Steve Woda's Blog

… Ecommerce, Internet Security, Economics, and Entrepreneurship

Category: eBay Page 3 of 5

Antitrust Lawsuit Filed against eBay over PayPal, Payments Policies

By

On April 12, 2007

In eBay, PayPal, Web/Tech

AuctionBytes’ Ina Steiner reported this week that an anti-trust lawsuit was recently filed against eBay.

‘Michael Malone filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit against eBay this week under the Sherman Act, alleging eBay "utilizes its nationwide monopoly of the on-line auction market to monopolize the available forms of payment that sellers can use on eBay." eBay controls which payment methods sellers may advertise in their listings, and this year, it eliminated buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions. eBay owns the PayPal payment service.’

The article also references the old conflict between PayPal and eBay.  Before eBay purchased PayPal, PayPal’s management team prepared an anti-trust lawsuit against eBay and threatened to pursue the action.  Ultimately, PayPal did not file the anti-trust lawsuit, but it is ironic given the current lawsuit’s claims.

Very interesting stuff.  We will have to keep an eye on how this develops.

buySAFE on The Today Show!

By

On April 4, 2007

In buySAFE, Counterfeits, eBay, eCommerce, Google, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

The past few days have been quite exciting here at buySAFE.  Last week, buySAFE was featured on The Today Show.  The "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" segment, reported by Today’s consumer affairs reporter Janice Lieberman, discussed the growing e-commerce problem of counterfeit luxury goods.  As expected, buySAFE was showcased as a terrific solution to the counterfeit goods problem.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3lCsN3YzJs]

Counterfeit/fake/stolen goods are obviously becoming a major issue for e-commerce, but in my opinion, this problem is actually a symptom of a much larger, more important, fundamental problem… Online, buyers have a very difficult time discriminating good sellers/product from bad sellers/product.  The REAL problem is that the Web suffers from major information asymmetry issues.  That is why bad guys are successful at defrauding consumers. 

Please think about my diagnosis for a moment… If consumers could tell the difference from the good guys and the bad guys, would shoppers ever unknowingly buy a counterfeit item?  Of course not!  Fraud happens because of information asymmetry.

I think you will find the "Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" news segment very interesting.  However, as you watch this clip, please understand that the counterfeit/fake/stolen goods fraud problem is due to a more fundamental e-commerce problem… Buyers can’t reliably tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys!  In economic terms, this is called information asymmetry, and it is causing legitimate, professional merchants millions of dollars each and every day.

Kudos to Jeff Grass, buySAFE’s CEO, for a job well done!

Related blog posts and e-commerce articles:
"Designer Duds: Fake or Real?" by Janice Lieberman on The Today Show and iVillage.com
"buySAFE Invited By the French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown on the buySAFE blog
"eBay Bonding Service buySAFE Featured on Today Show" by Ina Steiner on AuctionBytes.com
"buySAFE Appearance on 3/20/2007 Today Show" on AuctionBytes.tv

France, Luxury Goods, and the Counterfeit Problem

By

On March 23, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Travis Brown, buySAFE’s General Counsel & VP of International, recently spent a week in France as a guest of the French government.  The purpose of the trip was to learn more about the exploding counterfeit goods industry, and to explain how bonding merchants and buySAFE could significantly mitigate this  huge problem.

I found Travis’ post to be one of the best I have ever read on the issue of counterfeit goods, and I am sure you will agree.  I encourage you to give it a quick read.

"buySAFE Invited By French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown on buySAFE’s blog

I am very interested in your thoughts and insights regarding the counterfeiting issue, so please share.

Related articles and blog posts:
"buySAFE Takes on the Issue of Counterfeit (Knock Off) Merchandise" by Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds

Wake Up With buySAFE on The Today Show

By

On March 19, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

It’s been a lot of fun (not to mention a lot of hard work 😉 to see buySAFE grow from an idea in my head into a company that is changing the face of e-commerce. Knowing how far we’ve come makes it exceptionally rewarding when major, national news outlets cover buySAFE and the impact we are having.

