eBay CEO Meg Whitman answered analyst questions at the Goldman Sachs Sixth Annual Internet Conference on May 25, 2005, along with eBay CFO Rajiv Dutta. Some highlights of the interview and interesting bits of data that emerged from the interview follow, the entire audio Webcast can be heard online.
Whitman talked about the eBay acquisition of Kurant (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i14/s01), technology for hosting ecommerce websites. She said sellers who have an eBay Store can use the Kurant technology to build a store on the web and use the same backend (inventory system) to send items to either their eBay Store or their own ecommerce website.
This would be a huge shift in eBay's approach to its eBay sellers and may be recognition that eBay sellers are creating their own sites now without eBay's assistance. While she made it sound like the service was currently available, as far as AuctionBytes knows it is not yet available to eBay Store owners. Whitman did not say when it would be available.
One of the most interesting parts of the interview was when Whitman answered a question about her job interview with Disney (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m03/i16/s02). She said doesn't regret it on a personal level, she explored something and came back knowing eBay is the place she needed to be. However, she said she completely underestimated the leak would be as big as it was, and that there would be as much attention on this issue. She sounded genuinely amazed that so much attention was paid to her consideration of the position as head of Disney. "Net-net, I don't regret it, the publicity was a little more intense than I had anticipated,…" but, she said, it reaffirmed her commitment to eBay.
Whitman discussed the investment in online classifieds and said it opens up new areas like jobs, housing and rentals. Whitman called it "an interesting business" and said she will have more to report on at the end of the year.
Whitman discussed "New Way to Shop on eBay," a beta project reported in AuctionBytes on May 5 (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m05/i05/s01).
Rajiv Dutta indicated cross merchandising is important - letting sellers show buyers other items as they are shopping and checking out.
There was a discussion of eBay international sites, specifically Germany, Korea, China. There was a discussion of how visitors to eBay used the site to find items - by searching or browsing. Whitman said in 1998, there were 8 browsers for every searcher, and now there are more searchers than browsers.
http://customer.talkpoint.com/GOLD006/052505a_mk/agenda.asp?day=Wednesday
