Sometimes all you need is a map to see where a company is going, or where it got on the wrong track. Take a look at the eBay acquisitions above plotted as a subway map created by the folks at MeetTheBoss. Click on it for a larger, clearer map. (They also did the same thing for Amazon acquisitions).
The map is color-coded, with different subway lines representing different categories of acquisitions. As long as eBay sticks to central lines close to its main business, its acquisitions have done pretty well. For instance, the yellow line is online auctions (iBazaar, Internet Auction Co., GMarket), orange is retail (Half.com, Shopping.com), and violet is e-commerce (PayPal, Bill Me Later, StubHub).
It’s when eBay has veered off far away from its core business that it’s gotten into trouble. You can see that here by the darker orange VOIP line (Skype), the red Social line (StumbleUpon), and brown Auction House line (remember Butterfield & Butterfield?). Even the pink Classifieds line has been a mixed bag. eBay’s investment in Craigslist certainly didn’t help it much, and it is still struggling to make a splash in the U.S.
Fortunately, eBay’s current management is getting back on the right track by selling Skype and getting rid of distractions such as StumbleUpon.
(Hat tip to reader Ciaran Duffy).
Can you provide a link for the map? I can barely read it with it being embedded in the page.
click on it
it’s in the post.
http://www.meet...nvestments.html
How much loss did they make on Skype?
they covered that in another story
“eBay makes $1.1bn loss on Skype sale to investors”
http://business...icle6817219.ece
There’s a lot of debate about the real size of the loss, so Google it yourself if you’re really interested.
Frankly this map does not mean much until we know the criteria used to draw the distance between each point and why does the line turn at some given moment. Nice drawing. Little meaning.
+1… seriously, wtf does this map mean? What does 1-7 or A-E mean? Nice map, but it makes no sense.
Agreed… does the distance somehow measures the difference between ebay and the acquired company?
it’s just nonsense imo…graphs and diagrams are supposed to aid in understanding – this is just a gimmick
eBay is on their way down.
Yeah, I stay away from Ebay nowadays. I just buy stuff with Amazon Prime or off Craig’s List.
What does craigslist do with it’s 13.5 mio? I guess they spend it all on webdesign…
Apparently their servers cost that much.
Retained earnings.
There are so many ass hats that comment on this site.
Very interesting article!
Your the feather in my hat.
Meetup is a personal VC investment by Pierre Omidyar on the basis that it creates social value… It’s not an eBay property and not necessarily meant to be strategic.
Love this graphic, love this post. Well done Erick!
This is interesting for sure
What a second . . . didn’t half of the bad acquisitions take place under the watch of Meg Whitman?
I still remember Meg Whitman’s “Power of Three” speech in which she talked about how critically important Skype was for the future of eBay and Paypal.
Should we be worried about things like this when thinking about our future governor?
I stand by the Skype purchase as I think eBay’s move to let go the majority ownership was a big mistake,
In a few years, AT&T and Verizion will start to roll out their blanket WIFI services based on the FCC white space.
Who wouldn’t pay $10 a month for an in/out Skype number then?
probably people who like the free ones from Google Voice
+1 on that.
Although google is yet to roll it out around the world, it is only a matter of time.
what is on the axis?
Come on ! When you make a drawing that reflects what you already know and with categories that serve your purpose, this is called an illustration, not an explanation… This is good illustration, but a pretty poor explanation. Not a lot of meaning there.
come on, yourself. this illustration lets you understand in hours what it would normally take minutes to absorb
Oh SPIT! eBay buys companies like their users buy crap!
lol!
FAIL.
Was kijiji an acquisition?
Harry “I thought it was and then they introduced it to the U.S. market (and others)” Wang
There’s tons of wrong data here…This is an interesting attempt but falls really short
Hey,
Where is ProStores? Ebay bought that company a couple of years ago.
In france all blog say that french people don’t like Twitter .
In order to ow that is fals we ask at all people on twitter to finish ech of its tweets by #tagfrancais !
Please help US ^^
What did you learn from this graph that you will not learn from a list of its acquisitions? Other than plugging that company’s name what did it achieve?
Still hoping someone can explain how this graph visually explains the difference between a successful track and and maligned track.
To much junk
Combine the sexiness of twitter with what eBay once was and then add a some adrenalin and you have my site! Launching soon at TC50
Combine the coolness twitter with what eBay once was and then add a some adrenalin and you have my site! Launching soon at TC50
Something that clear, original, creative, plain good … would never come from TechCrunch.
I had no idea ebay had invested in some of the companies mentioned above, craigslist? really? StumbleUpon? really? Those are interesting choices and I can see why they didn’t work out in the end–they have no relation to their main core business.
How did you guys decide to link to info about paypal and stumbleupon and not the other 50 companies listed in this article?
Does Kijiji fall under gumtree?
I like the concept of the map, but who would make a visual like this and choose 3-4 shades of pink instead of some more differentiated colors? I spent more time looking at the legend than the graphic…
ProStores & MercadoLibre are missing in that chart… have a great weekend!
First of all I want to thanks MeetTheBoss. for developing such a wonderful map of ebay. We have seen in past, ebay have made notable mistakes and need to learn from it’s own past.
Was not aware eBay had invested in MeetUp and Craig’s List.
They bought Tradera.com (Swedish marketplace) in April 2006 aswell.
I’d be more interested to read about DubLi, myself.