eBiz Tomorrow by Chris Salazar

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!

One of the main reasons why I like the Web industry is because its always changing! New things are introduced everyday and old ideas fail everyday too. Because the web is so scalable, there’s so much to do in such a big space. The dynamic culture of the web allows for everyone to get a piece of the pie (some bigger than others), but in any case, everyone gets a chance to show what they got in their 15 minutes of fame.

Despite all of this, I’ve often wondered if being the first in your market to introduce a new product/service is an advantage or disadvantage? I’m sure its a little of both, but whats the best strategy? Better yet, is one better than the other, or is it just a flip of the coin? To try and sort out all these questions, I’ve put together an advantage/disadvantage list:

Advantages of being FIRST:

• Have the opportunity to “WOW” users with something new and exciting
• No competition!
• Have the ability to create your own system, own way of doing things
• Set the industry standard - set the bar high
• Once you create a need for your product/service, you can charge comfortably

Disadvantages of being FIRST:

• Other people can copy your ideas and come out with something better/easier
• You are the first one to make the mistakes
• Costs of production may be higher
• As competition comes in, your prices may have to drop (depending on your strategy)
• Making critical mistakes could be the end of your business

These are just some ideas I’ve been thinking about, especially with YouTube and all the look-a-likes around.

I’m still wondering which one is best though…launching first or waiting.