The renegotiations over Google’s $900 million advertising deal with Fox may have hit a snag, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. And that snag may be eBay.
MySpace has been talking to eBay for several months about ways they could partner on what MySpace calls “peer commerce,” according to people familiar with the matter. The idea is to let MySpace users buy and sell items from each other using eBay’s online-commerce technology and its PayPal payment system, these people said. MySpace users would be able to post items for sale on their profiles, and their eBay auctions would be automatically updated, according to one person close to the discussions…Google isn’t likely to favor any deal that promotes eBay services that compete with its own. In the past 18 months Google has been increasingly encroaching on eBay’s territory. Google has added a listings service called Base where sellers can post products for sale and an online payment service called Checkout that competes with eBay’s PayPal.
I wouldn’t quite say that Google Base is a competitor to eBay, but certainly Google Checkout is driving hard at PayPal.
Like us, the WSJ is infatuated with Google and Fox, and reports often on their activities. They’re sometimes wrong, though. Last month the WSJ reported that Fox had invested $12 million in ROO. It turns out it was a pure stock-for-performance deal and no cash changed hands. Whoever is leaking this info to the WSJ may have their own agenda and the information may not be entirely accurate. We have an email in to Fox for a comment.
If I was Eric Schmidt I would do everything in my power to keep google ads on myspace.
Does TechCrunch offer categorised feeds? I’d love one that excludes financial news like this.
i don’t like the fox/myspace and google relationship – it won’t be nearly as successful as if fox/myspace would partner with ebay to sell myspace users’ wares.
google is new to commerce, relatively. and it’s too linear.
both myspace and ebay somewhat share the same ideals.
they’re almost complimentary – to some degree.
Speaking of Google/News Ltd partnerships..
The recently launched Google Maps Australia sources its business listings from truelocal.com.au, a site owned by News Ltd.
Kind of topical, given the coverage that Google Maps Australia has been getting on TechCrunch:
http://www.tech...d-in-australia/
Mark
http://www.raveaboutit.com.au
I think Google drives the drives the bus on any matters related to online ads – they can tell Fox the deal, take it or leave it (I don’t think they will though). Every company interested in online advertising, buying or selling, has to go through Google if they want to be relevant. Hate to say it, but Google is fast becoming the Microsoft of this generation in terms of dominance and importance in every facet of our online existence; luckily its leaders are, it this point anyway, far more interested in playing nice than Bill Gates ever was. Even though they don’t have to.
RE “MySpace users would be able to post items for sale on their profiles, and their eBay auctions would be automatically updated.” You can already do that with a widget. See my MySpace profile and you’ll see an example: http://www.myspace.com/buzzpal. Click to open the widget panel and there you have my eBay listings. I don’t like being forced to use a “widget panel” but it should be easy enough to write a piece of code to make a free-standing eBay widget. Can’t you make a widget out of anything/everything these days. Just about. I mean, you can milk anything with nipples. Cheers! -chrisco
PS: I’ll be taking down that “widget panel” soon… just put it up there to show the eBay widget.
I hope Fox partners up close to someone soon on a media basis.