Yahoo, eBay Join Forces to Fight Google - Analyst Reactions
(Page 4 of 4 )
Speaking about the strategic partnership between Yahoo and eBay, Susquehanna analyst Marianne Wolk told Reuters that “It’s a very positive move for both, since eBay gets to monetize its traffic with advertising. For Yahoo, it significantly broadens” the search engine’s audience.
So how would Yahoo advertising work on eBay? That could get touchy, because eBay certainly wouldn’t want to offend its sellers by running Yahoo ads that compete. But if a hopeful buyer couldn’t find what he or she was looking for through a search on eBay, perhaps a Yahoo ad could pop up which points to the item.
That gives Yahoo a tremendous advantage, as anyone who has ever gotten into the spirit of hunting for stuff on eBay can attest. “Clearly Google and Microsoft, I assume, would have liked this business,” observed Mark May, an analyst with Needham & Co., “but Yahoo has more assets to leverage in a partnership with eBay.”
There is another touchy aspect to this deal that is worth noting. eBay may have a rabid following, but it makes use of paid search ads in all three major search engines to drive users to its website. The online auctioneer is no stranger to bidding; it buys ads for up to 15 million keywords.
In fact, eBay is in a potentially painful position right now: it needs to buy advertising from a company it thinks will become its biggest rival (Google), and it has just made a major deal with the enemy of its enemy, so to speak. That dependence on Google advertising isn’t going to go away overnight; indeed, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. While the alliance may make both Yahoo and eBay stronger competitors, it may need to go further before it becomes effective. To win at this game, Google’s competitors need to take away its crown as the place to go for online search (and therefore advertising). Whether the agreement offers enough advantages to accomplish this for Yahoo and eBay remains to be seen.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
