Comments on: Lunch With Pierre http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/04/lunch_with_pierre.php?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lunch_with_pierre Thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more. Thu, 23 May 2013 12:55:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Ash Thakur http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/04/lunch_with_pierre.php#comment-24261 Ash Thakur Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:03:13 +0000 http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/04/lunch_with_pierre.php#comment-24261 <p>It seems impossible nowadays to read anything at all about Pierre Omidyar that doesn't contain eulogies about what a down-to-earth philanthropist-cum-philosopher-cum-saint cum all round nice guy he is and oh by the way he really hates being a billionaire. How on earth has that other great West Coast monopolist - William H. Gates, whose offerings have also had a pretty significant "social" impact on the world - managed to attract nothing but bile? Bill has given away some $25bn to real charities (like treating malaria and AIDS in Africa) while Pierre struggles to spend a couple of million on community projects before the lure of investing in an online networking BUSINESS proves too much.</p> <p><a href="www.ebay.com" rel="nofollow">eBay</a> itself is truly one of the world's great monopolies - it's only a matter of time before it gets bigger than Microsoft (indeed, the high cost and security issues of the 2 companies' products are uncannily similar). Its critical mass dependent model is absolutely unassailable. While everyone could drop Google tomorrow if a better search tool came along (and believe me, that'll happen, hence Google's timing with the IPO) ebay can rely on market share and nothing else... so it can continue to print dollars whilst doing its vital, socially conscious community building work ;)</p> <p>5 or 6 years ago there were many smaller auction sites - many of them free - that I'm sure would have loved to have made a social contribution the way eBay does today, except they were blown out of the water by a behemoth that wanted to make sure that IT was the only one doing the social work.</p> <p>I think some truly fantastic PR has been at work for PO here... Comments??<br /> </p> It seems impossible nowadays to read anything at all about Pierre Omidyar that doesn’t contain eulogies about what a down-to-earth philanthropist-cum-philosopher-cum-saint cum all round nice guy he is and oh by the way he really hates being a billionaire. How on earth has that other great West Coast monopolist – William H. Gates, whose offerings have also had a pretty significant “social” impact on the world – managed to attract nothing but bile? Bill has given away some $25bn to real charities (like treating malaria and AIDS in Africa) while Pierre struggles to spend a couple of million on community projects before the lure of investing in an online networking BUSINESS proves too much.

eBay itself is truly one of the world’s great monopolies – it’s only a matter of time before it gets bigger than Microsoft (indeed, the high cost and security issues of the 2 companies’ products are uncannily similar). Its critical mass dependent model is absolutely unassailable. While everyone could drop Google tomorrow if a better search tool came along (and believe me, that’ll happen, hence Google’s timing with the IPO) ebay can rely on market share and nothing else… so it can continue to print dollars whilst doing its vital, socially conscious community building work ;)

5 or 6 years ago there were many smaller auction sites – many of them free – that I’m sure would have loved to have made a social contribution the way eBay does today, except they were blown out of the water by a behemoth that wanted to make sure that IT was the only one doing the social work.

I think some truly fantastic PR has been at work for PO here… Comments??

]]>