Web 2.0 Summit: Meg Whitman, eBay CEO
What an inopportune time for a conference appearance. As eBay CEO Meg Whitman takes the Web 2.0 Summit stage, eBay shares are trading down more than 6% amid concerns that the company’s core online auction business is slowing. Though eBay posted earnings yesterday that exceeded Wall Street expectations, its auction listings fell year over year for the second consecutive quarter and it suffered its first sequential dip in active eBay.com users ever.
Huh. We’re already 10 minutes into the conversation and Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, hasn’t even mentioned yesterday’s earnings. We have learned, however, that Whitman actually uses eBay and once sold her Mickey Mouse skis on it.
Is there a social-networking play in PayPal? O’Reilly asks.
Whitman responds that the “question is, over time, could PayPal become not only your wallet, but your reputation and your identity as you move around the Web? And I think that’s possible. There’s a huge opportunity here, but you have to be careful because you’re dealing with identity, financial identity, presence and reputation.”
Wow. Turns out eBay has a law-enforcement division that apparently includes some former FBI people. That said, eBay believes people are basically good, but that doesn’t mean EVERYONE is basically good. “We’ve developed expertise to help fight bad buys on the Web,” Whitman says, adding that eBay has some 2,000 people who do fraud modeling, etc., to keep eBay free of “bad actors on the Net.”
Then, onto other areas of the company: Are you still bullish on Skype? O’Reilly asks.
“Sure we’re stull bullish,” Whitman parries. “We’re a bit dissapointed, but bullish. We’re better positioned after the earnout to delight customers. We don’t have to worry as much about revenues and operating margins at this juncture. Skype still has great potential, and Skype 4.0 is on the way.”
O’Reilly: You’re looking for a new CEO?
Whitman: Yes, we are looking for a new CEO. There has been tremendous interest.
(I wonder if she’s got Jeff Citron’s CV sitting on her desk.)
Comments
John, were you at the same talk as everyone else? My opening question to Meg was about the slowing of their core auction business as reported in yesterday’s earnings call. I also zinged Meg on the growth in GMV being driven by currency fluctuations.
As to the questions about paypal as a web service and next gen internet operating system play — well, this is a technology conference, not an analyst call. I think you guys will be asking that question a year or two from now when eBay’s failure to seize that opportunity (or their rising to the bait) has material impact on their finances.
This is way more important than yesterday’s earnings call.
Posted by Tim O'Reilly at October 18th, 2007 at 2:44 pm