For some reason when I think of eBay, the first thing that comes to mind is Community. Looking at what they’ve done over the past (acquiring companies, branching off), each move has been community based. Take a look at Craigslist or even StubHub…community is the central driving force.
Now, eBay is going back to the community giants — bloggers. But, this actually makes sense; its not something put together at the last minute just to be like everyone else. It fits with their company, it fits with ebay users, and it fits with bloggers.
What am I talking about? Well, eBay launched widgets that can be put on a webpage/blog to advertise or link to their listing. This is a perfect way to cross-reference listings with blogs to keep the commmunity involved.
eBay is doing a great job at keeping its users glued to their site. They arent just worried about hits per day, but rather returning users per day. They’ve provided a platform + the glue to keep the users coming back. They’re sticky!
What would I like to see on ebay?
- Why not add widgets to ebay listings which link to other blogs/sites who talk about the specific product being sold (i.e. link to cnet news, video blogs, tech crunch, etc).
I’m curious to see the reaction from the blogging community. This stuff really excites me!