One such news outlet – The Today Show on NBC – will be including buySAFE in a story that will run tomorrow, March 20 shortly after 8:00 a.m. Consumer reporter Janice Lieberman spent the day at buySAFE headquarters last week as part of a piece about the prevalence of counterfeit luxury goods being sold online. With consumers often unknowingly buying knockoff merchandise, it’s tough to know how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Fortunately, buySAFE solves this problem. By certifying that a merchant is trustworthy and reputable, identifying the merchant with the buySAFE Seal, and taking the extra step to guarantee the transaction, buySAFE ensures a safe, smooth transaction for consumers every time. Rather than worrying about having bought a fake, shoppers that buy from a buySAFE Merchant can rest easy knowing that they’re dealing with one of the safest merchants anywhere.

I encourage you all to tune in the Today Show tomorrow, March 20th at 8:00 a.m. to see how buySAFE is making e-commerce safer and more efficient for everyone involved.

Auction Fraud Tops FBI’s 2006 Internet Crime Report

By

On March 19, 2007

In eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

As reported by Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds, auction fraud continues to be a huge problem.

The FBI has released its 2006 Internet Crime Report, and 45% of the Internet crime complaints in 2006 were for auction fraud.  You can read the Internet Crime Report here.

I have to be quite honest.  I am pretty disappointed in our Internet industry.  I believe there are too many folks willing to ignore this issue in the interest of making millions of dollars in profits.  Consumers continue to bear the brunt of the industry neglect, and in my humble opinion, the thinking is too short-term.  If these problems continue to get worse, it could permanently damage and alter the ecommerce landscape.

Read More

What do Digg and eBay Have in Common?

By

On March 18, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Written by Guest Blogger, Lauren Davis – Georgetown Law student

What do Digg and eBay have in common?  Their rating systems are under assault by the fraudsters, and in some cases, this mischief is undermining the systems’ credibility and effectiveness.

There has been a great deal of buzz surrounding a recent article in Wired magazine. The piece, entitled “Herding the Mob,” notes that online retail sites, such as eBay and Yahoo Auctions, and social bookmarking sites, including Digg, del.icio.us, and Reddit, share a common problem: the gaming of their community-based systems.

Read More

International Visitors Drive eBay Traffic

By

On February 2, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Google, Microsoft, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety

This AuctionBytes article by Lissa McGrath is a couple of months old, but I find it to be quite fascinating. 

During this past holiday shopping season, about 70% of eBay’s website traffic came from beyond the United States’ borders.  Wow!  Obviously, the international Internet is the real deal in 2007.  I haven’t spent any time independently analyzing this traffic data, but if true, it provides a fascinating view of how the eCommerce marketplace is evolving.

Read More

eBay and Seller Certification

By

On January 16, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety

Skip McGrath is the CEO of Auction Seller’s Resource – a terrific newsletter for professional eBay merchants and for those folks aspiring to make a living on eBay.

Skip recently posted a series of interesting articles on the subject of seller certification on eBay.

Part 1
Can Seller Certification Bring Buyers Back to eBay

Part 2
eBay Selling Tools To Build Your Business by Preventing Fraud

Skip has done a nice job of laying out a number of things to consider, and I encourage you to give his posts a read. 

I believe Seller Certification is part of the answer for eBay (and eCommerce in general), but my big fear is that a bunch of eBay marketing folks will get together and roll out a new "seller certification" program, and that the program will fail to actually do anything meaningful for buyers or the economic health of the eBay marketplace.  Tough, effective "seller certification" programs actually require that you have to tell some sellers that they CAN’T be "certified".  In my experience, marketing folks don’t like to tell current or prospective customers that they can’t do business together.  Tough, effective certification programs are designed to limit the players on the field, and this is usually counter to everything the marketing folks think about each and every day.

Read More

Google acquires Jotspot and its Wiki service

By

On October 31, 2006

In eBay, Google

One of my favorite online services, JotSpot, was just acquired by Google.  JotSpot provides a robust do-it-yourself publishing application enabling anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications.  JotSpot powers the wikis for thousands of businesses, and many of them are major brands including eBay.

Read More

PayPal to the rescue

By

On October 18, 2006

In eBay, eCommerce, Web/Tech

Q3 financial results were announced today, and eBay’s profits were up 10%.  That is good news for this battered stock, and it appears that lower taxes and PayPal were the major contributors.

Read More

Page 3 of 5

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén