could issue weekly or monthly newsletters, pointing out new categories, highlighting major sellers, and of course sell ad space in these newsletters.
eBay could institute a "Frequent Bidders" point club for buyers and seller, and offer free third-party items based on attaining a certain number of points.
There are SO MANY areas in which eBay could go to capitalize on its HUGE and fast-growing following.
It will be interesting to see the new things it tries once it raises its first $60M in the IPO.
--Doug Fowler
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